Chapter 1 - The Blood on the Asphalt
My fingers closed tightly around the cold metal of my phone.
Lucas stepped back from the car with his chest heaving.
His eyes were wide with a mixture of fear and sudden clarity.
David lunged across the front seat with a furious shout.
He tried to snatch the device from my trembling grasp.
I stepped back, but my injured knee buckled instantly.
An agonizing pain ripped through my joint and traveled up my spine.
I hit the asphalt hard, but I refused to let go of the phone.
"Give that back to me right now," David demanded.
His voice was completely devoid of any concern for his pregnant wife.
Beatrice leaned out of the passenger window with a vicious sneer.
"She is not going to call anyone because she knows nobody cares about her."
I ignored them both and dialed the emergency number.
My thumb smeared fresh blood across the cracked screen of my phone.
The dispatcher answered on the second ring with a calm voice.
I screamed my location and told them my husband was trying to hurt me.
David froze at the sound of those desperate words.
He knew a domestic violence call would completely ruin his pristine corporate career.
He scrambled out of the driver's seat and stalked toward me with clenched fists.
Lucas suddenly stepped firmly between us.
"Don't you dare touch her, David," Lucas warned.
David shoved his own brother hard against the side of the stalled car.
"This is none of your business," David spat.
I dragged myself backward across the rough gravel of the steep hill.
The wail of a siren echoed in the distance, growing louder by the second.
David realized he was out of time and rushed back to the steering wheel.
Beatrice yelled at him to get them out of there immediately.
David shifted the car into neutral and let it roll dangerously backward down the hill to escape.
They sped away in the shadows, leaving me bleeding on the side of the road.
The ambulance arrived moments later with its lights flashing brightly.
Two paramedics rushed out with a stretcher and knelt beside me.
A young woman quickly cut away the fabric of my ruined trousers.
She looked at my knee, then looked down at the dark puddle forming beneath me.
Her face drained of color as she shouted urgently to her partner.
"We need an emergency transport to the surgical ward right now."
I grabbed her wrist in absolute panic.
"Is it my baby?" I begged to know.
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The paramedic looked me dead in the eyes with a grim expression.
"The blood isn't coming from your knee, honey."
