Chapter 3

On the last Saturday my husband had ever promised me, I walked out of the house to clear my head, and a runaway car struck me on the wet street.

It was not a fatal crash. The vehicle only clipped my legs, throwing me hard against the asphalt.

Sharp pain shot up my lower limbs, but worse than the bruises was a sudden, sickening cramp deep in my abdomen.

I looked down. On the dark asphalt, a pool of bright red blood was spreading beneath me.

Panic seized my chest. In that moment of absolute terror, I pulled out my phone with shaking fingers and dialed Lucas’s number.

When he answered, my voice broke, uncharacteristically weak and terrified. "Lucas... help me..."

On the other end, his breath hitched. I heard the sharp sound of his car door slamming shut, followed by his voice laced with frantic panic. "Audrey? Where are you? Are you okay?"

I wanted to tell him. I opened my mouth, desperate to say that I was bleeding, that I was pregnant and losing our baby.

Biting my lip so hard it tasted like copper, I forced the words out. "I... I'm fine, but..."

Before I could finish, before the words could leave my throat, Lucas let out a massive sigh of relief. The frantic edge vanished instantly from his voice.

"Thank God you're fine," he interrupted, his tone immediately shifting. "Sam is missing. Melanie just called me, and nobody can find him. I have to go look for him right now."

He didn't pause to let me speak.

"You rest well, Audrey," Lucas said quickly, already rushing somewhere. "As soon as I find the boy, I'll come check on you."

The phone clicked dead in my ear.

In that split second, lying on the cold street as strangers panicked around me, something inside me completely shattered. The final thread snapped.

Someone called an ambulance, and strangers loaded me into the back.

When I woke beneath the white lights, a doctor stood beside the bed.

"The fetal heartbeat is present, and the bleeding is beginning to stabilize. The pregnancy is intact for now. You’ll need to be careful and return for follow-up."

I held the blanket over my abdomen and reached for my phone.

Lucas had replied.

Sam is safe. Melanie is here, but he’s still badly shaken and won’t leave with her. I’ll call you as soon as I get him home.

Lucas knew I had been hit by a car, yet he had decided I could wait until the boy stopped crying.

I called Miriam.

"File the divorce papers," I said. "Finish everything we discussed."

Then I sent Helen a second message.

I accept.

After the required observation period, the doctor confirmed that my vital signs and the fetal heartbeat were stable enough for me to leave with strict instructions to rest and return if the bleeding worsened.

Helen arranged a quiet place where I could recover.

Before I left, my phone gave the final reminder from the calendar Lucas had created.

AUDREY — DO NOT BOOK.

This was the twenty-fourth date. The last one.

I opened the calendar settings and selected Leave Shared Calendar.

Leave “Audrey Saturdays”?

I pressed confirm. Lucas still owned every date he had created. I was simply no longer sharing them with him.

Then I turned off my phone, left the hospital through the main entrance, and climbed into the car Helen had sent.

There would be no Saturday Twenty-Five.