Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Amy
I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, the house was quiet, and my throat was so sore I could barely swallow. Reaching out, I gulped down the water. It didn’t help. I needed something more soothing. Maybe milk or some orange juice.
Sweeping my covers back, I headed towards the door without even thinking. It was only when I was halfway to the stairs that I remembered the party and paused. Listening, I tried to hear the sound of voices, but there was nothing but silence.
The party was long over by the sounds of it, and the house was asleep.
I let out an audible sigh of relief. That was good. It meant I could sit in the kitchen for a while without being disturbed.
I’d made it to the top of the stairs and taken the first step down when a door opened behind me.
Illuminating me in the light from the open doorway, I blinked in shock as Violet sauntered out.
The light behind her made the scarlet red, short nightdress almost see-through.
I could see clearly the outline of her dark nipples.
Her hair was tousled around her shoulders, and her lipstick was smeared like it had been kissed passionately from her face.
“I thought I heard you sneaking around, little dove,” she cooed in a sickly, sweet voice. “A few minutes ago, you would have heard—” she padded towards me on her bare feet. “Well, you know what you would have heard.” She giggled like we were girlfriends gossiping about our conquests.
“He really does have stamina, doesn’t he?”
I couldn’t help looking over her shoulder to the open doorway. I couldn’t see the bed from this angle, but deep down I knew Alexei was in there. He was the reason she was dressed like she was and her makeup was all smudged.
I’d always suspected that he spent his evenings with her, after all, he spent all the other time with her. But to be faced with it crushed something inside of me. Some last remnants of hope.
“He loves me in red,” Violet continued, “Or more specifically, he likes taking me out of red. Did you know it’s his favorite color?”
I remained silent. I did know that. That’s why I had worn the red dress for his birthday.
“He likes my hair down so he can, you know. She wiggled her eyebrows. “Did he pull your hair as well, Amy?”
I bit my lip. I knew Alexei liked my hair down, but he had never pulled it. He just brushed his face in it and stroked it like it was a security blanket.
“He doesn’t, does he?” She stepped to the top step. Towering over me. “That’s because there’s no passion in your life. Oh, sweet little dove, don’t look so upset. You’re just an inexperienced girl. A man like Alexei needs a real woman in his life. He needs me.”
“You can have him,” I said, and even though it broke my heart, I meant every word of it.
I’d had enough. I really cared for Alexei. I might even love him, but I couldn’t keep on living like this with the permanent threat of Violet over my head. It would be better to bring up my child alone and penniless.
Not alone, I told myself quickly. Because soon Alessia would wake up from her coma. We would change from a family of two to a family of three. But we would be a family, and my child would be safe and loved.
“Oh, if only it were that simple.”
My head snapped up. “What do you mean, I’ve just said you can have him. I’ll leave tomorrow morning and file for divorce.” My sigh was exhausted. “You won, Violet.”
“Except divorcing him won’t be enough now that you have a child. You will always have that hold over him, and I am so sorry, little dove, but I just can’t allow that.”
I knew what she was going to do the split second before she shoved at my shoulders. I righted myself quickly, my feet slipping down a step. Lashing out, I grabbed at her, my fingers sinking into the gaudy material of her barely-there clothes.
She tried to shove me again, using her body weight as force, and this time I toppled backwards with a cry. My hands fisted the front of the red material harder as I tried to regain my footing.
With a cry, Violet fell with me. Our bodies spinning and clashing tighter as we tippled down the long, curved staircase. Over and over again, my head hit a stair and then my back. It seemed to last forever. The pain was never-ending, but at the same time it was over in seconds.
Finally coming to a stop, I lay on my back, desperately trying to catch my breath and staring up at the staircase. Pain radiated through every part of my body, but I didn’t have enough air in my lungs to cry out.
A scream went up loud and anguished
Violet.
Violet had pushed me down the stairs.
The bitch really had just tried to kill my baby and me.
“What?” Alexei appeared at the top of the stairs, his hair mussed and his PJ bottoms dangerously low on his hips. Catching sight of me on my back at the bottom of the stairs, his face tightened into a look of worry.
