Chapter 3

I watched Yana pound at her own stomach, her eyes growing redder by the second.

The woman in front of me suddenly felt like a stranger. Worse, there was something about her that sent a chill down my spine.

If she really hadn't wanted to come between Yale and me, she never would have called him in the middle of the night. She wouldn't have blurted out that she was pregnant before she'd even heard his voice.

And she knew we were getting married the next day.

A wave of nausea hit me. I dry-heaved several times, but nothing came up.

Yana immediately reached over to rub my back, then hurried off to get me water and medicine.

"I'm sorry, Tessa. Is your stomach hurting again? You're so pale. Even your lips have lost all their color..."

My head was pounding. I knocked her hand away.

The glass and the bottle of pills slipped from her hands and hit the floor, water and tablets scattering everywhere.

"No," I said. "I should be thanking you. You stopped me before I walked straight into a disaster."

Pain flashed across Yana's face. She lost her balance as she stepped back and fell, the back of her head striking the corner of a cabinet.

"Yana..."

Yale suddenly rushed in through the doorway.

For two furious seconds, he stared straight at me. Then he scooped Yana into his arms and headed for the door.

"Yale, put me down! I fell on my own. I'm fine! Tessa's stomach hurts. Go check on her first..."

His grip tightened around her. The anger and concern in his voice were impossible to miss.

"We're going to the hospital."

With that, he rushed out with Yana in his arms without so much as looking back at me.

I was left alone in the bathroom with broken glass, pills scattered across the floor, and the wreckage of everything that had just happened.

Yana's voice faded down the hall. Then the apartment fell quiet again.

I threw up once more before lifting my head.

The woman in the mirror barely looked human. My face was bloodless, my eyes red and swollen.

When I forced myself to smile, I looked even worse.

I sat there until the first light of morning began to creep in. Then I got up like I was moving through someone else's life and started packing.

Anything connected to Yale could go.

The scratch paper he'd used when he tutored us back in high school. The paper airplane he'd absentmindedly folded while we talked. Even an old pen he'd thrown away after it stopped working.

The dress and veil I'd bought especially for our City Hall wedding could go too.

So could the pregnancy test and ultrasound report I'd wrapped like a mystery gift, planning to surprise him after we made the marriage official.

All of it was trash now.

I left with two suitcases.

The elevator had barely gone down two floors when my stomach lurched with the sudden sensation of free fall.

The elevator had broken down.

I braced myself against the corner and gave a bitter laugh.

The supposedly lucky date we'd gone to such trouble to choose had somehow become the worst day of my entire thirty-something years.

While I waited for help, the pain in my stomach started twisting again. Then a heavy ache spread through my lower abdomen.

Before long, I couldn't even keep myself sitting upright.

I slid to the floor, too weak to move.

I couldn't tell whether the elevator was actually swaying or whether I was simply too dizzy to know the difference.

My phone started ringing.

It was Yale.

It took me several tries before I managed to answer.

"Tessa..."

He hesitated for a few seconds, as though he couldn't quite bring himself to say what he needed to say.

"Can you come to the hospital? Yana's insisting on terminating the pregnancy, and I can't leave her alone right now.

"She won't listen to me. You're the only person who might be able to stop her.

"I'm not saying I want to keep this baby. Its existence is a complete mistake. It's just that we're both too emotional right now. At the very least, we should calm down before we..."

The reception was terrible, his voice cutting in and out, but I understood enough.

Every sentence contradicted the one before it.

It was almost funny.

I gritted my teeth against the pain and nausea.

"Yale, if I were pregnant too, and only one baby could be kept, whose would you choose?"

Silence.

Then he answered.

"Tessa, don't make pointless hypothetical comparisons."

Once again, he avoided the question and called that an answer.

Then, with absolute certainty, he dismissed even the smallest possibility that it could be real.

"There's no way something that coincidental could happen..."

"Ma'am... are you all right? Can you hear me?"

Someone had finally arrived.

"Tessa? What's that noise? What's going on over there?"

I ended the call.

I tried to answer the person outside, but my voice came out too weak to carry.

I didn't know how much longer it took before the elevator doors were finally forced open.

One of the security guards let out a shocked cry.

Only then did I look down and see the blood spreading beneath me.

They called an ambulance and asked for a family member they could contact.

I clutched my phone tightly and shook my head.

"I... don't have anyone."