Chapter 1
I was eight months pregnant when a sharp pain dropped me to my knees in our kitchen. My husband looked at me, threw a stack of cash on the floor, and said, “Call a taxi.”
For a second, I thought Ryan was joking.
Then another pain tore through my stomach, and I grabbed the counter to keep from falling.
“Ryan, something’s wrong.”
He checked his watch.
“I’m already late.”
I stared at him. “Late for what? Your wife might be in labor.”
He picked up his car keys.
“The hospital is fifteen minutes away.”
“Then drive me!”
Ryan sighed like I was ruining his evening.
He pulled several hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and tossed them beside me.
“Call a taxi, Emily.”
I could barely breathe.
“You’re leaving me like this?”
He didn’t answer.
He stepped around me and walked toward the front door.
That was when I noticed he was wearing the navy suit I bought him for our anniversary.
And he smelled like the expensive cologne he only wore for special occasions.
“Ryan,” I whispered. “Where are you going?”
He stopped with his hand on the door.
“Don’t start tonight.”
The door slammed behind him.
Seconds later, I felt something warm run down my legs.
My water had broken.
I screamed his name from the floor, but his car was already disappearing down our Dallas street.
My neighbor Sarah heard me crying and called 911.
In the ambulance, my contractions came so fast I couldn’t even unlock my phone.
At the hospital, a nurse kept asking, “Where’s your husband?”
“I don’t know.”
The doctor examined me and suddenly shouted for an operating room.
My baby’s heart rate was dropping.
A nurse took my phone and called Ryan six times.
On the seventh call, someone finally answered.
But it wasn’t my husband.
A woman whispered, “He can’t come to the phone right now.”
My entire body went cold.
“Who is this?”
She stayed silent for several seconds.
Then I heard Ryan’s voice in the background say, “Jessica, come back to bed.”
May you like
Before I could speak, the nurse beside me stared through the open doorway and went completely pale.
“Emily,” she whispered, “there’s something you need to know about the woman who just answered your husband’s phone.”
