But innocence on paper did not erase the parents who had already whispered his name in the school parking lot.
“I can handle it,” he told me.
I knew he was lying.
After the first treatment cycle, Sophie’s nausea worsened. She slept most of the day and cried when strands of hair began collecting on her pillow.
Then Dr. Shah entered holding a laboratory report.
For the first time since we met her, she smiled before speaking.
“Sophie’s hCG has begun to fall.”
I looked at the page. The number was still far above normal.
“How much does that mean?”
“It means the tumor is responding.”
Sophie touched the bandage covering her IV.
“So the thing in my brain is getting weaker?”
“That is what we hope.”
She reached beneath her blanket and pulled out the stuffed rabbit.
“Then it should be scared.”
Daniel laughed softly. Eric turned toward the window and wiped his eyes.
The pregnancy hormone that had accused an innocent man had become something else.
It was now the number telling us our daughter might survive.
Chapter Seven
The Number That Kept Falling
By Sophie’s third treatment cycle, most of her hair was gone.
Daniel helped her shave the remaining strands. He shaved his own head afterward, although Sophie told him it made his ears look enormous.
Eric offered to do the same.
“No,” Sophie said. “One bald dad is enough.”
It was the closest our family came to normal.
The headaches became less frequent. Sophie stopped waking every hour for water, and during a vision test, she saw movement farther to each side than she had before treatment.
Every improvement came with a price. She lost weight. Food tasted metallic. Some mornings, she was too tired to lift her stuffed rabbit.
Still, her hCG fell after every cycle.
The school district completed its review of Daniel. He was allowed to return, but several parents requested that their children be moved from his class.
“The district cleared you,” I said.
“Rumors don’t care what a district decides.”
Eric stood in the hospital doorway and heard him.
“I can speak at the school board meeting.”
