Chapter 2

2: 2

"Ivy Pruitt, what exactly are you playing at? Pregnant in this heat and you still couldn't sit still, dragging yourself off to the water park to make trouble! Fine, throw your own life away, but you had to go and ruin Irvin's work too!"

"I wasn't throwing anything away! Irvin promised Nina he'd take her. He didn't show."

I leaned against the cold headboard of the hospital bed, aching everywhere.

"So he didn't go! You still called him a hundred times to make him!"

"What Irvin calls work was handing out flyers with Ellie Henson!"

Her voice dropped, sliding into that coaxing tone.

"How many times have I told you, Ellie is different. This whole family has to treat her well. You're his wife, you can't go around getting jealous over nothing."

The same speech, again.

From the day I married in, I'd heard it: she's different, you have to give way to her.

So Ellie only had to murmur that she felt dizzy, and Irvin would drop our anniversary and drive across the city overnight to bring her medicine.

A table of food reheated three or four times, and my mother-in-law still said I was making a fuss over some pointless sense of occasion.

I ran a fever of a hundred and two, burning up all over, and little Nina begged Irvin to help,

and Irvin said, "Just give your mom some hot water, she'll be fine."

And my mother-in-law still made excuses for him:

"Irvin isn't a doctor. You think you'd get better just because he came? Take a cab to the hospital yourself! It's not like you don't have arms and legs."

On the other end of the line, she kept listing everything I'd done wrong.

I couldn't hold back the sharp pain in my chest any longer, and my voice rose:

"Mom, these are things you should be saying to them!"

The words landed, and the flood of accusations on the other end stopped.

In an instant, not a sound.

I didn't wait for the second wave. I hung up.

My chest still hadn't settled when the hospital-room door was kicked open hard, and the IV bag over my head swung violently.

Irvin strode in and threw a stuffed toy onto my bed.

It was the lowest-tier prize from Ellie's event, the one you could redeem after collecting ten likes.

"Redeemed it for Nina."

Yesterday the collar he gave Ellie's dog was gold.

I opened my mouth to speak, and Irvin came down on me with a torrent of blame:

"Ivy Pruitt! What did you say to Mom? You upset her so badly she fainted! You're going home to apologize properly."

"There's no need for that."

I moved to pull out Nina's death certificate.

He yanked the hospital blanket off me.

"Caused all this and now you're playing sick, is that it."

Ellie saw her moment and stepped half a pace closer:

"Irvin, it's all my fault, all of it. It's because I asked you for help today. I got in the way of your family, I made your wife angry."

Then she lifted her hands to cover her face, her shoulders shaking hard, tears spilling down:

"If I'd known it would come to this, I should have gone with Mom and Dad in the earthquake back then. I shouldn't have clung to life and become a burden to you, shouldn't have made your wife unhappy, shouldn't have thrown this family into turmoil…"

I pulled my lips into a smile, pale and bitter:

"You're right, it's because of you that this family fell apart. You managed it."

She paused for a second, then dropped her head and began sobbing softly, all wounded.

Irvin's eyes cut to me, sharp, then turned to soothe Ellie:

"Don't worry. I promised your mother I'd look after you, and I'll see it through to the end."

He turned back to me, his eyes cold as ice:

"Ivy Pruitt, don't push your luck just because you're pregnant!"

Irvin reached up and gently wiped Ellie's tears away, the motion soft, doting.

Ellie lowered her eyes to me on the bed, and there wasn't a trace of hurt in them, only a challenge.

I leaned back against the bed, staring at the two of them with hollow eyes, not the least bit angry.

I only hated myself for swallowing it all, for staying with a man as clueless as Irvin.

Nina was gone. The unborn child was gone too.

Maybe my silence was too strange, or maybe Irvin had finally noticed something wrong in my face.