Zara's arms shook as she cradled Leo, his small, fragile body feeling like a dead weight against her chest. Each cough that tore through him was like a knife to her heart. His chest heaved, shallow and laboured, and his face was flushed with a damp sheen of sweat. She could feel the trembling of his body as he struggled to breathe.
She could feel the tremors in his chest as his breath came in uneven gasps, and her hands shook as she tried to gently pat his back, hoping that somehow it would ease his discomfort. But it wasn't helping. Nothing was helping.
She tried to steady her breathing, tried to keep her mounting panic from showing on her face, but the uneven rise and fall of her chest betrayed her.
