I'm nine months pregnant. Bleeding out on the living room floor. And my husband just stepped over me to go hold another woman's hand while she has her baby. A sharp cramp pulls low in my belly. Something warm slides down my thigh. Blood. "Liam." My voice is shaking. "Liam, something's wrong. I'm bleeding. Take me to the hospital." He's right there on the couch. Phone pressed to his ear. He doesn't even glance up. He hangs up, stands, snatches my hospital bag off the coffee table, and heads for the door. "Liam—wait—I haven't even changed—" He turns at the doorway, already half out of it. His face is flushed. In a hurry. "Ruby's water broke. She doesn't have anything ready. I need to borrow your bag." I sag against the wall. My legs won't hold me. "What about me? Liam, I'm bleeding." He slides my phone and key fob into his own pocket. Doesn't even slow down. "You're not due yet, Stella. Quit playing the victim. I know you're just jealous." "Be a good girl. Sit tight. I'll come keep you company when I get back." The front door slams shut. The deadbolt slides into place from the outside. I drag my heavy body to the foyer and grab the handle. Twist. Yank. Throw my shoulder against it. He locked me in. There's no way to open it from inside. A pain rips low through my belly. Hot liquid gushes down my thighs and splashes onto the hardwood. My water just broke. He took my phone. I drop to my hands and knees and crawl toward the landline in the corner. My fingers close around the receiver— The cord is sliced clean through. Right at the base. The cut is fresh. The contractions are coming faster now. Cold sweat beads on my forehead. I slide down the wall, leaving a long red streak behind me. Some last animal instinct in me hauls itself toward the balcony. We're on the second floor. There's a sidewalk down below. Somebody walks their dog at this hour. Somebody. I shove the French doors open and lean out into the dark. "Help!" "Somebody—anybody—please call 911!" A flashlight beam swings up and catches me square in the face. It's the night patrol guy the HOA hires. "Mrs. Holt." His voice is flat. Bored. "Ma'am. Come on. Cut it out." My fingernails screech down the aluminum frame. "Mr. Holt told us before he left. Said the pregnancy hormones have been real hard on you. Said you've been having these episodes—screaming, imagining you're in labor." He sighs. "He said no matter what we hear out of this house, just leave you be." "My water broke!" I'm digging my nails into the railing now. " Please. Just call an ambulance, I'm having the baby—" He shakes his head. "Mr. Holt was real clear. Anybody who calls the cops or 911 on you is interfering with your marriage, and he'll come at us with a lawsuit. Go on back inside, ma'am. Don't make this hard." He clicks off his flashlight and walks away. I watch his back disappear into the dark. No sound comes out of my throat. Liam thought of everything. Every door. Every neighbor. Every stranger who might've shown me a scrap of kindness—he killed it all before he ever walked out. I stumble back inside. Black spots are eating the edges of my vision. The baby is kicking like crazy, like she knows. My knees give. I crash into the coffee table and the glass fruit bowl on top of it shatters across the floor. Not here. I am not dying here. My fingers close around a long shard of glass. I'll break that door down. I don't care if it costs me my hand. The red light on the ceiling camera blinks on. Liam's voice comes through the smart speaker. Calm. Bored. Disappointed. "Stella. Are you done throwing your tantrum yet?" His voice fills the empty house like he owns the place. Like I'm a toddler having a meltdown and he's the grown-up. He's actually checking the cameras. He's got the time. I lift my head and stare straight into the blinking red dot. I raise my bloody hand to the lens. "Liam. I'm bleeding. I'm really in labor." He scoffs. "Here we go again." "Last time it was red ink. What is it this time? Ketchup?" "Ruby is screaming in agony right now and you're putting on a one-woman show in our living room." "Stella. You really disappoint me." My whole body is convulsing. The blood under me has spread into a wide black pool on the hardwood. "Liam." It comes out as a whisper. "For the baby." "Call an ambulance."
