Chapter 1

When we started playing truth or dare, I drew the card.

I was six months pregnant.

The little childhood sweetheart set the dare. "Do you dare climb that tree?"

If I refused, I had to down three drinks.

But I was pregnant. I couldn't drink.

And a pregnant woman climbing a tree...

I looked at my husband for help. He only spoke, cold and flat.

"It's just a tree. Nobody's telling you to go all the way up. Climb a little, humor us, that's enough."

So a whole crowd stood around me, taking pictures, forcing me up the tree.

Halfway up, my hands were scraped raw.

They said I couldn't stop.

Two-thirds of the way up.

Then, suddenly, blood began pouring out of me.

I cried and begged. "Please! Someone call an ambulance..."

But not one person below me moved.

"You really thought climbing a tree would make you miscarry?"

The little sweetheart doubled over laughing.

"It's your husband who doesn't want that bastard in your belly."

"There was a miscarriage drug in the soup you just drank."

"As for why we made you climb the tree? Your husband just wanted to grant my wish. I wanted to watch you make a fool of yourself!"

They ignored my agonized begging.

Giggling and laughing, they moved on to the next round.

The little sweetheart drew the card, and my husband asked with a smile, "Do you dare kiss me in front of everyone?"

The words had barely left his mouth before she threw herself into his arms.

"You asked if I dare?"

"This is your answer."

In that moment, my heart died along with the child inside me.

1

The blood beneath me kept flowing down.

It soaked the white hem of my dress red.

The two of them clung to each other, kissing like they couldn't bear to part.

The people around them egged them on.

"So wild, kissing like this right in front of his wife. You two really have some nerve."

"You call this nerve?"

"They've been playing like this since college."

"Don't you remember, back when Fergus Summers and his wife first got together, Nadia Pruitt was booking hotel rooms with him behind her back."

"They've been sleeping together since they were kids, after all. How could some ordinary little couple compare?"

"And besides, his wife's pregnant. Men, you know how it is..."

The last of the strength drained from my hands. I couldn't hold the trunk anymore, and I fell, crashing to the ground.

A dull thud against the dirt.

That pack of hangers-on drew back.

Someone sucked in a sharp breath.

"A fall like that. Losing the baby's the least of it."

"What if she actually dies?"

"Maybe we should just call the police?"

"Call the police for what?"

Someone cut him off with a sneer.

"The person it's happening to isn't even worried. What are you panicking about, you eunuch?"

Laughter broke out all around.

The man went quiet.

And I forced myself through the pain, gritting my teeth as I looked at Fergus.

Nadia had her legs wrapped around his waist.

The two of them were locked together in that intimate hold.

So lost in it that they hadn't noticed a single thing happening over here.

The pain in my belly grew worse.

Trembling, I reached out my hand, begging that crowd of onlookers.

"Call an ambulance for me. Please, I'm begging you."

"My baby..."

The others stepped back, terrified of getting tangled up with me and offending Fergus.

Only one boy pulled out his phone.

"I'll call for you."

Before he could even dial 911, Nadia slapped the phone out of his hand.

"What ambulance? I've already got a private doctor ready for her."

Nadia clapped her hands, and a private doctor in a white coat walked over.

But the buttons on the coat were done up wrong, one out of line.

The man had a shifty, rat-like look, clearly not much of a professional.

Someone joked.

"Nadia, you really know how to have fun!"

"Bringing in a fake doctor. Isn't this the guy who stole your bag last time..."

Nadia shot him a glare, and he shut up at once.

"My mistake. Carry on, everyone."

Nadia gave the doctor a look, and he stepped forward to examine me.

He groped around at random, then made a fist and coughed twice.

"The baby can't be saved. How about I give you a shot for the pain, write you a prescription?"

"Women are all like this. Miscarriage is a perfectly normal thing, isn't it? Suffering a little is only right."

Even Fergus frowned at that.

"Nadia, is this doctor of yours reliable?"

Nadia's face soured instantly, and she pushed out her lips.

"What? You don't trust me?"

"You think I'd actually hurt your wife?"

"After all, you're the one who put the miscarriage drug in the lamb stew and made her drink it."

"If we really called an ambulance now, wouldn't all that be for nothing?"

Nadia's lips were still a little red and swollen.

Her eyes were still soft and heavy.

"It's her own fault, always playing the pitiful little thing in front of you."

"I just wanted her to suffer a bit. Teach her a lesson."

Fergus tapped the tip of her nose.

"You and your mischief."

Fergus turned his head and glanced at me on the ground, covered in blood.

There was nothing in that look. No feeling at all.

Like he was looking at a rag someone had tossed on the floor.

"Fine. We'll do it your way."

"If the baby can't be saved, it doesn't matter."

"Just don't let Paige Henson die on us."