“Amy, Amy! What happened? Are you OK?” Taking two steps at a time, he rushed down on me. Falling to his knees, he reached for me. “Did you fall? Are you OK?”
“I’m OK.” At least I thought I was. A little battered and bruised but alive, and I didn’t think anything was broken.
My baby, though? “I might need to get the baby checked,” I began to say.
Another voice rose up in a wail. “My baby,” Violet screeched. “Oh my God, my baby!”
My head swivelled round to find her lying not two feet from me.
Curled up around her bump and screaming.
Her hands weren’t clutched between her legs.
Alexei’s head turned in that direction, and a look of pure terror flickered across his face.
Scampering over on his hands and knees, he rushed to her side.
It was like I was completely forgotten,
“It’s going to be OK. Just stay still.” Lifting his voice, he screamed for the staff. Yelling at them to bring blankets and to get the car.
Not once did he look back to check I was OK.
“I’m going to lose my baby.” She clung to him. “Oh my God, she killed my baby.”
Alexei’s back stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“She pushed me. Oh my God, keep her away from me.”
Lifting her, Alexei turned to glare down at me. And I could tell from the look on his face that he believed her.
God, she was a good actress.
“Go to your room, Amy,” he said coldly. “And stay there. I can’t believe you would push a pregnant woman, but I don’t have time to deal with you right now. I have to get Violet to the hospital.”
Without another word, he swept away, carrying a woman that he wanted in his arms. He had, again, fallen for her lies. She had pushed me, and yet, it was her he was taking care of. It was like me and our child didn’t matter to him at all.
And we didn’t, I realized as I tried to sit up. Nothing in the world mattered more to Alexei than Violet. She was the woman he chased over and over again. Finally upright, I tried to push myself up to standing, and a shock wave of pain burst from my body. Forcing me back down again.
Over and over again, the pain came, a cramping vice of agony that twisted my body on the floor as I tried to get away from it.
There was no escape. None.
“Alexei,” I screamed his name, begging him to help me, even though I knew he was gone. He had gone to take care of Violet and their baby and left me behind.
My hands clutched at my nightclothes, my wet clothes. I lifted trembling hands to my face to see that they were covered in bright crimson blood. My head was spinning. It was such a pretty color for something that meant death. The death of my baby.
Vomit rushed up my throat, and I choked on it.
Oh God, he had taken Violet to get help and left me here miscarrying his baby. That’s how much he cared. Violet had won. My baby was dying, and maybe I was as well because I was feeling lightheaded. Darkness was taking up my vision so thoroughly that I couldn’t fight it.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. I was too tired, and there was no hope left. Alexei hadn’t chosen us. Violet had won. I fell back on the hardwood floor, the back of my head bouncing with a crack. My eyes closed.
“Oh, my God.” I heard Mrs. Cole’s voice coming closer and closer, but she still sounded so far away. “Oh my God, Amy.” Gentle hands stroked back my hair. “Just stay still, it’s going to be OK.”
It wasn’t going to be OK. Her voice was too panicked. “Micah,” she screamed. Footsteps pounded towards us, and wearily, I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me. My eyes drifted to Mrs. Cole’s distraught face.
“Holy shit.”
I watched sleepily as her old, lined eyes turned to him, a sort of pleading in them.
“We need to get her to the hospital.” She turned her attention back to me. “Just hold on OK, We are going to look after you.”
“The blood." Micah’s voice was a ragged whisper, but somehow, it was the clearest thing I heard. Bending over me, he lifted me into his arms. Mrs. Cole threw a blanket over me. Micah didn’t walk, he ran, and I felt every single movement in my body like I was being zapped by electricity.
It wasn’t enough pain to take over from the agony going on in my stomach. My body spasmed, and this time I felt a fresh flood of blood gush from my body and soak his arms.
“Oh, Jesus.” he swore again, and this time I could barely hear it. My head fell back as I finally gave into the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness and everything went dark.
“Jesus, there’s too much blood.”