Liam goes silent on the other end for a couple of seconds. Then he sighs. Long. Disappointed. "Stella. The lies you'll tell to keep my attention—it's unbelievable." "I looked at your prenatal report before I left. The doctor said you're perfectly fine. You've got two more weeks till your due date." "You're rolling around on the floor playing dead because you want to trick me into coming home, away from Ruby. That's it, isn't it?" I'm gasping for breath. "I'm not lying to you." "My water broke. The baby's going to suffocate." "Liam—this is your daughter." A soft whimper crackles through the speaker. Ruby. "Sweetheart, another contraction? Hang in there, the doctor's coming." He soothes her in that warm, melting voice—the one he used to save for me—and then he turns back to the mic. His voice goes cold enough to cut. "Stella. Ruby is an orphan. I'm all she's got in this world." "You have a family. Money. A whole life. Why are you so determined to take from a girl who has nothing?" "All she did was borrow your hospital bag. One bag. And you pull this disgusting stunt to drag me back." "You are an ugly person. I never knew how ugly until tonight." My cheek is pressed flat against the cold floor. Tears mix with sweat and roll onto the back of my hand. I pull my eyes away from the camera. I start crawling toward the front door. Glass shards bite into my palms. I don't feel them. There's only one thought left in my head. Get out. I make it to the foyer. I lift the biggest shard of glass and smash it into the lock with everything I have left. The glass shatters. My hand splits open—deep, to the bone. Blood sprays the door. The lock doesn't move. Liam's voice explodes through the house, choked with rage. "Stella Hayes! What the hell are you doing?!" "You damage that door and I swear to God you will regret it the second I walk back through it!" I'm already clawing my way to the entryway closet. There's a spare key in there. I know there is. I put it there myself. I rip everything out onto the floor with bloody hands. Shoes. A scarf. A toolbox. I find it at the bottom of an old shoebox—a small, cold brass key. My way out. I haul myself up against the wall. My whole body is shaking. I jam the key into the lock. It won't go in. I bend closer and squint. The keyhole is packed solid with something dried and clear. Sealed shut. I stare at it. Dumbly. "Don't waste your strength." There's a smile in his voice now. Pride. "I know how stubborn you get, baby. I was worried you'd try to sneak out and go after Ruby. So I sealed the lock before I left. Little tube of superglue." "Stella. All you have to do is apologize. Promise me you'll leave Ruby alone." "As soon as she delivers, I'll come right home and take care of you." My back slides down the door. Inch by inch. He planned my last way out. He didn't seal the lock because he was worried about Ruby. He sealed it to take my right to live away. I tip my head back and look straight at the camera. "Liam. I want a divorce." Dead silence on the other end. Then he erupts. "Stella Hayes, are you threatening me again?!" "You think waving 'divorce' in my face is gonna make me come crawling back? Is there a single thing in your bag of tricks besides crying, screaming, and threatening to leave?!" I close my eyes. I don't answer him. The contractions have stopped being waves. It's one long endless tearing now. Something is pushing down. Something is coming whether I'm ready or not. "Liam. I don't want you anymore." I lift the brass key with the last of my strength. And I hurl it at the camera. The lens shatters. The red light dies. The living room goes black and silent. I lie in the spreading pool of my own blood, and I breathe.
He's controlling the smart home from his phone. The living room lights cut out instantly. The AC. The fridge. Every appliance in the house dies in the same heartbeat. The whole place drops into black. His voice comes through the speaker, ice cold. "Stella. Since you don't know how to behave, you can sit in the dark and think about what you did." "When you're ready to apologize, I'll turn the lights back on." "Don't sit there waiting for me to feel sorry for you. You brought this on yourself." I curl up on the floor. I bite my lip until I taste blood. I will not let him hear me scream. I can feel the blood draining out of me. Actually feel it. Warmth, leaving, replaced by cold. The pain in my belly is coming in waves now—each one worse than the last. Some part of me still alive enough to think tells me: stay awake. I crawl on my hands across the floor toward the bathroom. There are scissors in there. Towels. If no one's coming for me—and no one is coming—I'm going to have to do this myself. I'm almost at the bathroom door when the speaker hums back to life. The TV in the living room flickers on with it. He's hijacked it. A video call, pushed straight onto the screen through the smart home app. Pale blue light floods the house and washes the color right off my face. Ruby is on the screen. Tucked into a clean hospital bed. Cheeks pink and healthy. She's curled into Liam's chest, holding my hospital bag like a stuffed animal. "Liam, is Nova mad at me?" Her voice is small. Wobbly. Pitiful. "I didn't mean to take her bag. My contractions just started so suddenly." "Maybe you should go home and check on her. I'll be okay by myself." Liam kisses her forehead and gently wipes a tear off her cheek with his thumb. "Don't worry about her. She just can't stand seeing me be nice to anyone but her." "She smashed our security camera. God only knows what she's smashing in there now." Then he turns. Looks straight into the lens. His face goes flat and hard. "Stella. Look at Ruby. Look how good she's being." "Now look at yourself. Like some screaming, glass-breaking lunatic." "I'm warning you. If you make one more sound that upsets Ruby—" "Tomorrow morning I am cutting off your brother's hospital bills. Every cent." My heart drops through the floor. Ethan is the only family I have left in this world. He's in the ICU. He's only alive because of those machines—and those machines are alive because of Liam's money. Every soft thing in this man—every drop of tenderness—he gives to the girl who calls me sis. Looking at them on that screen, I think I might actually be sick. "Liam." I force the words out. "You make me sick." Ruby flinches against his chest like I hit her. "Liam, Nova sounds so scary—my stomach hurts—" Liam's face goes black with rage. "Stella, you want to die in there?! Fine! Stay in there till you do!" The call cuts off. Then I hear it. A hollow sucking sound deep in the pipes. He didn't just cut the power. He shut off the main water valve too. Remotely. I drag myself to the bathroom sink and twist the faucet. Two drops. Then nothing. No power. No water. No phone. He's buried me alive in my own house. I slump against the cold tile, gasping. The blood has soaked through my dress. The thick, metallic smell of it fills the tiny bathroom. The baby has gone quiet inside me. The wild kicking is gone. There's only the faintest flutter now, like a moth dying in a jar. "Baby. Don't be scared." My hand splays across my belly. The tears finally come. "Mommy's gonna get you out. Mommy promises." I bite down hard and dig under the sink with shaking fingers. Rusty scissors. Cold metal. I close my fist around them. This is the last thing in the world that can save me.
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