Chapter 7

"You're not going to ask anything else?" I asked.

"Like what?" he replied.

"Never mind," I said.

He left. I stood in the bathroom doorway, listening as his car pulled out of the garage, the engine fading away.

Then I looked down at my belly and whispered, "It's okay. Mommy can handle it herself."

That was the first time I ever talked to my baby. Little did I know, that line would end up being the one I'd say to myself more than anything else.

When I was six months pregnant, I started bleeding for the first time. That afternoon,…