Chapter 1 - LEFT IN THE RAIN
The contraction had barely released Emily Bennett when Ryan struck the side of her head against the passenger window.
“Shut up,” he said. “Your whining makes me sick.”
Rain streaked the glass, blurring the red brake lights ahead of them on South Tacoma Way. Emily pressed both arms around her belly. She was thirty-nine weeks pregnant, barefoot beneath a cream maternity dress, and less than ten minutes from the hospital.
“Ryan, something’s wrong.” Her voice broke as another pain tightened across her back. “Please keep driving.”
His phone rang through the SUV speakers.
Lila Grant’s name flashed across the dashboard.
Ryan answered immediately.
“I miss you so much, baby,” Lila said. “I need the car now. The bank closes everything at five.”
Emily looked at him.
For six months, Ryan had insisted Lila was only the payroll manager at Bennett Home Care, the company his mother had founded. He said the late-night calls were about staffing shortages and insurance reimbursements.
Ryan’s smile told Emily what the explanations had hidden.
“You’re sleeping with her.”
He pulled onto the shoulder so hard that the tires struck the curb.
“Ryan, don’t.”
He reached across her, opened the passenger door, and caught her by the hair when she tried to hold the seat belt.
Cold rain blew into the SUV.
Emily grabbed the doorframe. “I’m in labor.”
“I know.”
The calmness of his answer frightened her more than the slap.
He dragged her onto the wet sidewalk. Her knee struck the pavement, and pain tore through her abdomen. Her hospital bag landed beside her, but Ryan kicked it beneath a hedge.
“Crawl to the hospital yourself.”
He took her phone from the cup holder, climbed back inside, and locked the doors.
Emily slapped the window once.
“Give me my phone.”
Ryan was already speaking to Lila.
“I’m coming,” he said.
The SUV pulled away with Emily’s car keys, identification, insurance card, and phone inside it.
She curled around her stomach as rain soaked through her dress. Warm fluid spread beneath her, unmistakable even against the cold pavement.
A city bus stopped half a block away. The driver ran toward her while calling emergency services.
Emily remembered his name only because he kept repeating it to keep her conscious.
“Stay with me. I’m Marcus. The ambulance is coming.”
By the time paramedics arrived, Emily could no longer feel the rain.
She woke beneath the bright lights of an ambulance with an oxygen mask over her mouth. A medic asked where her husband had gone.
Emily stared at the empty space where her phone should have been.
“My worst mistake,” she whispered, “was marrying that man.”
At St. Gabriel Medical Center, doctors rushed her toward surgery after the fetal monitor showed prolonged distress.
A nurse removed Emily’s wet dress and found a second phone-shaped bruise along her hip.
“You said he took your phone?”
Emily nodded.
The nurse looked toward the clock.
“Then you need to know your bank has called the hospital twice. Someone is trying to verify a transfer from your account.”
May you like
Ryan had not taken her phone merely to stop her from calling for help.
He had needed something inside it.
