Chapter 3

Jessi stalked into the room. "You think you can ruin my life and get away with it?"

Sarah stood up slowly. "Jessi, I haven' t done anything to you."

"Liar!" Jessi screamed. "You humiliated me! You made Alex doubt me!"

"The only person who humiliated you was yourself, with that stunt at the party," Sarah said, her patience wearing thin.

"You' re trying to make me look crazy!" Jessi' s voice was shrill.

She lunged.

This time, it wasn' t a stagey shove for cameras. It was a hard, violent push.

Sarah, caught off guard, stumbled backward, her hip hitting the edge of a console.

A sharp, searing pain shot through her abdomen.

Not now. Please, not now.

She clutched her stomach, a wave of nausea washing over her.

The IVF. Years of trying. The tiny, precious secret she and Michael held.

She was pregnant. Twelve weeks.

"I live with him!" Jessi was yelling, her face contorted. "He' s practically my fiancé! We share everything!"

To the casual listener, it sounded like Jessi lived with Alex. The public would eat it up.

Sarah knew Jessi meant she spent a lot of time at Alex' s place, a place Michael owned, a place Sarah had decorated.

The pain intensified, a terrible cramping.

Sarah gasped, sinking to her knees.

"Oh, playing the victim now?" Jessi sneered, but there was a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes as Sarah crumpled.

"I... I need a doctor," Sarah managed, her voice weak.

The PR guy, Mark, finally rushed in. "Jessi! What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! She' s faking!" Jessi insisted, but her bravado was fading.

Sarah looked up, her face pale.

"I' m pregnant," she whispered, the words barely audible. "You need to get me to a hospital."

The room fell silent, except for Sarah' s ragged breathing.

The pain was a vise, squeezing the life out of her.

Alex, who had apparently been called by a frantic studio intern who witnessed Jessi storming in, burst through the door.

"Sarah! What happened?" He saw her on the floor, his face draining of color.

He rushed to her side, kneeling, his hand instinctively going to her arm.

"I called Dad," Alex said, his voice tight with panic, already pulling out his phone again. "He' s on his way."