When I opened my eyes, I was in the hospital.
The first thing I noticed was the beeping, the rhythmic sound of a machine hooked up to my own heart rate, going off about once every second.
Groaning, I looked around. Lisa was sitting there, and the next thing I knew she was holding my hand.
“Mikki. Oh Mikki, I’m so glad you’re awake!”
I tried to reply to her, but I think it came out as nothing more than just a grunt.
Every inch of my body was sore. My stomach, especially, felt like someone had gutted it.
Suddenly, everything came flooding back, and a wave of dread fell over me.
Surely not.
“My baby,” I managed to whisper. “Lise, how’s my baby?”
The completely crestfallen look my best friend gave to me told me everything I needed to know.
Before I knew what was happening, tears were streaming down my face. I looked down at my stomach. No. No, this couldn’t be happening.
I couldn’t have lost the baby.
“I’m sorry, Mikki. You had a miscarriage. There was nothing anyone could do.”
Tears streamed silently down my face. I didn’t have the energy to sob, but I knew that would come.
My baby. My beautiful, smart, perfect little baby was gone.
I didn’t even get a chance to find out the sex.
Oh, God. Why had this happened? Why had I lost this child, this perfect child that I’d chosen to have, despite not having planned on it.
I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and it had nothing to do with my other injuries.
“What happened?” I finally managed to ask Lisa.
“Tom attacked you.”
“Did you get my text?”
“What text?”
“I texted you, asking for help.”
Lisa gave me a funny look, then pulled out her phone. She fiddled with it for a moment, and then handed it to me. It was a video.
“One of the news networks got this before the cops managed to pull the tape for themselves. Apparently the super’s sister works for a news agency, and he decided to give her a break. It’s the attack on you. Only watch it if you think you can handle it.”
I nodded. I knew I could handle it. I had to. I had to see the last moments of my baby’s life before it was snatched away by a psychopathic ex of mine, a man that would forever go down as the person I hated more than anyone else on the planet.
Taking a deep breath, I pressed the big play button.
The video that appeared on screen was grainy, the same kind of quality you get when you see most gas station security cameras. The camera was down the hall. Tom’s back was to it, but you could see him coming towards me.
Behind him I was pressed against the wall. It didn’t take a psychologist to realize that I was completely petrified. I clutched at my stomach as Tom moved forward and punched me. I closed my eyes for a second, remembering the sickening sound of his fist against my face, then opened my eyes again.
I had to see this.
I wanted to see what had happened, with my own eyes.
The second blow knocked my head against the far wall and it was obvious I had passed out. As I lay there unconscious, Tom began to kick me. In the face, at first. But it was when he moved down to my stomach that the tears began to flow.
This was it. This was the moment that he murdered my baby.
Suddenly, someone else came into view. Even in the grainy picture of the screen, I could tell it was Jaret. There was no one else it could be.
In a flash he was on top of Tom. He grabbed him, forced him off me, and punched him in the face. Blood was noticeable spurting from Tom’s nose as he tried to fight back, but he was no match against my stepbrother. I had no idea just how strong Jaret was until he handled my ex, a man who had beaten me black and blue more times than I could count, like he was no more than a young teenager, a kid who didn’t know how to handle himself.
I gasped as I watched my stepbrother beat Tom half to death. For a moment I wondered if he’d killed Tom, if in his rage he’d actually gone so far as to completely kill another human being.
Then, finally, Jaret stopped. He stood over the top of Tom, gave him one last kick in the face, then turned to me.
Grabbing my phone off the ground, he immediately made a call. I assumed it was 9-1-1.
It was almost surreal, watching Jaret hold my hand, trying to make sure everything was fine while at the same time making sure not to move me. Where on earth had he learned basic first aid like that?
Finally, the tape stopped. Wordlessly, I handed it back to Lisa.
“So I didn’t text you?” I asked. She shook her head.
“No. You texted your stepbrother. In your phone, he was right under me in ‘messages’, so you must have pressed the phone a bit lower than you thought. I didn’t know you were close.”
“We’re not that close. But he’s in town, so I’ve been sending him texts lately.”
Ok, so only half of that was a lie. And I knew Lisa could tell.
“Really? Because when he came here, he refused to leave your side until I asked the doctor and he implied that you lost the baby.”
“Oh God. What did he do then?”
“He just walked out, without a word. I haven’t seen him since. That was six hours ago.”
“Shit.”
“He’s the baby’s father, isn’t he?”
“What?” I looked at Lisa, stunned. I wasn’t even faking it, I honestly had no idea how she’d come to that conclusion. I mean, she was right, of course, but how on earth had she figured it out.
“It’s pretty obvious.”
“Wait. Before we have this conversation, I need to know. What happened to Tom?”
