Thirty minutes into our road trip, my 7-year-old daughter whispered, Mom, the AC smells strange!
It started as a perfect Saturday: sunlit highway, open windows, my seven-year-old daughter Emma humming in the backseat. I felt peaceful—until her small voice cut through the music. “Mom… the AC smells weird. My head hurts.” Her face was pale, her breaths shallow. Alarm shot through me. The smell was sharp, chemical, wrong. I swerved…