Page 81 of Tech

She’s still living at her apartment, much to Eagle’s dismay. It’s been more than two months, but she’s not ready to wear her cut yet or return to their home. I think a part of her likes being independent again. She’s started going back to school, wanting to continue her training to become a teacher, while continuing to struggle on what to do with her marriage.

At this moment, they’re still dating. She expressed that this is all she’s willing to offer right now, despite being pressured by the old-generation old ladies to come home. She was hurt, and she became someone she didn’t like because of how Eagle treated her over the years. His belief that she could hurt me and her unborn grandchild broke her.

He’s still got a lot of mending to do, and I believe he’ll fix it; she’ll come home, it’ll just take time. James is also trying to mend his relationship with her. Yes, he was angry with her, but he overstepped when he put his hand around her throat, and he knows that. Slowly, she's letting him back in.

Every night, he calls her, and at least twice a week, either with me or on his own, he goes to her apartment for dinner.

She’s opened up to him and explained what it was like for her at the club after she was accused of trapping his dad.

He understood his mother’s reasoning even more so, and his guilt over what he did to her, the names he called her….

My baby moves, snapping me out of my head, and I grin wide, placing my hand over my now very large bump.

I only have six weeks until my due date. Doc was shocked I’d managed to last this long, but this baby is playing ball, staying nice and cozy in my belly where they belong.

My phone pings again, and I sigh. I check it, and I smile a little when I see it’s from my momma. I'm happy she hasn’t just shown up like she used to.

Momma: Dinner tonight with Tech? xx

Momma finally gave me the time to get my head around her invading my privacy. James had words with her, and she backed off, giving me the time to process everything that had happened, and it was a lot.

I needed to prioritize my mental health and heal my relationship with James; I’m surprised he even wanted to still be with me after I kept running from him.

Twitching my nose, I reply ‘yes’ to her and put my phone back on my desk. We haven’t spent much time together, but I try to talk to her at least once a day.

She’s my momma, and I love her, but she needs to understand boundaries, which I think she’s starting to learn with the help of my dad.

I think it doesn’t help that Ollie is still in camp, and Josie has spent most of the summer at her friend’s house. At that age, hanging with her momma is no longer cool, though she still makes sure to spend time with James; he picks her up most days for her swim meets.

Hopefully, when Ollie returns next week and school starts again, Momma will be happy, because her youngest kids will be home distracting her.

With a small smile, I grab my bottle of water from Gracie and take a large drink, grateful that she brings me a bottle every day.

Things are finally starting to look up….

With a silly smile on my face, I bring up Aurora’s file to fill in when, suddenly, a sharp pain shoots through my body. I blink, the words on the screen becoming blurry but my vision doesn’t return, if anything, it gets worse. I start to panic and try to blink the blur away as more pain shoots through my lower abdomen, and I cry out as everything goes black.

I groan, pain roiling in my belly, my head feeling funny. I go to move my hand to clutch it, but it doesn’t move, and I quickly look up to see my hands are chained to a metal post as dizziness takes a hold, making me feel sick.

I ignore the feeling as my breathing speeds up and I try and yank my hands free from the metal, but I end up crying in pain as the feeling of wanting to push hits, shocking me.

Am I in labor?

Another pain shoots through me.

No, no, no, no….

I feel wetness on my legs, and I look down to see blood on my bare legs. I’m in nothing but my black bra.

What…? Christ, no, please!

I blink, trying to think as I look around the dirty room, and it seems like I’m in a warehouse with nothing but piles of boxes around.

The last thing I remember is drinking from the water Gracie gave me, and then pain….

Gracie….

She looked at me like she was guilty of something, and I got a bad feeling, a feeling I decided to push aside.

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