Chapter 2

"No—!"

But it was already too late.

Milton stood in front of me like death itself, watching his students haul in block after block of foam, charging into the elevator car where I was trapped. In an instant, countless huge slabs of foam slammed down onto me, and the already sealed car filled up fast with those bloated blocks.

The suffocation hit me with a wave of pure panic. My throat clamped shut, like some invisible hand had closed around it, and breathing turned to a struggle. Every time my eyes swept the space around me, I could see it shrinking, closing in, and the fear sent me thrashing wildly inside the car. But every struggle only pressed the space tighter around me.

The panic made my movements more frantic, and as I flailed, my belly kept slamming into the cold wall of the car, each blow sending a piercing wave of pain through me. Frantic, I found Milton's eyes through a gap in the foam and screamed at him like something gone mad.

"Milton, let me out!"

"My claustrophobia is triggered, you know what that means!"

"I'm bleeding so much, my stomach hurts so bad! Let me out, now!"

Milton met my eyes through the gap, cold.

"Priscilla, I already told you. The second you're willing to apologize to Pru, I'll let you out."

"Your claustrophobia's hard on you, but you think Pru's anxiety attacks aren't hard on her? She can bear it. Why can't you?"

My breathing came faster and faster, and with each ragged breath, more blood streamed down between my legs like water down a creek. The heavy blood loss left me shaking all over, unable to stop, and the piercing pain was slowly draining the strength out of me. The little kick I felt in my belly every single day hadn't come once today.

Terror swallowed me whole.

I clawed the foam away from my face with everything I had, dragging myself into the one thin beam of light, wanting Milton to see the state I was in.

"Milton, the baby really isn't going to make it! If something happens to this baby, I'll come back as a ghost and I won't let you go!"

"Let me out, now!"

The bright red blood turned a blackish purple under the dim yellow light, and the stench of it drifted out through the only gap. Milton, who had been so composed a moment ago, gave a jolt and rushed straight toward me. His large hand slapped against the bloodsmeared glass door, and something like panic flickered in his eyes. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, Prudence suddenly rushed forward.

She dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud, tears streaming down her face.

"Professor's wife, I really don't understand why you'd do this. Just to avoid saying one apology, you'd lie to Professor Hughes using your own child with him!"

Then she turned to face Milton.

"Professor, this is exactly what happened yesterday."

"Your wife climbed into the elevator covered in blood, and I thought she was in serious trouble too, so I kept watching her from upstairs, afraid something would happen to her. But she ran out of the hospital on her own two feet!"

Ran out of the hospital?!

Yesterday the hospital's obstetrics department was the one that called an ambulance to take me home.

I panicked.

Fighting through the stabbing pain, I threw myself toward Milton and cut in, sharp.

"Milton, she's lying! You want to know how I actually got home? Just call Dr. Cruz in obstetrics right now and you'll have your answer—"

"Enough!"

Milton cut me off, his eyes bloodshot as he glared at me.

His fist crashed into the glass right in front of me.

"Priscilla, and to think I kept going soft on you! You make me sick!"

With that, he refused to hear another word of my explanation.

He turned to the students behind him and gave the order in a cold voice.

"Go! Bring those videos of claustrophobia attacks, and play them for your dear professor's wife!"