he wind. He murmured comforting words into her ear, his voice a low rumble that was lost to me in the blizzard' s

le he had already cl

drum, and the sharp cramps in my belly were coming faster now. A dark, warm wetness was spreading

int, pathetic croak. My throat was tight with unshed tear

he deep snow with each step. He was a hundred feet away now, then two hundred. A s

But the worst agony was in my womb, a deep, wrenching grief that was both physical and absolute. This was not

pure terror, I pushed myself up ont

ngs with all the force I had left. "ETHAN, I HAVE THE UL

pped. He actually stopped and turned. For a single, heart-stopping moment,

something to him. I couldn't hear her words, but her tone was sha

back at me, the words lost in the gale, but the meaning was clear in his disgusted expressi

dn't hesitate. He continued his march

e, the abandonment-that was cruelty born of conflict. This, his deliberate choice to believe her over me, to accept her

y vision started to blur at the edges. The white of the snow began to mix with encroaching darknes

f my father, his quiet, steady love a distant warmth. I thought of the nursery I had started designing in my head, with soft yellows and pictures of fr

tea. And I was here. The darkness at the edge of my vision closed in, swallowing the last of the light. Th