Chapter 2

Really?

I didn't believe him.

It was going to be like every other time. A slap on the wrist.

I thought about all the years of Fiona trying to ruin my life.

The suicide threat that made him cancel our first date. Slamming her body into my pregnant belly to make me miscarry. Locking herself in the bathtub and slitting her wrists on the day I went into labor so he'd have to leave the medical wing.

Every single time Damien said, "Fiona doesn't know better. She has no one. She's still young. I'm all she has left. That's why she lashes out. I'll talk to her."

But Fiona didn't see him as family. She'd drugged herself with an aphrodisiac and crawled into his bed.

A month ago I finally couldn't take it. I tried to fly overseas with Evelyn. The plane hadn't even taken off when Damien got to the airport and forced the flight to hold.

He knelt at the gate, eyes red, begging me to come home. I remembered the good years. I softened. I went home.

And now?

Now Damien had rammed my car again for Fiona. Kept me from going to the Council. Threatened my brother. And he thought he was in the right.

I looked at the photos and saw the pit opening up under me.

Our daughter was still in ICU. Alive or dead, no one knew. I couldn't lose my brother too.

My chest was tearing open. I couldn't make a sound. My lips were shaking. The tears wouldn't stop.

"All right. I won't file."

Damien's eyes softened. The corner of his mouth lifted.

"Sel, I knew you'd understand."

"Let's do a proper celebration for our Marking anniversary, something big. All right?"

He sounded moved. His eyes were warm. Like he really did carry me at the center of his heart.

But I felt nothing. Only cold.

That night, weak from surgery, I dragged myself to the ICU ward.

My daughter hadn't woken up. Tubes ran all over her body. Her small face under the oxygen mask was pale as paper.

I sat beside the bed and took her hand, and the tears dripped onto the back of it.

"Baby… wake up…"

"Mommy won't let anyone hurt you again."

I didn't sleep that night.

The next afternoon, Fiona showed up at the ward in a black dress, holding a bouquet of moonbells, a fake smile on her face.

"Sister-in-law, I came to apologize to the pup."

I shot to my feet. "Get out."

I hated her and I feared her at the same time. I was afraid she'd snap again and hurt my daughter.

Fiona pretended to be confused. "Sister-in-law, I really do know I was wrong. I lost control that day, I scared myself too. I didn't mean to. Let me in, please? I just want to say one thing to her. Just one."

I shook all over. I stood in front of my daughter's bed and shouted.

"I said get out. What right do you have to apologize? Evie almost died. 'I didn't mean to' doesn't pay for that."

Damien came in too. He stood in the doorway and frowned at me. "Sel, Fiona really is sorry."

"She cried all the way to the medical wing. She bought her favorite flowers. She wanted to apologize in person. You can't keep shutting her out like this…"

My heart went cold.

"Damien, did you forget? Evie is allergic to moonbells. Fiona bringing those now is just another way to hurt her."

Damien went quiet. Fiona kept stepping closer, eyes wet, like she was trying not to cry.

"I just picked what I liked. I didn't think about it. I swear I didn't mean anything by it. Please forgive me."

She reached for me.

I stepped back and knocked her hand away.

She slipped and fell to the floor, her skirt spreading around her, a hurt look on her face.

"Selene!" Damien frowned and walked over to help her up. "You're being impulsive. She came to apologize. Why did you have to hit her?"

"She's already humbled herself to you. Are you really this cold?"

I laughed. "She humbles herself and I have to forgive her? Damien, our daughter is in there breathing through a machine, and now I'm the cold one?"

Fiona sobbed and clutched his sleeve. "Big brother, it's all my fault…"

"I was just so scared. I didn't mean to hurt her. I just—"

"Just held a five-year-old's head under water?" I cut her off. "Fiona, do you understand you tried to murder her?"

Fiona's hand tightened. Her face changed.

"Selene," Damien's tone dropped. "Stop. Fiona has been punished enough. She's had nightmares for days. She's suffered."

I almost choked on a word back to him. Then I saw something twist in Fiona's face.

She stood up. Her eyes swept the room and locked onto my daughter's oxygen line.

"So she's just a pup. I said sorry. What else do you want from me?"

"Attempted murder, ha. Selene, you think you can make me beg? Dream on."

"You bitch."

Fiona lunged and reached for the oxygen line.

I threw myself in front of her and shoved her back, screaming, "No!"

Half the line pulled loose. A nurse rushed in. I collapsed onto the bed, shielding my daughter.

Fiona was still thrashing, screaming. "She's just a drag on you. I've wanted her gone. Why can't you forgive me? You've turned my brother against me."

She swung at me. I blocked her with my arm. Then her foot drove into my stomach.

I flew back and hit the monitor cart.

A sharp pain shot from my belly. Blood rushed out of me.

I looked down and saw red.

"Healer! Nurse! Quick!"

"She's pregnant!"