Chapter 56 Touch and Go
Max waited anxiously at the pool's edge. When he saw Grace swimming toward shore with Liam, he immediately crouched down and reached out his hands, helping Grace drag Liam up onto the pool deck.
"Mommy!" Max said tensely. "Mommy, you need to get out!"
"Okay." Grace caught her breath and said to Max, "Remember what Mommy taught you about CPR and rescue breathing, Max?"
"I know how!" Max laid Liam flat on the ground, crossing his hands to press on Liam's abdomen to expel the water.
The water was too deep, and against the pool wall, there was no way to climb out.
Grace paddled toward the ladder, but suddenly her already twisted ankle seized up with a cramp.
The pain made her facial muscles contort sharply. She knew what a sudden cramp in the deep end meant, and beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
This was it.
That single thought consumed her mind.
Grace felt as if an invisible hand was dragging her down. She paddled frantically with one arm, but was clearly exhausted.
Max sensed something was wrong and watched in horror. "Mommy!"
Just as Grace's swimming movements grew weaker and she began sinking into the water, Max stood up and started toward her anxiously, but heard powerful footsteps approaching from outside.
Max looked toward the sound and saw Alexander arriving. He ran over, pushing Max aside. "Move."
Alexander dove into the water, cutting through it like an arrow toward a shark, swimming toward where Grace was sinking.
Ten feet down in the pool.
Grace in her pink dress drifted with the current, struggling unconsciously as she sank toward the bottom.
Alexander swam to her side, grabbed her slender arm, and pulled her back.
Grace opened her drowsy eyes, feeling severely oxygen-deprived, fighting back with pure survival instinct.
But the man dominantly wrapped one arm around her waist, cupped her chin with his other hand, and pressed his lips firmly against her red lips.
"Mmph."
Grace felt a steady stream of oxygen flowing from Alexander's mouth to hers through her parted lips.
She regained oxygen and finally recovered some consciousness.
The water's gravity was too strong.
Alexander roughly tore off a piece of her dress hem, held her protectively in his arms, and swam toward the pool edge.
Five minutes later...
Grace lay weakly on the deck, continuously choking up water, coughing violently as chlorinated pool water streamed from her nose and mouth.
Max covered her with a thin blanket.
Soon, Lily arrived hurriedly with the school nurse.
Earlier, Alexander had seen on the security monitors that Grace and Max had rushed into the aquatic center. He'd arrived first, while Lily, worried something had happened, had urgently contacted the school nurse.
When the nurse arrived, Alexander was performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Liam.
Max had already pressed the water out of his abdomen, but he still hadn't regained consciousness.
Grace had found him already unconscious—no telling how long he'd been underwater.
Drowning had a golden window.
If rescued within five minutes, survival chances were high.
If it went beyond five minutes, or even over ten minutes, it really came down to luck.
Alexander tensely performed CPR on Liam, whose little face was pale from the water and tinged with blue.
He'd stopped breathing for too long—any longer and his life would be in danger!
Grace, wrapped in the blanket, knelt beside Liam, her breathing tight with anxiety.
She worried that something serious had happened to Liam. How had he ended up alone in the aquatic center, and in the water?
Alexander had said Liam was always well-behaved and would never wander off.
How could he have drowned?
Grace looked at Max with some suspicion. "Max, how did you know Liam was here?"
Max said, "Intuition."
That was all he could call it.
A mystical intuition he couldn't explain.
Alexander had no time to consider how Liam had ended up here. Soon the school nurse took over the resuscitation efforts, and Lily, seeing the situation was worse than she'd imagined, quickly called for an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived within five minutes. By then, remarkably, Liam had resumed breathing, though he still hadn't regained consciousness.
The paramedics lifted him onto the stretcher. Alexander got in the ambulance, and Grace, holding Max, tried to get in too.
The paramedic said urgently, "There's no room!"
Alexander took Max and said to Grace, "Go home and wait for me."
With that, the doors closed and the ambulance sped away with its sirens wailing.
How could Grace possibly go home and wait peacefully? With Lily's support, she had the driver take her straight to the hospital.
...
Hospital.
Emergency room entrance.
When Grace arrived, she learned that Liam had finally escaped life-threatening danger and had regained consciousness.
Max, from being locked in the supply closet, had his school uniform dirty and disheveled. He'd kept trying to break down the door to get out, bruising several joints. The doctor had treated him briefly—there were no other serious issues.
Max had had a vague premonition at the time, always feeling something had happened to Liam, but he'd never imagined Liam had nearly died!
Liam couldn't have wandered to the aquatic center and jumped into the pool for no reason.
However, how exactly he'd ended up there and nearly drowned remained a mystery.
Lily had already contacted the school to review the security footage from the time of the incident and would notify them immediately with any findings.
Windsor Academy was more afraid than anyone of something happening to Liam.
After all, they clearly understood that Liam was the Hayes family's son, the person the entire Hayes family cared about most. If anything happened to him, the consequences would be more than anyone could bear.
Alexander felt relieved seeing Liam awake, especially after the doctor's words: "Thank goodness you got him here in time—if he'd arrived at the hospital any later, there would have been nothing we could do!"
When he'd arrived, Max had already expelled the water from Liam's abdomen and was performing CPR. Without Max, Liam's fate would have been touch and go.
Alexander came out of the emergency room and saw Max with several bandages, Grace sitting beside him, also soaking wet. He said to Max, "Thank you for what you did today."
Max asked, "Is Liam awake?"
"He's awake, but his consciousness is weak."
Only then did Max's anxious heart finally settle. He said, "You don't need to thank me. It was Mommy who saved Liam."
Alexander looked at Grace.
Her ankle was sprained and somewhat swollen.
He crouched down, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket—already soaked from the water—wrung it out, and gently placed it on her swollen ankle, his hands beginning to massage gently.
"Hiss."
Grace winced from the pain, trying to pull her leg back.
"Don't move," Alexander warned.
Grace said, "Does massaging it like this actually help?"
Alexander applied more pressure with his hands.
Grace nearly cried out from the pain.
Max tensed up, saying with concern, "Could you be a little gentler?"