Ana screamed, her voice cracking, tearing out of her chest over and over as if sheer volume could stop what was happening. Emilia’s small body jerked violently. One second she was standing near the sectional sofa. The next, her knees buckled and she crumpled to the floor, curling in on herself. Her arms thrashed uncontrollably. Her head whipped to the side. A strangled, high-pitched, desperate sound escaped her mouth—wrong, too sharp, too terrified.

Ana’s heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn’t breathe properly. Every inhale came too fast, too shallow, scraping her chest raw. Her vision blurred at the edges as panic flooded her—hot, overwhelming.

“No, no, no, please—” Ana sobbed, words tumbling over each other. “Please, please, please…”

She ran. She didn’t hear the adults shouting. She didn’t see the private security stiffen and step back. She didn’t think about rules, boundaries, or what was “allowed” in this house. Her sneakers barely touched the polished travertine floor as she flew across the enormous great room, still screaming Emilia’s name like a prayer she was terrified wouldn’t be answered.

She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Emilia, pulling the trembling little body tight against her chest.

“I’ve got you,” Ana shouted, voice hoarse. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

Emilia convulsed again—harder this time. Her head lolled forward and back. Her huge, unfocused eyes spilled silent tears down her cheeks. Her chest jerked in violent spasms; every breath came out as a broken wheeze that sounded more like choking than air.

Ana held tighter, rocking instinctively, as if she could hold Emilia together through sheer will.

“Breathe!” Ana cried between sobs. “Please breathe, Mili. Please.”

Around them the room erupted into chaos—but a chaos that refused to move forward.

“My God, should we call someone?” “Don’t touch her!” “What if it’s a seizure?” “Where’s her father?”

Voices overlapped, panicked and useless. One security guard raised both hands and stepped back as though the scene itself were contagious. Another stared wide-eyed, frozen.

“Nobody touch her!” someone shouted again, louder. “We don’t know what’s happening.”

Ana whipped her head around, tears streaming, and screamed, “She can’t breathe!”