Chapter 2 - Nobody Calls This an Accident
"I need an ambulance," Dean said into somebody else's phone. "Eight months pregnant. Blunt trauma. She's bleeding. Bellweather Hotel, Grand Ballroom. Please hurry."
His voice shook on the word bleeding. I'd known him eleven years. I'd never heard that sound from him.
Maren reached for my purse. I caught her wrist.
"Don't touch it."
She looked down at me, all fake concern. "Laurel, you're confused."
"I'm not confused about your hands."
A woman in a navy dress stepped in front of Maren. She introduced herself as Dalia Price, the hotel's banquet manager. "Ma'am, please back away. We have a guest who needs medical attention."
Maren straightened. "Do you know who paid for this wedding?"
"Right now I don't care," Dalia said.
I almost laughed. Instead, another cramp seized my abdomen. The little kicks I'd felt during dinner had stopped. I searched for movement beneath my palms and found none.
"Dean?" I whispered. "She's not moving."
His face changed. He brushed the hair off my forehead and said, "Stay with me. Just look at me."
Ivy pushed free of his arm and knelt by my shoulder. She wore a pale-blue dress with tiny sewn stars. "Mommy, count with me like when I'm scared. One. Two. Three."
I followed her small voice until a pair of paramedics came through the ballroom doors.
Behind them, Owen called, "Can we please keep everyone calm?" He sounded less worried about me than about the ruined ceremony. Celia turned on him.
"Your sister hit a pregnant woman. Calm isn't the problem."
The paramedic asked for my phone, hoping to find my medications and emergency contacts. My purse was on the floor where I'd dropped it. My wallet was inside. So were my keys, lipstick, and the folded drawing Ivy had made at school.
My phone was gone.
"It was there," I said. "I had it when she grabbed me."
Maren spread her hands. "Search me, then. Since everybody's already decided I'm a monster."
Dalia glanced toward the far corner, where a security guard was walking too quickly toward a staff exit.
"Mr. Pike," she called. "Stop."
The man kept walking.
Dean saw him and started after him, but I cried out as the paramedics lifted me. He spun back, torn between chasing the man and holding my hand.
"Stay," I said. "Our girls need you."
May you like
The paramedic listened to my belly with a portable monitor. He listened again. His partner went very quiet.
Then he said, "We need to move. Right now."
