The next morning, Delilah insisted on going home. "I want to go home."
She said it gently at first, while sipping from the glass of water Hunter had helped her hold. But when Hunter looked uncertain and tried to persuade her to stay one more day, her soft tone sharpened.
"I'm going home today, Hunter," she said more firmly.
Hunter sighed and glanced at her father, who sat on the couch by the window, flipping through a magazine without reading it.
Sensing their gaze on him, Ned looked up first at Hunter, then at Delilah, and back again.
"If she wants to go home, she can," Ned said after a pause, his voice quiet and steady. "There's nothing the hospital is doing for her now that we can't do at home. It will be more convenient too."
Hunter pressed his lips together but nodded. He had expected Ned to be on his side and argue for Delilah to stay.
"Fine," he said. "But I'm driving you home."
