Chapter 1 - THE DOOR HE CLOSED BEHIND HIM
The first time I realized my husband might actually let me die, he was standing six feet away from me with his car keys in his hand.
“Travis.”
My voice came out thin.
Wrong.
I tightened both hands around the edge of the kitchen counter as another contraction ripped through my stomach.
It was so sharp my vision flashed white.
“Travis, I need the hospital.”
He looked up from his phone.
I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant with twins.
My doctor had used the words high risk so many times that they had almost stopped sounding scary.
Almost.
Now the pressure low in my body felt different from anything I had experienced before.
This wasn’t discomfort.
This wasn’t Braxton Hicks.
This was my body throwing open every alarm at once.
“The twins are coming,” I whispered.
Travis finally moved.
He grabbed his keys off the hook.
“Okay. Get your bag.”
Relief hit me so hard I almost cried.
Then his mother walked into the hallway.
Deborah wore a cream sweater, gold earrings, and the irritated expression she usually saved for slow restaurant service.
“Where are you going?”
“Hospital,” Travis said.
Deborah stopped.
“No.”
I thought I had misunderstood her.
Travis frowned.
“What?”
“You promised to take me and Natalie to the mall.”
She lifted her purse.
“The handbag sale ends today.”
I stared at her.
For a second, pain disappeared under disbelief.
“I’m in labor.”
Deborah barely glanced at me.
“Oh, please.”
Another contraction tightened.
I bent forward.
“Please what?”
“First-time mothers always panic.”
“I’m having twins.”
“And women have had twins since the beginning of time.”
Travis rubbed his forehead.
“Mom.”
“You promised.”
His sister Natalie appeared behind her.
She was already dressed for shopping, sunglasses pushed into her blonde hair.
“Can we hurry?”
I looked at Travis.
“No.”
He avoided my eyes.
I grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t do this.”
His jaw tightened.
“I’ll be back.”
I almost laughed because the sentence was so insane.
“Back?”
“Yes.”
“From the mall?”
“Rachel, stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Making everything dramatic.”
A contraction hit so hard that my knees buckled.
I caught the cabinet handle.
Travis stepped backward instead of forward.
That tiny movement did something to me.
I remember it more clearly than anything else.
My husband saw me falling and stepped away.
His father, Martin, came in from the living room.
“What’s all the noise?”
“She says she’s in labor,” Deborah said.
Martin gave me a bored look.
“She can wait a couple hours.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“My mother delivered four kids at home.”
“That was fifty years ago.”
He shrugged.
“Women are tougher than they think.”
I turned back to Travis.
“Please.”
My voice broke.
“I’m scared.”
His face softened for half a second.
Then Deborah sighed behind him.
“Oh my God, Travis, if we miss the sale because of this—”
He jerked his arm out of my grip.
“Enough.”
I froze.
He pointed toward the couch.
“Lie down.”
My mouth went dry.
“Take me to the hospital.”
“I said I’ll be back.”
“Travis.”
“Don’t you dare leave this house until I get back.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Natalie looked away.
Even she seemed uncomfortable.
But she still walked out.
Martin followed.
Deborah passed me with her purse tucked under one arm.
As she reached the doorway, she leaned closer.
“You need to learn that becoming a mother doesn’t make the world revolve around you.”
Then she walked outside.
Travis paused at the door.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
I thought he would change his mind.
I really did.
Instead, he said, “Call me if something actually happens.”
The door slammed.
A second later, the deadbolt clicked.
The sound was small.
Metal against metal.
But it landed in my chest like a gunshot.
I stood there alone.
Then pain folded me in half.
I screamed.
No one came back.
I dropped to my knees.
The twins shifted violently inside me.
“Okay.”
I was talking to myself now.
“Okay, Rachel.”
My phone was on the living room table.
Twelve feet away.
It might as well have been twelve miles.
I crawled.
My palms slid against the hardwood.
My stomach hung heavy beneath me.
I reached the table just as another contraction crushed through my pelvis.
“God!”
I knocked the phone to the floor.
My fingers shook as I picked it up.
I called Travis.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Third time.
Voicemail.
Then a text appeared.
DRIVING. STOP CALLING.
I stared at it.
Something inside me changed.
Not emotionally.
Physically.
Pressure.
Sudden.
Terrifying.
I gasped.
Then warm liquid rushed down my legs.
My water broke.
I looked at the spreading stain beneath me.
“No.”
A sharp pain stabbed down my spine.
“No, no, no.”
I called 911.
My fingers slipped over the screen.
The call rang once.
Then my phone died.
I had forgotten to charge it.
I stared at the black screen.
My breathing turned shallow.
The house became too quiet.
I tried getting up.
My legs failed.
I dragged myself toward the front door.
Ten feet.
Eight.
Six.
Then another contraction hit.
I screamed so loudly my throat tore.
My hand slipped.
My cheek hit the floor.
For several seconds, I couldn’t move.
Then I heard it.
Ding-dong.
The doorbell.
I lifted my head.
Ding-dong.
Someone was outside.
I tried shouting.
“Help!”
Nothing came out except a rasp.
A shadow moved behind the frosted glass.
Then a fist pounded against the door.
“Rachel?”
My blood froze.
May you like
I knew that voice.
And the person standing outside was the last person Travis would ever want to find me like this.
