Caldwe

oor. He stepped right over the shattered urn, the sc

falling to his knees and g

hurt?" Hudson asked frantical

just wanted to apologize to her... I brought her tea... and she went crazy! She threw her father

toward me. For a second, his eyes caught the gray dust and the

lt passed through his dark

eyes rolling back as she began hyperventilating with violent

hed instantly, wiped out by abso

ing up with his jaw tight. He looked dow

destroying your own father's remains to stage a fight and hurt Fiona? Have you no shame? The de

my side against

adiating down my thighs. Warm, thick liquid was gushing out of me,

lood was pooling around my legs

ting second, a horrific

me back to our suite heavily intoxicated, whispering words of affection, mistaking

eeks late. I had as

preg

sing the bab

forehead. My fingers clawed at the floorboards, trying to drag myself towa

Emerson? Every single time you get caught, you pretend to be dying! You

hone vibrating with an incoming email, and

cross the room,

across the floor, reaching out with trembling, ash-sta

to the open balcony door, and hurled the phone into the rainy night,

htly against his chest. "Arthur Caldwell was a hero, but you are a disgrace to his na

ied Fiona out of the bedroom,

ront door c

rned to absolute,

my own blood, my hands buri

urred with dark, pulsing spots. The room spun. The co

, my consciousness slipping into a deep, pitch-blac

rything w

e smell of bleach and ant

oked to the back of my left hand. Sunlight was streaming th

, holding a clipboard. When she saw me aw

drip. "Your housekeeper found you unconscious on the floor yesterday

ing. My lower abdomen felt

sked, my voice

. You lost a six-week-old embryo. We had to perform an emergency dilation and curettage to stop the internal bleeding.

sed m

down my temple, disap

. There was immense grief, but beneath the gri

into a world of hatred, neglect, and broken vows. A child

dvice, I signed the discharge papers and immed

the streets of New York, coating the yellow ca

silk, was a small, sealed porcelain jar containing the small amount of my father's ashes that my ho

l Terminal, stepping ont

ut a cheap prepaid burner phone I h

text message to

gement is permanently canceled. I have left New York, and I will no

with my fingers, and dropped the plastic pi

tle blew, long

slowly began to roll forward. The skyscrapers of Manhattan shrank into the snow