Chapter 2 - THE DEMAND
Patricia transformed the backyard into a pastel battlefield.
Blue balloons floated over one side of the pool. Pink balloons over the other. Two dessert tables. Two diaper cakes. Matching chairs with SAVANNAH and BRIANNA in wooden script.
Savannah hated all of it.
Especially the way Patricia kissed Brianna first.
Brianna wore a pink maternity dress and the expression of someone who believed the day existed to confirm her importance. Savannah wore blue and kept one hand on her belly as if she could physically shield her child from the family.
Robert handed Savannah a glass of lemonade.
“You look tense.”
“I wonder why.”
He smiled without warmth.
“Please don’t embarrass your mother.”
Olivia Mercer, an old college friend and now a labor-and-delivery nurse, arrived late and squeezed Savannah’s hand.
“You okay?”
“Ask me in an hour.”
The gifts started. Then the games. Then Patricia clinked her glass.
“I just want to say how proud I am of my girls.”
Savannah almost relaxed.
Then Patricia continued, “And how important it is for family to share blessings when one sister needs more help than the other.”
There it was.
Brianna lowered her eyes in practiced sadness.
Patricia reached beneath the gift table and slapped a printed statement onto Savannah’s lap.
Baby Fund Balance: $18,000.
“Give Brianna your eighteen-thousand-dollar baby fund.”
Every conversation around the pool stopped.
Savannah looked up slowly.
“No.”
Patricia blinked as if hearing a foreign language.
“No?”
Savannah pushed the paper back.
“That money is for my baby.”
Brianna rolled her eyes.
“God, you’re so selfish.”
The familiar sentence hit harder than it used to.
Savannah turned toward her.
“Selfish is asking for my child’s money at my baby shower.”
Patricia’s face changed.
“She deserves it more than you.”
Savannah laughed once, pure disbelief.
“Why?”
“Because she needs support.”
“And I don’t?”
“You always land on your feet.”
There it was again—strength used as punishment.
Savannah stood carefully.
“I’m leaving.”
Patricia moved faster than she had in years.
“She deserves it more than you!”
Then Patricia lunged.
Her hand drove hard into Savannah’s abdomen.
Pain exploded through her belly.
Savannah gasped.
“My baby—”
She stumbled backward, heels skidding against wet stone.
Robert took one step forward.
Not to help.
Only to avoid being touched as she fell.
Savannah’s back foot found empty air.
Then the world vanished in blue.
Pool water crashed over her head.
Cold. Weight. Silence.
She sank harder than she expected, dress ballooning around her legs. Her body tried to curl around the pain in her stomach.
Above the water, sound came blurred and monstrous.
She opened her eyes to sunlight shaking on the surface.
And saw silhouettes leaning over the pool.
Not jumping in.
Watching.
Then, through the water, she heard Robert’s voice.
“Leave her there.”
May you like
Savannah kicked upward.
But the pain in her abdomen shot through her so sharply that for one terrible second she thought she might not rise at all.
