Chapter 6 - The Emergency Threshold
""Get out,"" I said, pointing directly to the open door. ""Get your clothes, get your car, and get out of our lives before I call the district attorney.""
""You can't do this!"" Andrew shouted, lunging forward to grab the ledger from my hands. ""Those are private financial records! Give them to me!""
""Don't touch her!"" Kendall shrieked, bounding down the remaining stairs and throwing herself between Andrew and me. She shoved her father back with both hands, her sixteen-year-old frame trembling with pure protective adrenaline. ""Don't you ever touch her again! Get out of our house!""
Andrew stumbled backward, looking at his daughter with a mixture of shock and fury. For a second, I thought he might raise a hand against her.
Suddenly, a blinding, white-hot pain tore through my lower abdomen.
A sharp gasp escaped my throat as my knees buckled. A warm rush of fluid cascaded down my legs, soaking my sweatpants and pooling on the polished hardwood of the foyer floor.
The room tilted violently. The stress, the shouting, the sheer emotional shock of the last twenty-four hours had triggered full placental abruption.
""Mara!"" Kendall cried out, instantly abandoning her father and dropping to her knees beside me. ""Mara, what's wrong? What's happening?""
""The baby..."" I gasped, clutching my stomach as another violent wave of agony ripped through my core. The pain was unlike anything I had ever experienced—relentless, tearing, and absolute. I looked down and saw the red tint spreading through the clear fluid on the floor.
Andrew stood frozen, paralyzed by the sudden medical catastrophe unfolding before him. ""She's... she's having the baby? But she's only thirty-four weeks. We need to call an ambulance.""
""Call 911 right now!"" Kendall screamed at him.
Andrew fumbled with his phone in his trembling hands, dropped it on the floor, picked it up, and dialed with shaking fingers. But as he began talking to the dispatcher, his voice was filled with useless, incoherent stammering. He was completely useless under real pressure.
""He's panicking,"" Kendall said sharply, assessing the situation with terrifying maturity. She grabbed my purse off the entry bench. ""Lacey! Get shoes on right now! Grab the hospital bag from the nursery closet!""
Thirteen-year-old Lacey sprang into action like a soldier, wiping her tears and sprinting into the nursery. She emerged five seconds later with the packed overnight duffel bag I had prepared weeks earlier.
""Can you walk to my car, Mara?"" Kendall asked, her arm wrapping firmly around my shoulders to support my weight. ""Dad's car is blocking the driveway, but my Civic is parked right at the curb. The regional hospital is four miles away. An ambulance will take fifteen minutes just to get through morning traffic.""
""Yes,"" I groaned through clenched teeth, leaning heavily on the teenager.
""Kendall, wait, you can't drive her in this condition!"" Andrew shouted, finally hanging up his phone. ""Let the paramedics handle it!""
May you like
Kendall didn't even look back at him. ""Get out of our way, Dad. You've done enough.""
With Kendall supporting my left side and Lacey holding my right hand, they guided me out the front door into the crisp morning air, leaving Andrew standing alone in the doorway of a house that no longer belonged to him.
