Chapter 6
The birthday party went ahead anyway.
Margaret said it was for the Lowells to show that the Carters still valued their adopted daughter, so she'd have some standing when she married in.
It was enormous, and half the city's names were there.
Emily wore couture with her face done perfectly, and she moved through it like a puppet with nothing inside, letting Margaret walk her around and handing every guest the same stiff smile.
Lucas sat at the head of the table in a tailored suit, every inch the devoted husband, serving her plate and leaning in to ask how she was feeling.
The performance was good enough for an award.
Then Anna walked in.
She came in a loose dress and flats, and there was already a faint curve at her stomach. She went straight to Lucas, timid and sugared. "Lucas, sorry I'm late."
The whole room stopped.
Every eye in it moved between Anna's stomach, Lucas, and Emily's bloodless face, and the whispering started.
"Who is that?"
"They say Mr. Carter puts her through school."
"Wait, she's a student and she's pregnant? Is that Mr. Carter's baby?"
Lucas' face shifted. He hadn't expected her.
He glanced at Emily with a flicker of panic and covered it inside a second.
He dropped his voice to Anna. "What are you doing here? I told you to stay home and rest."
Anna rubbed her stomach, her eyes going red. "I was scared on my own. The baby's been restless today."
That word "baby" went into Emily like a blade, straight into a wound that was still open.
A partner who had no idea what he'd walked into stood up smiling, glass in hand, and came over to smooth it out. "Mr. Carter, congratulations twice over. I have to drink to you and..."
He looked at Anna, then at Emily, and lost track of who he was toasting.
Emily smiled and pushed the glass toward Anna. "Then I'll leave it to Ms. Reed."
Anna looked troubled.
Lucas frowned. "Sweetheart, she's pregnant. I'll drink it."
"Feeling protective?" Emily laughed out loud with her eyes on Anna. "Ms. Reed must be precious. She won't even take one drink."
How dare Emily come at her like that in front of him?
Anna had been hunting for a way to make Lucas feel sorry for her, and here it was.
So she smiled, took the glass, and drank every drop.
"Anna!" Lucas' face changed in an instant, and he caught her waist. "Who told you to drink? You're pregnant."
"I couldn't turn down Emily's toast." She sagged against him, and then she started coughing hard, and her whole face went wrong.
Lucas swept her up and turned for the door. "Hospital. Now."
Before he left, he shot Emily a cold, stormy glare.
For a split second, Emily caught a glimpse of hatred in his eyes.
"Mom, I don't feel well. I'm going to the lounge."
Margaret frowned, then nodded.
Emily got out of that suffocating room like a woman handed a pardon, and she was barely steady on her feet.
The hallway to the lounge was much quieter. She kept a hand on the cold wall and moved slowly, and every step landed as if it were going into cotton.
Then two men in black suits came out of the shadows and blocked her. They were big and blank-faced, and there was nothing negotiable about either of them.
"Ms. Carter." One of them spoke, and there was no heat in it at all. "Mr. Carter says you should find out how the drink tastes."
Mr. Carter?
It dropped through her, and the panic came up fast. "What are you doing? This is Carter Manor!"
Before she could finish, they pried her mouth open by force.
The burning, acrid liquid was suddenly shoved down her throat.
She fought them, and the tears came out of her from choking.
The liquor went down like a heated blade, throat to stomach, and left a track of agony behind it.
She coughed and struggled while it ran out of the corners of her mouth and down her neck, ruining her face and soaking the dress.
Glass after glass. One bottle emptied, and they opened another.
"Stop. Please. Stop!"
Her voice was in pieces, her stomach was turning over, and the pain felt like a hand had closed on it and pulled.
Her vision went soft, and all she could hear was the sound of liquid going down and her own noise beneath it.
The world spun wildly around her, until a ripping pain exploded in her stomach, and darkness completely swallowed her up.
She went down on the floor, and the last things she had were cold tile against a burning cheek and Margaret's shout somewhere down the hall as she finally worked out that something was wrong.