His big Friday night at home consisted of a rerun of The Orville and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Unfortunately, sleep did not come easily, and moments after it finally did, his phone rang. He answered, trying to wipe the fogginess from his brain.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Patino?”
He glanced at the alarm clock and wondered who the hell would be calling him at midnight and referring to him as Mr. anything. “Yes. Who is this?” His voice came out harsher than he meant, but s**t, he wasn’t in a good mood and he was tired.
“I’m Elaine Oliver. I’m a social worker with the Missouri Department of Social Services…the Children’s Division. I apologize for the late hour, but I’m at Rain Valley General and we have a Daisy Warner here in the ER.”
That got his attention. He sat up, throwing his legs ove
