19. Alison #3
“They’re trying to get her heart beating.” Compression.
“Mom.” Again. “Come on.” Again. “Please.” Again.
“Mommy, please.” Again. “You survived him. You survived him for years. So survive this. Please.” Nothing.
“Tobias needs you. He’s waiting. He thinks we’re coming.
He thinks you’re coming too.” My voice breaks.
“You promised. You promised me all three.”
Ryan starts crying behind me.
“I got him out, Mom. I got Tobias out. I did it. He’s safe. So wake up. You can wake up now. Please.”
Darla turns her face away.
“No.” I see her. “No.”
“Ally—“
“Don’t look like that.” Her tears fall. “Don’t fucking look like that!”
The EMTs keep going.
“Mommy! Please! I don’t know how to do this without you!” Ryan breaks. “I don’t know how to be somebody’s mom without mine!” Darla covers her mouth. “Please!” One EMT looks at the other. No. “No.” They keep going. “Don’t stop. Don’t fucking stop. KEEP GOING! PLEASE! PLEASE DON’T STOP!”
And then they do. They stop.
“No.” The world stops with them. “No.” Someone says something quietly. I don’t understand it. “Keep going.” Nobody does. “Keep going.”
Darla grips my hand. “Ally.”
“Tell them.” Her face breaks. “Tell them to keep going.”
“Sweetheart—“
“NO!” I lunge toward them. Ryan catches me. “MAKE THEM KEEP GOING!”
“Baby—“
“MAKE THEM!”
“I can’t.”
“YES, YOU CAN!”
“I can’t.”
“HELP HER!” My scream tears out of me. “HELP MY FUCKING MOM!”
I collapse over her hand. “Mom.” Nothing.
“Mommy.” Nothing. “Wake up. You promised me.” I press her hand against my cheek.
Still warm. “You fucking promised.” My forehead falls against her fingers.
“All three.” Ryan folds over me. “You said all three. I need you. Tobias needs you. Our baby needs you. I need my mom.”
Pain twists low in my stomach. I gasp. Ryan immediately lifts his head. “What?”
I shake mine. “Nothing.”
“Ally?”
“I need my mom.” Another cramp. Sharper. My hand presses against my stomach.
Darla sees it. “Ally?”
“I’m fine.”
“Where does it hurt?”
“I don’t care.”
“Ally.”
“I DON’T CARE!” I grab Mom’s hand again. “I need her.”
Then warmth slides down the inside of my thigh. I freeze. Another warm line follows. Darla looks down. Her face changes.
Ryan sees her face. “What?” She doesn’t answer. “What is it?”
I look down. Plaid skirt. Bare legs. White socks soaked in Mom’s blood. And fresh red running down the inside of my thigh. One line. Then another. My hand covers my stomach.
No. No. No.
Everything goes quiet.
“Ryan?” Barely a whisper. He hears me. He always hears me.
His eyes snap to mine. “What?”
I can’t say it. I look down. He follows my eyes. He sees the blood. His face goes white.
“No.” Another cramp tears through me. I fold forward. Ryan catches me. “NO!”
Darla moves. “Ally, lie back.”
“No! Mom!”
Ryan’s scream tears across the yard. “EMT!”
“Ryan—“
“I NEED A FUCKING EMT! SHE’S BLEEDING! SHE'S PREGNANT AND SHE’S FUCKING BLEEDING!” He lowers me onto the marble. His hands are shaking. “Baby, look at me.”
“Our baby. Ryan, there’s blood. There’s so much blood.”
“Don’t look.”
“Our baby.”
“You’re okay.” His voice breaks. “You’re both okay.”
“Don’t lie to me.” That destroys him. His face crumples. “Please.” I grab his shirt. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I don’t know.” His forehead drops against mine. “I don’t fucking know.”
Another pain rips through me. I scream. Darla is over me. Someone else drops beside her. Questions come from everywhere.
“Almost Thirteen weeks,” Ryan says. Another question. “Her father slammed her into the wall.” Another. “He shook her.” Another. “Thursday too. He hurt her Thursday too.”
He looks at Darla. “Save them. Please.” His voice breaks. “Please fucking save them.”
I reach blindly. My fingers find Mom’s hand. Someone tries to move me away from her. “No!”
“Ally—“
“DON’T TAKE HER!”
“We need to move you.”
“NO!”
“We need to get you to the hospital.”
“I’m not leaving her!”
“Ally—“
“ALL THREE!” My fingers lock around Mom’s. “I promised her!” Ryan is sobbing now. I don’t care. “I promised all three!”
The world starts turning black around the edges. Ryan grabs my face. “Stay with me.”
“Mom.”
“Look at me.”
“I can’t leave her.”
“You aren’t.”
“Don’t let Tobias see her.” Ryan goes still. “Please. He can’t see her like this.”
“He won’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“He’s waiting for us.”
“I know.”
“He thinks she’s coming.”
Ryan closes his eyes. When he opens them, tears run down his face.
“He’s going to ask me where she is.” My voice cracks.
“I know.”
“What do I tell him?” Ryan can’t answer. “Ryan.”
“I don’t know.”
“I promised him. I promised I’d come.”
I look at her. My mother. Her hand still in mine. Her blood beneath me. Then my stomach. My blood. Two different reds running together across the white marble until I can’t tell which one belongs to who anymore.
“Ryan?”
“I’m here.”
“I don’t want our baby to die.”
His face crumples. “No.”
“I can’t lose our baby too.”
“You won’t.”
“I can’t. I can’t lose anybody else.”
He cups my face. “You have me.”
My vision darkens. “Ryan!”
“I’m right here.”
“Don’t let go.”
“Never.” I squeeze Mom’s hand. Or I think I do. “All three.”
Then everything goes black.