Chapter 1 - The Darkest Hour
The cold bathroom tile chilled my skin, but inside, my body was a furnace of pain.
Every contraction felt like a vise squeezing my hips into dust. Outside the heavy oak door, the organ swelled into a joyful rendition of the processional march. Two hundred guests were standing up, turning their heads to watch Claire walk down the aisle in her white lace gown, blissfully unaware that her sister-in-law was bleeding on the floor of the bridal suite.
“Daniel...” I gasped, my forehead pressed against the base of the porcelain sink. “Please, God, Daniel...”
My voice didn't carry. The bridal suite was located in a private wing of Willow Creek Estate, isolated behind double soundproof doors so the bride could prepare in total peace. Nora had chosen this venue specifically for its privacy. Now, that privacy was my sentence.
Another contraction rippled through me—harder, longer, and accompanied by a sickening pressure that made me scream into my forearm to keep from losing consciousness. The baby was coming. Lily was thirty-four weeks along, far too early to be born without medical intervention in a locked room.
I have to get out, I thought, my instincts taking over the fog of pain. I have to save my baby.
I dragged myself onto my hands and knees, my blue dress soaked in amniotic fluid and sweat. I reached for the brass towel rack mounted to the wall, gritting my teeth as I pulled myself upward. The metal groaned under my weight. With a desperate, animalistic grunt, I slammed my shoulder against the bar until it snapped off the drywall with a shower of plaster dust.
Heavy brass in hand, I staggered toward the locked door.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Help!” I screamed, hitting the solid oak panel with the metal bar until my wrists ached. “Somebody help me! I’m in labor! Help!”
Through the thick wood, the music played on. The bass notes vibrated through the floorboards, drowning out my cries. I hit the door again and again, leaving deep dents in the polished mahogany, but nobody came. Nora had taken my phone. The room had no windows—only a small glass skylight ten feet above my head, showing the darkening gray sky of a Tennessee evening.
My legs gave out. I collapsed back onto the floor, clutching my stomach as another violent wave of contractions tore through my body.
“Lily, please,” I sobbed, tears spilling hot down my cheeks. “Hold on, baby. Mommy's trying. Mommy's trying.”
Suddenly, I heard footsteps in the outer suite—quick, muffled, and hesitant.
“Avery?” a voice called out.
It wasn't Daniel. It was Paige, Daniel’s twenty-two-year-old younger sister.
“Paige!” I shrieked, crawling toward the bottom of the door. “Paige, unlock the door! Nora locked me in! The baby is coming!”
A long, terrifying silence followed.
“Paige, please!” I begged, my voice breaking into a ragged sob. “I’m bleeding! Lily is coming early! You have to unlock the door!”
“Mom... Mom said you were just throwing a fit because you were jealous of Claire,” Paige’s voice trembled from the other side, sounding confused and frightened. “She gave me the key and told me to keep watch so you wouldn't crash the photos.”
“She lied to you!” I screamed, slamming my hand against the wood. “My water broke, Paige! Look under the door! Look at the fluid!”
I heard a small gasp as Paige dropped to her knees. A second later, the brass key rattled violently in the lock. The tumbler clicked.
The door swung open. Paige stood there, dressed in her soft lavender bridesmaid gown, her eyes going wide with absolute horror as she took in the scene: the plaster dust, the broken metal bar, the pool of fluid on the floor, and me, pale and shivering, clutching my stomach.
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“Oh my God,” Paige whispered, dropping the key onto the floor. “Oh my God, Avery!”
“Get... Daniel,” I gasped, clutching her arm as another contraction doubled me over. “Get an ambulance... now!”
