Chapter 1
When Ethan Caldwell found me, I was crouched beside a medical waste bin, sifting through the blood-soaked remains with my bare hands.
It was my baby.
Ethan kicked the bin over, scattering everything across the floor.
"Who gave you permission to touch Vanessa's medication?"
I didn't explain that the medication had actually been prescribed for my brother.
I didn't have the strength to tell him that Vanessa Blake planned to resell the very medication Owen needed to stay alive.
I only knelt there, gathering the remains one piece at a time.
That only made Ethan angrier. He seized my arm and hauled me to my feet.
"Claire Dawson! Are you deaf or mute?"
His gaze landed on my blood-covered hands, and panic flickered across his face.
Ethan released me at once and tugged at his sleeve, as though he meant to wipe the blood from my hands.
A soft gag came from the doorway.
"Ethan, what is that smell? It's making me sick..."
Ethan froze and immediately pulled his hand back.
Without his support, I lost my balance and slammed into the cold wall.
Vanessa nestled against his chest and spoke in a soft, delicate voice, though the look she gave me was openly malicious.
"Claire, I'm pregnant. I can't stand the sight of blood right now. That thing is disgusting. Get rid of it."
I went rigid as tears stung my eyes.
I had carried my baby for three months, only to have Vanessa dismiss the remains as disgusting trash.
Vanessa continued in the same sickly sweet tone.
"Oh, and Claire, I saw all the little clothes you made. They're adorable."
I had sewn every one of those clothes by hand, working late into the night.
Ethan had drawn the little mustang design himself.
I remembered Ethan holding me in his arms three years earlier, his voice full of tenderness.
"When we have a baby, let's put this on all the clothes, okay? A little mustang, free and fearless, just like you."
I looked up at Ethan, but he turned away uneasily.
I let out a quiet laugh.
"Fine."
Something unreadable flashed in Ethan's eyes.
Vanessa noticed the cuts on my hands, and a calculating gleam entered her eyes.
"I hear you're a wonderful pianist, Claire. Why don't you play something for my baby? Consider it a little prenatal concert."
Vanessa had just tricked me into ending my pregnancy and had my baby's remains thrown out with the medical waste.
Yet with blood still seeping from my fingertips, I played all night for the woman who had caused my baby's death.
Blood dripped onto the black-and-white keys as chills racked my body and my hands trembled.
"That's enough! Get out!"
A glass shattered at my feet as Ethan's furious voice rang through the room.
I braced myself against the piano and tried to stand, but my vision went black and I collapsed.
Ethan shot to his feet and took two steps toward me, then stopped dead.
Ethan gave a humorless laugh.
"There's a limit to how far you can take this pathetic act, Claire."
I wasn't pretending.
My organs were beginning to fail.
In five days, I would be dead.
