My four month old daughter named Hazel was burning up with a dangerously high fever in our San Diego apartment late one evening. I checked her temperature twice and saw it was over 104 degrees, which prompted me to immediately contact our pediatrician, Dr Gable. The doctor instructed me to take Hazel to Scripps Mercy Hospital right away without waiting for the fever to break. I informed my husband, Liam, about the urgent medical instructions, but he seemed entirely preoccupied with his own exhaustion and how the situation was a massive inconvenience. He complained about the entire ordeal being terrible for his rest, though I initially assumed he was simply speaking out of fear and intense stress. We grabbed our essential items and headed to the emergency room together, where I held onto the false hope that he would finally embrace his role as a protective father once we arrived at the medical facility to get help.

We waited for several long hours in the crowded emergency room while I continuously rocked our crying and terribly sick baby to soothe her. Liam paced the floor and complained about the endless wait time, expressing his intense frustration over how this delay would impact a major quarterly presentation he had scheduled for the next morning. He was entirely focused on his need for sleep and his professional appearance rather than the severe health crisis our infant daughter was experiencing right in front of him. After making a private phone call, we were soon joined by his mother, Brenda, who arrived wearing her pajamas and an oversized winter coat. Without checking on her sick granddaughter, she announced she was taking her grown son home so he could rest for his important meeting. I confronted them both about abandoning a sick baby, pointing out the reality of his choices, but he simply followed his mother out the doors and left me completely alone.