I could even hear him over the phone, gently comforting Kate Bennett as she cried over her dead dog.
The exact opposite of how he'd reacted when he heard I was hemorrhaging.
For me, that contrast hurt worse than the pain itself.
Meryl couldn't hold back. She tore into Bartholomew right then and there: "Kate just lost a dog, and look at you groveling like a servant! Anyone who didn't know better would think the two of you gave birth to that mutt! Bartholomew, go to hell!"
In my most helpless moment, only Meryl stayed by my side.
She carried me on her back, her small, thin body straining under my weight.
Every step was clumsy and labored, but with each one she was racing death itself on my behalf.
I never once imagined that, of everyone in my life with no blood tie to me, the person who cared about me most would be my best friend.
In the end, she dragged me all the way to the hospital.
By some stroke of luck I kept my life, but the price was that she lost her own child.
Meryl's condition was a little less severe than mine, and after her surgery she stayed right beside me.
I buried my face against her, the tears falling and refusing to stop.
"Meryl, I'm so sorry," I said, sick with guilt. "I'm the reason you lost your baby."
Seeing me cry, she rubbed my back to soothe me. "Don't go piling every fault on yourself. This was never on you. It's the fault of those three good-for-nothings joined at the hip!"
Meryl had the sharpest tongue of any friend I'd ever had, and she was just hitting her stride when her surgeon husband called.
"Meryl, what did you just call my brother on the phone? My brother's a lawyer. The Bar Association rules are crystal clear: once an attorney accepts a client, he can't refuse to represent them without good cause. How old are you two? Can't you act like reasonable adults?"
"A miscarriage, a divorce. You'll stoop to lies this shameless, all just to keep the two of us chained to your apron strings? Is that the only thing that'll satisfy you?"
"You tell Zelda to learn when to stop. Keep this up, and she'd better watch out that she doesn't get burned playing with fire."
Walter hung up, still cursing under his breath, and Meryl was shaking with rage.
I said softly, "It's fine. No clinging, no explaining, no fighting. At least this way we keep the last shred of our dignity."
My words about dignity couldn't stop the two of us from crying in a way that was anything but dignified.
We wept in each other's arms, and every hurt we'd swallowed over these past few years finally broke loose all at once, like a levee giving way to a flood.
The truth was, we'd known all along it would end like this.
From the moment at the engagement party when Kate slipped the ring meant for my finger onto her own instead, I should have seen this day coming.
The ring had been custom-sized to my finger, so once it was on hers, it wouldn't come off.
I'd angrily demanded to know why she would do that, and she burst into tears, apologizing, insisting she hadn't meant to.
She even started wailing that she'd cut off her own finger before she'd let it ruin my engagement party.
That teary, pitiful display sent Bartholomew into a fury.
"It's just a wedding ring. If you want one, I'll buy you another. But is it really necessary to torment Kate like this? You think she did it on purpose? Now you want her to cut off her own finger? Zelda, how did I never see before what a heartless woman you are?"
I shot back, "Bartholomew, she's the one who said she'd cut off her finger."
"If you hadn't pushed her so hard, would Kate ever have gotten to that point? Kate grew up with me. I know exactly what kind of person she is: kind, generous, and proud. She's practically my own little sister, and she'll be your sister too. Why would you push your own sister like this?"
Kate was the one who'd ruined my engagement party, yet by the time it came out of Bartholomew's mouth, somehow I was the one in the wrong.
