Chapter 2
The pain was immediate.
A sharp, deep pain that stole the air from my lungs.
I curled around my belly and screamed.
Linda stepped back.
For a second, she looked surprised by the sound.
Then she looked annoyed.
“Stop making a scene,” she said.
I could not answer.
Warmth spread beneath me.
At first, I thought it was sweat.
Then I saw blood on the pale kitchen tile.
My entire body went cold.
“Linda,” I whispered. “Call Ethan.”
She stared at the blood.
Her face changed.
Not with remorse.
With fear.
But not fear for me.
Fear for herself.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said quickly.
I looked at her in disbelief.
“You kicked me.”
“You fell.”
“I was on the floor.”
“You are confused,” she snapped. “You fainted. That is what happened.”
I tried to crawl toward my phone on the counter.
Linda stepped in front of me.
“You will not ruin my son’s life with one of your little stories.”
My fingers barely reached the cabinet.
My vision blurred again.
Then the front door opened.
Ethan was home early.
I heard his boots in the hallway.
“Mom?” he called. “Why is the kitchen light on?”
Linda moved fast.
She knelt beside me and put a hand on my shoulder.
Her voice turned soft.
“Ethan, honey, she fainted. I was about to call you.”
Ethan rushed in.
His face went white when he saw the blood.
“Emily!”
He dropped beside me.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Your mother,” I said. “She kicked me.”
Linda gasped.
“Ethan, she is not thinking clearly.”
He looked between us.
His eyes were full of panic.
“Mom, what happened?”
“She collapsed,” Linda said. “I found her like this.”
“No,” I cried. “Ethan, please believe me.”
He froze.
That moment hurt almost as much as the pain.
He did not say, I believe you.
He did not call Linda a liar.
He looked confused.
As if the woman carrying his child and the woman who raised him were equally likely to be lying.
Then he lifted me into his arms.
“We’re going to the hospital,” he said.
I held onto him as he carried me outside.
Linda followed us to the car.
“Call me as soon as you know something,” she said.
Her face looked worried now.
She was very good at looking worried when someone was watching.
At the hospital, nurses rushed me into an examination room.
They asked questions.
When did the bleeding begin?
Had I fallen?
Had anyone hurt me?
Ethan stood close to the wall, silent.
Linda had stayed behind.
I looked at the nurse.
She was young, but her eyes were kind.
“No,” I said.
The word came out before I could stop it.
No one hurt me.
I saw Ethan’s shoulders sag.
I saw relief on his face.
And I hated myself for protecting a woman who had hurt me.
The doctor came in an hour later.
I knew before she spoke.
I knew from the way she sat down.
I knew from the softness in her voice.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “We could not find a heartbeat.”
The room disappeared.
I heard a sound that did not feel human.
Then I realized it was me.
Ethan began crying.
He came toward me.
I turned my face away.
May you like
My baby was gone.
And the last thing I remembered before the darkness took me was Linda’s foot coming toward my stomach.
