Go Save Her. My Baby and I Are Done with You!

The day Dominic Harrington drove me to a prenatal appointment, his young assistant, Ivy Walker, deliberately sped up and rear-ended our car. For three months, I'd heard him complain constantly about Ivy, saying she was careless and botched even the simplest tasks. He even claimed that she would be fired sooner or later. Yet after the crash, he ran straight to Ivy and carried her into an ambulance, even though she'd only scraped her forehead. He forgot I was still trapped in the passenger seat, four months pregnant. He forgot we'd been married for seven years and had spent two of them longing for this baby. Since he'd chosen someone else, my baby and I were done with him. ****** I was sorting through my prenatal records when the impact hit. A deafening crash sent the car lurching forward. The airbag burst open in front of me. My seat belt locked tight, cutting into my lower abdomen. Pain doubled me over. Instinctively, I wrapped both arms around my belly. "Dominic, stop..." The screech of tires swallowed my voice. Before our car had fully stopped, Dominic Harrington kicked open his warped door, splashed through the rain, and ran toward the white sedan behind us. The driver was his new assistant, Ivy Walker. She'd been working for him less than three months. More than once over dinner, Dominic had complained that she was careless and slow, that she couldn't handle even the simplest task. He'd even said it was only a matter of time before he fired her. I'd never thought twice about Ivy. When a man spoke about a woman with nothing but irritation, it was hard to imagine there was anything else between them. Just 10 minutes earlier, she'd called Dominic to say she'd forgotten to get his signature on an urgent document. He'd told her clearly that he was taking the day off for my prenatal appointment, yet she'd followed us anyway. Now Ivy was slumped over the steering wheel, a thin line of blood seeping from her temple. The moment she saw Dominic, she reached for him. "Dom, my chest hurts so much... Am I going to die?" Dominic went pale. He bent down, unfastened her seat belt, and lifted her from the car. He wrapped his coat around her and cradled the back of her head. His voice was softer than I'd heard it in a long time. "Don't fall asleep. Look at me. The ambulance will be here any second." I was pinned in the passenger seat. The door had caved in, and I couldn't move my left leg. My lower abdomen tightened in waves. Through the rain-streaked, spiderwebbed window, I pounded on the glass. "Dominic!" He didn't hear me. Or maybe he had and simply couldn't spare any attention for me. That morning, he'd crouched in the entryway to retie my loose shoelace, then slipped a finger beneath the knot to make sure it wasn't too tight. When he stood, he rested a hand on my belly and held his breath for a few seconds, smiling as he asked whether our little star had moved that day. This baby had come so late, after so much heartache. We'd tried for two years. The morning the pregnancy test finally showed two pink lines, Dominic sat with me on the bathroom floor, holding me with red-rimmed eyes as he said, "We're finally having a family." But now he didn't even look at the hands shielding my belly. By the time the firefighters pried open my door, two ambulances had arrived. The paramedics had just lifted me onto a stretcher when Ivy clutched Dominic's sleeve. "Don't leave me. I don't have any family in Westbridge. I'm scared." Only then did Dominic look at me through the curtain of rain. "Sienna, there are doctors everywhere. You'll be fine. Ivy has a congenital heart condition. I'll go with her first and come right back for you." The cramping in my abdomen grew heavier. I gripped the edge of the stretcher and, for the first time, let him see how scared I was. "Dominic, I'm scared too." He stopped. Just for a second. Ivy choked out a tearful "Dom," and he looked away, following her into the first ambulance. The doors shut in front of me, and the red taillights vanished into the downpour. The second ambulance took me to the hospital not far from hers. After the exam, the doctor told me the baby's heartbeat was stable for now, but I was showing signs of a threatened miscarriage and needed to be admitted immediately for observation. "Is there a family member with you?" She glanced at the empty chair beside my bed. "He's near." I paused. "Just not for me."