Chapter 1 - The Locked Door
Mara’s water broke in the bridal-suite bathroom while the wedding music was already playing down the hall.
She bent over the marble sink, one hand gripping the cold counter, the other wrapped protectively under her belly as another contraction rolled through her body.
Thirty-eight weeks pregnant.
Sweating.
Barely able to breathe.
The pale tile beneath her feet was wet.
Her light-blue maternity gown clung to her legs, and her blonde hair had come loose around her face.
Her phone sat beside the sink.
She reached for it with shaking fingers.
“Get Caleb,” she gasped. “My water broke. Get Caleb!”
Eleanor stepped in front of her.
For one second, Mara thought her mother-in-law was going to help.
Instead, Eleanor snatched the phone from her hand and shoved it into her clutch.
Mara stared at her.
“Eleanor—”
The older woman’s face was smooth, controlled, and cold beneath the warm chandelier light.
“If your baby comes tonight,” Eleanor said, “you’ll ruin the wedding.”
Then she grabbed Mara by the upper arm and shoulder.
Mara cried out as Eleanor turned her away from the open doorway and shoved her deeper into the bathroom.
The force sent Mara stumbling backward.
She caught the marble sink with one hand and wrapped the other around her stomach, twisting desperately so she did not fall forward.
Another contraction hit.
Her knees nearly buckled.
Eleanor stepped into the hallway, pulled the heavy bathroom door shut, and turned the brass lock.
The click echoed louder than the wedding music.
Mara dragged herself toward the door.
“Open the door!” she cried, pounding hard three times. “Please!”
Outside, Eleanor straightened her navy formal dress.
Pearl earrings.
Clutch purse.
Calm face.
A mother trying to preserve a wedding photograph while her daughter-in-law was locked behind a door in labor.
Then, from farther down the hallway, Caleb appeared beside Lucinda.
Lucinda stood in her white satin gown and veil, surrounded by bridesmaids, nervous and glowing, unaware of the nightmare twenty feet away.
Caleb, in a navy wedding suit with a white boutonniere, had been walking beside his younger sister, trying to keep her calm before the ceremony.
Then he heard it.
One muffled cry.
One heavy strike against the locked bathroom door.
His smile vanished.
“Mara?”
Eleanor turned.
The phone inside her clutch began vibrating.
Caleb’s eyes dropped to it.
Then to the locked bathroom door.
Then back to his mother’s face.
And for the first time that day, Eleanor looked afraid.
“Why do you have my wife’s phone?” Caleb asked.
Eleanor’s hand tightened around the clutch.
Lucinda looked between them.
“Mom?”
Another muffled cry came from behind the bathroom door.
Caleb moved.
Eleanor stepped in front of him.
“Caleb, wait. The ceremony starts in four minutes.”
He stared at her.
“My wife is behind that door.”
“She is being dramatic.”
The brass handle rattled from inside.
Mara cried out again, lower this time, breathless and terrified.
Caleb’s face changed completely.
He reached past Eleanor and grabbed the bathroom key from the decorative hook beside the hallway shelf.
His mother caught his wrist.
“Do not make a scene.”
Caleb looked down at her hand.
Then slowly back at her.
“You locked my wife in a bathroom while she’s in labor.”
Eleanor’s lips tightened.
“She was going to ruin Lucinda’s entrance.”
Lucinda went pale.
“My entrance?”
The words landed like something breaking.
Caleb tore his wrist free, unlocked the bathroom door, and pushed it open.
Mara was on the tile beside the sink, one arm around her belly, the other braced against the cabinet. Her face was wet with tears and sweat. Her breathing came in short, broken gasps.
“Caleb,” she whispered.
He dropped to his knees beside her.
“I’m here.”
She clutched his sleeve.
“She took my phone.”
“I know.”
“I tried to call you.”
“I know, baby. I know.”
He pulled out his own phone and dialed emergency services with shaking hands.
Behind him, Lucinda stood in the hallway, one hand covering her mouth.
Her wedding veil trembled.
She looked at her mother as if she had never truly seen her before.
Eleanor tried one final time.
“Caleb, paramedics will bring everyone into the hallway. Think about your sister.”
Lucinda turned on her.
“No. Think about Mara.”
The hallway went silent.
May you like
That was the first time Lucinda had ever contradicted her mother in public.
And Eleanor looked more shocked by that than by the locked bathroom door.
