Chapter 1: The Dark Ribbon of Secrets
Adrian bounded up the stairs, his heart hammering against his ribs at the sheer terror in his mother’s voice. He burst through the door, his eyes darting from Eleanor’s ghostly pale face to the bed.
The sight stole the breath from his lungs.
"What did you do to her?!" Adrian roared, instantly assuming his mother’s notorious hostility toward Lila had finally crossed a line.
"I didn't do anything!" Eleanor choked out, dropping the positive pregnancy test onto the blood-stained mattress. "Look at her, Adrian! She’s hemorrhaging!"
Adrian stared at the paper, his mind fracturing. Pregnant? That was impossible. They had been waiting for the wedding night, and last night, exhausted from the reception, Lila had fallen asleep almost immediately. Or so he thought. He grabbed his phone, his hands shaking violently as he dialed 911.
While the ambulance rushed to the estate, Eleanor’s panic shifted into sharp, suspicious clarity. She bent down to pick up the wooden stick she had dropped, but her eyes caught something else under the edge of the bed—an empty, unmarked prescription bottle and a torn piece of a medical report.
Eleanor pieced the words together in her mind: ...severe complications... high risk of internal bleeding... termination required immediately to save maternal life...
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"Adrian," Eleanor whispered, her voice dropping to a chilling register. "She didn't just wake up sick. She knew this was going to happen. Look at the date on this report. It was stamped yesterday morning. Hours before she walked down the aisle."
The room fell into a suffocating silence as the distant wail of sirens began to echo down the driveway. Lila hadn't just been sleeping. She had been bleeding out in secret, hiding a life-or-death crisis from the man she had just sworn to love forever.
