“Melanie! Are you crazy?” Brandon pushes her and rushes to my side.
I try to breathe through the sharp pain twisting through my stomach, but it feels like someone shoved a hot knife into me.
Brandon’s arms wrap around me as he lifts me, and the world tilts for a moment.
I blink hard, willing my vision to stop swimming.
“You are not taking her anywhere. Look at her. She is pretending.” Brandon’s mother steps in front of us like a guard dog in pearls, her chin raised.
Pretending? Really? If I were pretending, I would pick something a little more glamorous than writhing in pain on their designer floor.
“Mother, I need to take her to the hospital,” Brandon says through clenched teeth.
They argue. Back and forth. Back and forth. Like two hens fighting over a worm. And of course, the lad
