Beside it lay a strip of clear plastic with a white thermal printed label. Daniel picked up the plastic strip first. It was a hospital identification wristband, the kind placed on patients during emergency admission. The patient’s name and barcode had been deliberately shaved off with a sharp blade, leaving only the hospital logo visible: OAKRIDGE GENERAL HOSPITAL – ICU.
Daniel’s blood ran cold. He remembered that wristband. He remembered the blinding, agonizing hours in the Oakridge General Intensive Care Unit eighteen months ago, standing beside Emma’s bed while the machines hummed and beeped, keeping her breathing until… Anger, hot and blinding, surged through Daniel.