Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(2)

The bond that she shared with Izzy was so special. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t my biological daughter. To me, she was. I was the first person to see her pretty little face being born, and from that day on, everything changed.

Conner and I ran towards his truck and jumped in, following the ambulance closer than the law allowed. I didn’t give a shit about being yelled at, or him getting a ticket. My daughter’s life was on the line and nothing was more important than that.

The long ride did little for my worrying, thinking the worst as we drove, and had no idea what was happening in the vehicle in front of us.

“What happened?”

I shook my head and looked out the window. “I don’t know. The boys came in and said she wouldn’t wake up. I found her in bed, burning up. We tried to bring down the fever, but she still wasn’t responsive, not the way she should have been. Did you see her skin? It was all red and she was hot as Hell.”

“Was she sick last night?” I couldn’t look at Conner as he was talking. It was too hard to keep my composure when my emotions were going awry. I needed to be holding her hand and letting her know that her daddy wasn’t going to leave her side.

When we pulled into the hospital, I jumped out and was inside before the ambulance had unloaded. The triage nurse wouldn’t let me into the back until they had checked in Iz. I knew Miranda was with her, but not knowing what was going on was gut-wrenching.

I waited, impatiently, bitching the whole time, in hopes that they would let me through to keep the peace. Finally, after Conner had parked and come inside, they allowed me back to her room.

Miranda looked like she’d been crying the whole time, while nurses were taking new vitals and preparing Iz for an I.V.

“What do we know?”

Miranda shook her head and I pulled her into my arms, kissing the top of her head. “I don’t know. I guess they have to do tests. She’s never been sick like this. Somethin’s really wrong, Ty,” she whispered.

I held her tight and watched the nurses working on our daughter. Izzy remained unresponsive to questions. Her eyes were barely able to open and the redness, even after a freezing bath, hadn’t gone away. The monitor displayed that her fever was one hundred and five.

A doctor came in right away. He talked to the nurses and did a thorough examination of our daughter. He ordered a bunch of tests and then started up on the questions.

Was she allergic to anything?

Did she have a history of high fevers?

Had we traveled out of the country?

How long were the symptoms apparent?

Is anyone else suffering from the same symptoms?

The list went on and on, and when he was done we had nothing to go on.

Upon changing her clothes, we all looked in shock when they lifted her to pull on her gown. Her back was covered in ticks, at least twenty of them, protruding from her skin, swollen, with bulls-eyes around each one.

The nurse got the doctor tools and they stripped Izzy down, starting on her back and removing them one at a time. They started to pump her with medication to bring down the fever.

After a good hour, they’d removed seventy-two ticks off of our daughter in total. They’d found so many more than what was on her back. She was eleven and didn’t need supervision in the bathtub. The child was starting to develop and wanted privacy. She’d never mentioned ticks to us, but a few marks were apparent on her stomach, showing us that she’d removed some herself.

They found some under her arms, in her ears and even in her private parts. The child had been covered in them.

Due to their sudden discovery, they started treatment with antibiotics for Lyme’s disease. Within a few hours, her fever had come down and she was starting to be able to talk more.

Because it was so soon, the doctor doubted that the test would show up positive for Lyme’s, but he assured us that it was definitely the culprit.

We stayed there with our daughter, reminding her that everything was going to be okay.

By nightfall we were sure the treatment was working and that our daughter was going to be coming home and back to her normal spunky self in no time. We were confident and trusted the doctor with her life, because that is what we are taught to do. Putting the faith in a caretaker is what reassures us and allows us to be supportive.

Unfortunately, after two days, Izzy’s symptoms continued to show up. Her fever would come back and they would fight it. Her skin would get red and she’d become lethargic and unresponsive again.

When the doctor called in resources we realized we were dealing with something more serious. Our daughter didn’t have Lyme’s disease, and whatever it was, it was slowly killing her.





Chapter 2


Miranda


I swore it had to be a nightmare. There was no way that this could be happening to our healthy little girl. She hadn’t acted sick, or anything that would have led to this outcome.

A mother’s biggest fear is losing one of her children. From the very moment when you discover something is wrong, all you want to do is take whatever they’re suffering from away. You begin to pray, to plead silently in your mind, to whoever will listen.

Having Bella changed my life. She’d made me want to be a better person, a mother, and even a wife.

When panic sets in, you almost lose awareness of anything else that could be going on. I knew the boys were somewhere around, but I didn’t remember seeing them. All I was focused on was my daughter, lying in that freezing cold tub, with red skin. She was so still and unresponsive. The more we tried to get her to speak, the more worried we became when it didn’t happen.