“He’s in surgery. Your stepbrother really did a number on him. Honestly, looking at the tape, I’m not sure he’ll get through it. If Jaret hadn’t stopped when he did, I guarantee you that guy would have been taken out of the apartment in a body bag, not an ambulance.”
“I wish he had finished him off,” I muttered to myself. It was true. I wish Tom was dead. I wished he could have gone through exactly what my baby had gone through, that he had suffered the same fate.
“I know, sweetie. It’s going to be ok,” Lisa told me, taking my hand. “Now tell me about Jaret.”
“How do you know his name?”
“We spent eleven hours here together sitting with you, there was a bit of small talk.”
“Holy shit, eleven hours. That means that if he left six hours ago you’ve been here for almost eighteen hours? Oh my God, Lisa. Go home! Sleep! I’ll be ok, I promise!”
Lisa laughed in reply. “Don’t worry, I have so much practice staying up late from pre-med, this is nothing. Anyway, we’re getting away from the topic. Why didn’t you tell me you knew who the father of your baby was?”
I sighed. “Can you really blame me, seeing who it is?”
Lisa smiled. “I guess not. But I’m your best friend!”
“I know. And I love you! But I seriously thought you’d be disgusted by me and refuse to talk to me ever again if I told you. Hell, I’m still not sure that isn’t where this is going.”
“Of course it’s not! So you’re in a relationship with someone you’re not a blood relative with. So what?”
“Oh God, we’re not in a relationship!” I exclaimed. “We slept together. Twice. Once before we even knew our parents were going to get married.”
“Well either way. I wasn’t going to end our friendship over your choice of guys. For the love of God, Mikki, literally anyone who didn’t beat you was always going to be a better choice of boyfriend than Tom.”
“I sure do know how to pick ‘em,” I replied blandly.
I missed my baby. I really, really wanted to meet him or her. Her. I was sure she was a girl.
Tom had killed my little baby girl.
“Come here, you,” Lisa replied, and hugged me gently. Still, a sharp pain in my side made me gasp and pull away.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked Lisa at last.
“Your rib’s broken. That’s the pain in your side. Also, your eye socket is broken. You can’t see it, but you have the biggest black eye ever. It’s really sexy. Luckily, that IV is feeding you morphine, so you can’t feel it. I don’t suggest touching your left eye though. For like, the next few weeks at least. Honestly, you came out of that beating about as well as could be expected. No internal damage, or anything major. Apart from the two broken bones just a few cuts and scrapes.”
“It’s nothing compared to what he did to my baby,” I whispered, feeling the tears welling up inside of me once more.
“I know,” Lisa replied, calmly stroking my hand with a pained look on her face. I knew she was hurting for me too.
Suddenly, the door to my room opened and a peppy looking nurse in scrubs came hopping in.
“Oh, Michaela, it’s so good to see you awake!” she exclaimed as she grabbed my chart and started looking down it. “Lisa here has been sitting by your side since you came in, along with your brother.”
“Stepbrother,” I corrected, then smiled. “Thanks,”
“No problem! I’m Kayla, I’ll be around for the next few hours, if you need anything just press that button on the side of your bed and I’ll come by!”
“Will do. Thanks Kayla,” I replied as she bounded out of the room, almost as quickly as she came in.
“Oh, and I’ll bring you lunch in about an hour,” she continued, quickly popping her head back in the door.
“Great, hospital food,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes.
“It’s entirely as bad as everyone makes it out to be here, too,” Lisa told me. “I had dinner at the cafeteria last night and it was practically inedible.”
“Fantastic. Do you want to sneak out and get me something that won’t make me want to puke later? I’d owe you everything.”
Lisa laughed. “No problem. I’m gonna go do it myself, my breakfast was two kit kat bars from the vending machine, there’s no way I’m having another meal here.”
“Breakfast of champions.”
“Absolutely.”
Just then there was a short rap on the door. I looked up and Lisa turned to see Jaret standing there. He looked rough. Lisa had gone eighteen hours without sleep and looked like she was ready to go out to a charity dinner or something. Jaret, on the other hand, did not.
His eyes were bloodshot, his sweatshirt covered in dried blood. He obviously hadn’t shaved in a while. The worst part was even in this discheveled state he was still hotter than basically anybody else in this whole hospital, sexy doctors included. How the hell could one person be so genetically gifted?
Our daughter would have been gorgeous if she’d taken after him.
God, how I wished I could have seen her.
“I’ll go get lunch now. Jaret, I’ll get something for you too,” Lisa told us, getting up off her chair.
“Thanks,” Jaret told her, flashing her a small smile as she left the room. He came and sat down where Lisa had been only a minute earlier.