Chapter 51
51
I am alone in my room.
I can’t sleep, though my eyes have been closed for hours. Something within me is not right. Like a living being is trying to crawl out of my throat, come alive, seek vengeance. I sit up since I fear that if I stay down, I might puke and choke to death like Chloe, foam in my throat. I take deep breaths, fighting nausea and telling my body I am in control.
But I have this odd feeling. Like I’m forgetting something. A figure is curling into my mind, her name right at the tip of my tongue.
But then, a scream.
Piercing, guttural, hoarse. The sound is from a few bungalows over, yet it is so loud it might as well be in my ear.
Angelique.
Worry tramples my acrid nausea and I run to her bungalow and push open the front door. The room smells like iron—like blood.
Angelique is on the floor, moaning, mumbling something that sounds like, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Her skin is pale, wet with perspiration, scarlet staining her white dress, down her thighs.
I rush to her and gather her in my arms. Her muscles spasm at my touch. “What happened?”
She grabs on to me, her bloody hands slippery on my skin. I can’t make out her whispered, incoherent words.
Kelly runs in, then Maya, who says she’ll get Bella Marie, running back out again.
“What happened?” I ask again.
“My baby,” Angelique says, voice hoarse. “It’s done.”
“Done? What’s done?”
She blinks slowly, her voice a whisper only I can hear. “Am I… a good person?”
“What?”
Her head falls to the side before she can answer, and she passes out in my arms.
I shake her, panicked. “Angelique? Angelique! Can you hear me?” I’m crying, throat closing with worry. I look at Kelly as she stares at the blood. She’s quiet, her hands to her heart as if in prayer.
“What do we do?” I ask. “She needs help. A hospital. A doctor!”
A thunder of footsteps. All the other Belladonnas rush in. Emmeline, Lily, Ana, Sophia, Maya. Bella Marie is last, accompanied by Viktor and another burly white man holding a stretcher. They grab Angelique’s body and lift her on the stretcher. A heave and they carry her out of the room. The rest of us follow behind them as they bring her to the service building a few minutes away. There’s a small medical bay. The light is harsh and sterile, illuminating Angelique’s severe blood loss, the warm, sticky vermillion pond between her legs.
I’m about to go in with them, to make sure she’ll be okay, when Bella Marie stops me.
“She’ll be fine. We have a doctor.” But she’s chewing on her fingernails.
“You have to call emergency services,” I say. “What if she needs a blood transfusion? She lost so much a-and—” My breath hitches as I think of the baby. That warm spirit that breathed into my palm, beautiful and whole. I had felt the babe only this morning and now… It’s barely been twelve hours. How did this happen so quickly? “She should be with her husband, Sommer. With her family.”
“We are family,” Bella Marie says.
“Bella Marie!” I shout.
She jolts. Stumbles backward, her veneer of perfection cracking.
Everyone stares at me, all fourteen eyes. They are in shock that I yelled. I am in shock that I yelled too.
Why aren’t you happy? Why did you yell at your family? This is not nice of you.
I don’t like this feeling growing inside me. It is not peaceful, not nice. It is red agitation, bristly and spiky. Yet I can’t push it away, not when Angelique, her baby, are dying. I can’t let it happen again, cannot allow another family member to pass away. I take a breath, close my eyes, and gather my thoughts. Then I step forward, grab Bella Marie’s hand, and speak to her softly. “My love, my beautiful dove, I’m worried about Angelique.”
“I’m worried too,” she replies.
“So worried.”
“Very worried.”
“I just… I think she might need transfusions or… something else. I know you have good medical facilities here, but I worry. She’s Angelique! Our family. What if…” I shake my head and let her fill in the blank with her worst nightmare.
Bella Marie opens her mouth wide with realization. “You’re right.” She jumps toward me, wraps me in her arms. “You are so right, Julie. I love you so much. Angelique needs to be safe. You’re right.”
“You’re so right, Julie,” says Emmeline.
“So right,” says Ana.
“Very right,” echoes Lily.
“I will call emergency services right away. Wait here.” And then Bella Marie takes off running. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen her run. She looks weird. Gangly. A collection of coltish limbs that don’t quite go the right way.
The door to the medical room swings open and Viktor steps out, covered in blood. “I’ll pack Angelique’s bags. You girls wait here.” Then he runs off, long strides, into the darkness.
“Angelique will be all right,” Maya says.
“All right,” Emmeline echoes.
Ana pulls me into her arms. “She will be fine.”
We all gather in a hug. Their arms twine around me as they affirm themselves of Angelique’s safety.
I hug them back and force myself to believe, to conform, my mind whirring with nausea. “Everything is fine,” I say, arms still bloody from Angelique.