Chapter 2

Kate grabbed Denys at once.

"There's only half an hour left for the physical. Miss it and she forfeits. There are doctors right here for your wife. Let's go first."

Denys looked down at the blood pooling by my legs and reached for the prenatal exam papers again.

Kate shot me a poisonous glance, then turned and put on her pitiful act.

"If you don't come with me, the school will assume something's wrong with my family. Denys, she hates me so much now. If she really gets out and goes to the hospital, doesn't that mean I'm finished?"

His hand stopped. His face wavered through several turns, and when he looked at me again, his eyes had gone completely cold.

He tossed a confession at me.

"Sign it."

The paper said I confessed of my own free will, that no one had induced me, that I was willing to bear full responsibility for the crime.

The moment I signed, I would be nailed to the pillory with no way down.

But there was nothing else to do. I couldn't watch my child slip away, so I bore the pain in my belly and signed my name.

"Now leave the papers, Denys. The baby and I really can't hold on any longer."

He took the confession back, the coldness in his face unchanged.

"Everything waits until Kate's physical is done."

No!

By then the baby would truly be gone!

I wrapped my arms around his leg and begged, sobbing.

"Denys, you promised me! I can go to prison, but the baby can't wait!"

Kate leaned into his chest, frail and helpless.

"Denys, forget it, I won't take the exam. If she ends up blaming me for killing the baby, I couldn't live with that either. It's only a test. How could it matter more than your child?"

At that, he seemed to make up his mind at last, and told the officer to pull me off him.

Just then my father's trembling voice came from outside the door.

"Gabriella!"

He saw me kneeling on the floor, the legs of my pants soaked with blood, and his face changed in an instant.

"Dad, why are you here?"

"The station back home called me. They said you drunk-drove and hit someone. I didn't believe you'd ever do such a thing, so I got someone to bring me to the city right away."

He held me up and turned to glare at Denys, his eyes gone red.

"Son-in-law, why is my daughter kneeling on the floor? Why are the police saying she drunk-drove into someone? Aren't you a lawyer? You can't find a shred of evidence? If you won't look, I will!"

"My daughter could never do something like that. Someone set her up!"

Kate's head snapped up.

"That's a lie! Gabriella hit that person and killed them, you can't talk your way out of it!"

Trembling, my father pulled out his old flip phone, dropped to his knees before the officers with a thud, and pleaded.

"It can't be true. My daughter isn't that kind of person. Please believe me!"

The officer couldn't bear it and moved to help the old man up.

Guilty as she was, Kate rushed to snatch the phone.

"You old fool, no more of your nonsense here. Gabriella already admitted she did it. Arguing won't change anything!"

My father clung to the phone with everything he had and would not let go.

He didn't understand grand principles. He only knew that the daughter he'd raised to be obedient could never have drunk-driven into anyone.

Denys hurried over to stop him.

"Dad, calm down. The police already know the truth. Making a scene here won't help!"

My father slapped him across the face, in bitter grief.

"Making a scene? Your wife is in here carrying your child, suffering, and you don't care about any of it, and you say I'm making a scene? Denys, you animal, I should never have married my daughter to you!"

Kate cried out.

"Denys, if we don't go now I'll be late for the physical! I'll be finished!"

Denys's face changed. He reached out to grab the phone, my father wouldn't let go, and he shoved him hard.

My father staggered back a few steps and slammed the back of his head against the metal cabinet, blood running down the side of his face.

"Dad!"

My eyes tore wide open and I pushed off the floor to lunge toward him.

But a sharp pain seized my belly, my legs gave out, and I collapsed into the pool of blood.

The police panicked too.

"Doctor! Someone help, doctor!"

My father, still clutching his head, kept shouting.

"Save Gabriella first, she still has a baby inside her!"

Denys stood frozen where he was, unable to understand how it had come to this.

He only wanted Kate to make her exam. He never meant to lay a hand on anyone.

Kate pulled at him, frightened and smug at once.

"Denys, we have to go. We'll be late for the physical."

He looked at me once, then held her up and steered her toward the door, glancing guiltily back over his shoulder.

"The physical first."

As I was wheeled into the emergency room, I could still hear the sound of their footsteps leaving.

When I woke, my father knelt at the bedside, his head wrapped in gauze.

The doctor set down the miscarriage certificate and shook his head with regret.

"We couldn't save the baby."

The door of the ward opened again. On Kate's chest, the exam certificate already bore its stamp of clearance.

She hooked her arm through Denys's and said, grinning.

"I've got good news for you. My physical passed."