chapter Five

It spread beneath me onto Cherry's white floor. We both stared at it. Neither of us moved. For one long second, the fight was gone, and there was only fear, hers and mine, hanging in the air between us. Then Cherry broke. "Oh God," she screamed.

She scrambled back on her hands, away from me, her eyes wide and wild. She grabbed her phone off the floor. Her fingers were shaking so hard she almost dropped it. I tried to get up. My arm would not hold me. I slid back down onto the cold marble, and the room tilted around me.

“Get up, Evelyn,” I told myself. For the baby. But I could not. I lay there on the floor of that beautiful white room, bleeding, weak, one hand pressed to my stomach, and the fear swallowed me whole. Not fear for me. Fear for the small life inside me. The only thing in this world that was truly mine.

“Why did I come here?” The thought cut deeper than the glass. I should have stayed at my desk. I should have let them whisper. I should have gone home and locked the door and kept my baby safe. My suspicion was not worth this. Nothing was worth this.

I had lost my parents when I was eighteen, when the call came. A transport truck, a wet road, and they were gone in one second, both of them, before I could even say goodbye. One moment I had a family. The next I had nothing. I remembered sitting alone in that hospital hallway, so small, so lost, with no one left in the whole world to hold me.

Now here I was again. On another cold floor with the fear of me almost losing the most important thing in my life right now. I begged God. “Not my baby too. Don't take my baby too. Cherry pressed the phone to her ear. And then her whole face changed.

"Liam!" she sobbed. Fat tears spilled down her cheeks, sudden and perfect. "Liam, please, you have to come. It's Evelyn. She…she came to my home, and she just attacked me. She's gone crazy. There's glass everywhere. I'm bleeding, Liam, I'm so scared. Please come now."

I knew Cherry was cruel back then in high school, but seeing the extent she was willing to go to make me 

For a moment she just knelt there, calm again, wiping her tears away as if they had never been real. She looked down at me on the floor, and she smiled a small, cold smile. Then she stood up, walked to the broken glass by the table, and picked up a long, sharp piece. "Cherry," I said. "What are you doing?"

She did not respond. She held the glass in her hand, took a deep breath, and dragged the edge of it across her own forearm. I watched the red line open on her skin. I watched her bite down on a cry. "Stop," I begged. "Cherry, stop, please. You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do," she said quietly, pressing her bleeding arm to her chest, smearing the red across her white dress. I tried to drag myself toward the door. My body would not obey. The pain in my stomach came again, low and deep and sharp, and I folded over it, gasping.

"Please," I whispered. "The baby. Something is wrong. Please help me." She just watched. Then I heard it. The front door slamming open. Fast footsteps. "Cherry!" Liam's voice. "Cherry, where are you?"

Relief flooded through me so hard I almost cried. Liam. He was here. Whatever he thought of me, whatever lies he believed, he would not leave me like this. Not bleeding. Not with his own child inside me. He was cold, yes. He was angry, yes. But he was not a monster. He would help me. He had to. "In here!" Cherry cried.

He came around the corner and stopped. His eyes moved over the room. The broken glass. The blood. Cherry on the floor, clutching her arm. Me, crumpled against the table. For one second, his eyes met mine. "Liam," I breathed. I lifted one shaking hand toward him. "Liam, help me. The baby…"

But he was already moving. Past me. To Cherry, He dropped to his knees beside Cherry. He took her bleeding arm in his hands, so gentle, so careful, like she was made of glass herself. "What happened?" he said. "Who did this to you?"

"She did," Cherry whispered, and leaned into him, and cried. "She just came in, Liam. I didn't do anything. I swear." And then he turned and looked at me, and the look on his face stopped my heart. "Why?" he said. His voice was low and hard and full of hate. "Why would you do this, Evelyn? Why would you come here and hurt her? What is wrong with you?"

"Liam," I said. The tears came now, hot and fast. "Liam, I didn't. She pushed me. She cut herself; I watched her do it. Please. Please, I'm bleeding. Something is wrong with the baby. Please, I need a doctor." He looked at me for a long, long moment, then he looked away.

He slid his arms under Cherry, under her knees and her back, and he lifted her up against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face there, and over his shoulder, just for a second, she looked at me.

And she smiled. "I'm taking you to the hospital," he told her softly. "You're going to be okay. I've got you."

"Liam." I was begging now. I did not care. I had no pride left. "Liam, please don't leave me here. Please. I'm pregnant. It's your baby.. Please don't leave me." He stopped at the door. His back was to me. For one breath, I thought he would turn around.

He didn't then he was gone, carrying her out into the night, her soft cries fading down the hall, leaving me alone on the cold floor with the blood and the broken glass. The door clicked shut.