Chapter 1

When I was nine months pregnant, Charles Summers was still listening to Nadine Rivers teach him how to love me.

She told him a husband shouldn't spoil his wife too much if he wanted a marriage to last.

So, Charles skipped seven out of my ten prenatal appointments.

She told him married couples needed to keep some distance from each other.

So, when I started suffering from insomnia during the final months of my pregnancy, he moved into the guest room.

Every time I felt hurt, Charles would pull me into his arms. He said, "Nadine is an outsider. She can see things more objectively than we can. Listen to her. She won't steer us wrong."

Then, at three in the morning, my water broke.

I shook Charles awake. "My water broke. Take me to the hospital."

He had barely sat up when his phone rang. Nadine had tagged him in their group chat.

Nadine: [Don't let her scare you. It takes a while with the first baby.

[If you go now, you'll just be sitting around at the hospital anyway.]

Then she sent a Labor Monitoring Checklist to the group.

Nadine: [Note the time her water broke. If the contractions aren't coming less than five minutes apart, she doesn't need to leave yet.]

Another contraction seized my abdomen. The pain was so intense I couldn't even speak.

But Charles simply tucked the blanket around me. "You haven't reached the threshold on the chart yet. Relax. Don't scare yourself."

But the blood between my legs kept flowing. And then the baby inside me stopped moving.

*****

Charles reached out and gently stroked my hair.

"Hang in there a little longer. I'll keep track of the time for you," he said.

Every time the pain hit, I curled up into a ball.

He rubbed my lower back with one hand and kept track of the contractions on the checklist with the other.

He typed: [Contractions every nine minutes, lasting over forty seconds.]

Nadine replied right away, [It's still early. Wait until they're every five minutes.]

I pulled back the blanket, and saw a big red stain spreading across the light gray sheets.

I grabbed my phone and dialed 911 right away.

The operator's voice got serious as soon as she heard what was going on.

"You're in late pregnancy and bleeding. The baby's not moving much. Don't wait it out," she said. "We're sending an ambulance now. Lie flat and try not to move around."

As soon as I gave the address, Charles took the phone from me.

"She's conscious and can walk. Would it be faster if we drove her to the hospital ourselves?" he asked.

The operator paused for a moment.

"If you're heading out right now, go to the closest hospital with an ER for maternity emergencies," she said.

"Okay, thanks," Charles replied.

The call ended.

I leaned against the bed, trying to catch my breath.

"Let's go," I said.

But Charles didn't move. He glanced down at his phone.

Nadine had replied to him in the group chat. [Since she can still walk, there's no need for an ambulance.

[Calling an ambulance in the middle of the night will only make her more anxious.

[Drive yourselves. Lay the seat back, and let her lie down.]

After reading Nadine's message, Charles finally seemed to make up his mind.

I reached for my coat.

A sharp pain shot through my belly.

"The baby's not moving," I said.

Charles's face changed, and he immediately placed his hand on my belly.

"Honey?" he called out. "Honey, give Daddy a kick."

He waited for more than ten seconds, but there was no movement under his hand.

"Get me to the hospital, now," I shouted.

He didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed his phone and hit the voice message button.

"Nadine, she says the baby's not moving," he said. "I've been feeling around for a while, but I can't feel any movement either.

"Is this normal?"

Nadine replied with a voice message right away.

She said, "It's normal for the baby to move less this late. The baby's bigger, not much room left.

"Charles, the most important thing right now is to stay calm.

"Don't let her fear throw you off."

After hearing that, Charles's tense shoulders finally relaxed a bit.

He took my hand.

"See? It's probably okay," he said.

I looked at him, so drained I couldn't argue.

"Charles, you trust her more than me?" I asked.

He frowned.

"It's not that I don't believe you," he said. "But you're in so much pain right now, of course your judgment's affected.

"Nadine's more objective."

The next second, a rush of warmth ran down my inner thigh.

Blood was already streaming down my calf, pooling on the floor.

Charles's face went pale in an instant. "Why is there so much blood?"

At last, he put down his phone and reached out to hold me.

I pulled away from him.

"Why don't you ask her again?" I snapped. "How much blood do I have to lose before you'll let me go to the hospital?"

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

He simply bent down and grabbed the coat by the bed.

"Enough. Get changed. We're leaving," he said.

I glanced at my pajama pants, drenched in blood. "Let me go to the bathroom first."

Charles steadied me by the arm. "I'll come with you."

The bathroom was only a few steps away from the bedroom.

Charles helped me along, but when my legs went weak, he scooped me up.

He gently set me down on the toilet seat and turned to grab a towel.

"Wipe yourself off first. I'll grab the hospital bag," he said.

I grabbed the hem of his shirt. "Let's go now."

He leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"Okay, right now," he said.

But the next second, he took a picture of the sheets with his phone.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

The click of the camera made my head spin.

"Charles!" I shouted.

He kept his head down, typing fast. [Is this a lot?]

Then Nadine replied, [The photo's making it look worse than it is because of the color difference.

[If Emily was really bleeding that much, she wouldn't be able to walk to the bathroom by herself.]

She threw in two laughing-crying emojis.

A chill crept over me, little by little.

"What are you two treating this as?" I asked.

Charles finally realized I saw it and quickly put his phone away.

"Emily, don't overthink it," he said. "I only wanted everyone's opinion."

I looked at him.

"They decide my prenatal checkups and my insomnia," I said. "Now they even decide how much I'm bleeding.

"So do I have to meet her checklist before I can give birth?"

His brow furrowed. "Don't bring other things into this.

"Nadine's calmer than us. One of us is in pain, the other is worried sick."

I stood up, bracing myself against the wall. "Why don't you let her have the baby for me?"

Charles's face darkened.

But when he saw the blood between my legs, he forced himself to calm down. "Don't say things you don't mean."

He brought my long coat and bent down to button it up for me. "I'm doing this for your own good."

At 4:02, we finally walked out the door.

As the elevator went down, I leaned against the mirror, struggling to catch my breath.

When we reached the intersection, I looked up and spotted a blue sign by the roadside.

It read: [Eliza Health Hospital 1.4 miles]

I immediately grabbed his arm.

"Eliza Health Hospital is close. Let's go," I said.

Charles kept his hands steady on the wheel, not slowing down at all.

"We're going to Harmony Medical Center," he said.

I was stunned for a moment.

Harmony Medical Center was all the way on the south side. We'd have to cross half the city to get there.

"Eliza Health Hospital is around the corner," I said.

"You've always had your checkups at Harmony. Your doctor, your records, your birth plan... Everything's there," he said.

My voice trembled with pain.

"Charles, I'm not here for a checkup.

"I'm bleeding. I want to go to the nearest hospital," I said.

His phone lit up with a message from Nadine. [Don't switch hospitals last minute.

[She's already panicking. A new place will only make her more anxious.]

Charles glanced at the message.

His hand, which had been on the turn signal, slowly pulled back.

The car drove right past the turn for Eliza Health Hospital.

I watched the blue sign fade into the distance, and suddenly, I didn't have the strength to call his name.

"Charles, the 911 operator told us to go to the nearest hospital," I said.

He swallowed hard. "Harmony Medical Center knows your situation better."

I stared at him. "Who really knows my situation better? The doctors or Nadine?"

Charles didn't answer, and the car kept going straight through the intersection.

I slowly released my grip on the seatbelt.