Chapter 2
The next contraction brought me to my knees.
I hit the tile hard enough to bruise my palm.
Nathan looked down at me with irritation.
“Emily, get up. You’re making this worse.”
“Call an ambulance,” I said.
Patricia walked to the kitchen door and locked it.
The click of the deadbolt was small.
But I heard it.
I looked up at her.
“What are you doing?”
“You are not going anywhere in the middle of the night over a little discomfort,” she said.
My blood turned cold.
Melissa leaned against the island.
“Mom is right. You always turn everything into a crisis.”
I reached for my phone.
Nathan stepped forward and snatched it from my hand.
“Give that back,” I said.
“You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I am in labor.”
“You are thirty-four weeks,” he repeated. “The baby is fine.”
I looked at him.
“Your wife is on the floor, bleeding.”
He did not answer.
Another wave of pain tore through me.
I pressed one hand against my stomach.
The baby had been moving constantly all evening.
Now I could barely feel her.
Panic rose so fast that my vision blurred.
Nathan held my phone behind his back.
“Just lie down for a few hours,” he said. “We’ll take you in the morning.”
That was when I used the emergency button on my watch.
Nathan had forgotten it was linked to my phone.
One press sent my location, opened a live audio connection, and alerted emergency services.
The dispatcher’s voice came through the watch.
“Mrs. Caldwell, can you hear me?”
Everyone froze.
I turned my wrist toward my mouth.
“My water broke,” I said. “My husband took my phone. They locked the door. I need an ambulance.”
Nathan’s face drained of color.
He grabbed at my wrist.
I pulled away.
The dispatcher heard him.
“Emily, stop acting insane,” Nathan snapped.
Then Patricia’s voice.
“She’s fine. She has always been dramatic.”
The dispatcher heard that too.
“Officers and paramedics are on the way,” she said. “Stay where you are.”
Nathan looked toward the front door.
Melissa began crying.
Patricia whispered, “You stupid girl.”
“No,” I said, holding my stomach. “I’m finally being smart.”
The ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
It felt like seven years.
Police officers forced open the locked kitchen door while paramedics rushed inside.
One of them knelt beside me.
“How far apart are your contractions?”
“Three minutes,” I whispered.
His expression changed immediately.
They lifted me onto a stretcher.
Nathan tried to follow.
An officer stopped him.
“Sir, we need to speak with you.”
“I’m her husband.”
The officer looked at the locked door, the phone in Nathan’s hand, and the blood on the floor.
“Then you should have acted like one.”
As the ambulance pulled away, I heard my recording still running.
Patricia’s voice came from my watch.
“She is ruining everything.”
I closed my eyes.
May you like
No, I thought.
You did that yourselves.
