Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Ran
She made it three steps.
Then Detective Aaron Cole entered through the front door with two officers.
Allison collided directly with him.
“Ma’am,” he said, catching her by the arms. “Where are you going?”
“I need air.”
“You can get air after we speak with you.”
“You can’t detain me.”
“We can when a security camera appears to show you pushing a pregnant woman down a staircase.”
Allison’s eyes widened.
Behind the detective, one officer looked at the marble floor, the broken vase near the wall, my phone hidden beneath the console table, and the blood soaking into the edge of the runner.
“This is a crime scene,” he said.
Allison turned toward Ethan.
“Tell them this is a misunderstanding.”
Ethan did not move.
“Tell them, Ethan.”
The paramedics lifted me carefully onto the stretcher.
Pain tore through my lower back.
I cried out.
Ethan immediately took my hand again.
Allison watched him.
Then her expression changed.
Something cruel returned.
“You think she’s carrying your baby?” she asked.
The foyer became silent.
Ethan looked at her.
“What did you say?”
Allison pressed her lips together.
Detective Cole stepped closer.
“Ma’am, you need to stop talking.”
But she was already unraveling.
“You spent years building your stupid perfect life,” Allison said. “The beautiful wife. The suburban house. The company. The baby.”
“Enough,” Ethan said.
“But you never paid attention to what was right in front of you.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“Say exactly what you mean.”
Allison looked at me.
Then at my stomach.
And smiled.
It was a terrible smile.
The kind that did not belong on a human face.
“You always wanted a child,” she said to Ethan. “You wanted one so badly that you never even questioned the timing.”
I could barely breathe.
The paramedic spoke firmly.
“Sir, we have to leave now.”
Ethan looked down at me.
Then back at Allison.
“You are not coming near her,” he said.
He climbed into the ambulance as officers placed Allison in the rear of a police vehicle.
As the doors closed, I heard her scream one final sentence through the rain.
May you like
“Ask Claire whose baby she’s carrying!”
Then the ambulance sped away.
