Chapter 1 - The Call That Stopped the Room
SPRAY!
Amelia barely had time to turn her face.
The cleaning solution struck her directly.
She screamed and recoiled, both hands flying toward her eyes as tears immediately streamed down her cheeks.
The luxurious glass-walled room blurred around her.
White orchids.
Cream furniture.
Wedding photographs.
Garden lights beyond the soaring windows.
Her own luggage waiting near the glass doors.
Veronica stood in front of her holding the spray bottle.
“KNOW YOUR PLACE.”
Amelia stumbled backward.
Her wedding gown dragged over the polished marble.
Preston stepped forward.
For one desperate second, Amelia thought her new husband was coming to help.
He wasn’t.
His foot drove hard into her stomach.
THUD.
Amelia fell backward.
Her body curled instinctively as she hit the marble floor, both arms pulling toward her abdomen.
“STOP DEFYING MY MOTHER.”
Pain and disbelief blurred together.
Amelia forced herself upright.
Her face burned.
Her eyes watered uncontrollably.
Veronica reached toward her again.
Amelia knocked the hand away.
Then she turned toward Preston.
Her palm struck across his face.
SLAP.
Preston staggered sideways.
Veronica lunged.
Amelia shoved her back.
Veronica crashed into the wedding-photo display beside the stone planters.
CRASH.
The frame toppled.
Amelia stood shaking in the center of the room, tears running down her irritated face.
Her phone rang.
Nobody moved.
Amelia looked at the screen.
Her doctor.
She answered with a trembling hand.
“HELLO? DOCTOR?”
A pause.
Then the physician’s voice came through clearly.
“AMELIA, YOU ARE TWO MONTHS PREGNANT.”
Everything inside Amelia stopped.
Slowly, she placed one hand over her stomach.
Preston’s face drained of color.
His eyes dropped toward the exact place he had just struck.
Veronica went pale.
Amelia looked at her husband.
Not angry now.
Not yet.
Only shocked.
May you like
As though the man standing across from her had become someone she had never met.
CUT.
