For the next few hours the ward stayed strangely quiet. Tim didn't come back, and Harper didn't show up either.
I leaned against the headboard, staring blankly at the ceiling, until the night deepened and drowsiness finally crept over me.
My vision blurred, and there was Harper, a sharp knife clutched in her hand, driving it straight at my belly.
I jerked upright and grabbed her wrist, the one holding the knife. As we wrestled we slammed into the cabinet by the bed, and glass medicine bottles shattered across the floor.
Harper's eyes were vicious.
"You actually think you can marry Tim?"
"Don't think that having a baby means you get to marry him! Aiden is my child with him. He will never marry you!"
I clamped down on her wrist and pushed with everything I had to shove her away.
Then I threw all my strength into one kick.
Her legs gave out and she went down on the floor.
Tim heard the noise and came back. He saw Harper, hair a mess, a cut on her face, and pulled her behind him.
She cried and accused me. "Tim, I only came to see my sister, and not only did she not appreciate it, she tried to kill me."
"I know she's heartbroken about the problem with her baby, but how could she do this?"
Her tears looked genuine, but when she looked at me the malice in her eyes could barely stay hidden.
Tim looked at me, his eyes cold. "I never imagined you could be this vicious."
Then, ignoring the fact that I was pregnant, he grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the ward.
"Tim."
"Shut up." He hauled me out the back door, down a stretch of muddy path, and stopped in front of a row of low walls.
The air was thick with the smell of livestock.
It was a pigpen.
He pushed open the fence gate. Inside, a few pigs startled and crowded together, grunting, splashing muddy water everywhere.
His voice shook, and he wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You're not thinking straight. I had no choice but to do this to make you calm down. Once you've calmed down, I'll take you back."
He shoved me in. I stumbled, catching myself with a palm against the fence, all wet mud.
He shut the gate, and the latch dropped with a click.
I stood there in the mud of the pigpen, watching his back.
The night wind blew in, carrying the stench with it.
I looked down at my swollen belly and laid my hand over it, gently, gently. No, I had to find a way out.
I braced against the fence and pulled myself up, the mud on my hands running down through my fingers.
"Tim, you're leaving me in here? This is a pigpen."
"Tim! I'm still carrying your child."
His steps paused, and he glanced back at me.
"Child?"
He gave a small laugh, walked up to me, stroked my face, and wiped away my tears.
"It's just an embryo. It doesn't count as a child."
