Page 152 of Deceit

His fingers brush away hair from my forehead as he still tightly clutches my hand.

“We’re gonna have babies,” he says, trying to sound excited. “You’ll finally get to meet them.”

My brows furrow in another wave of discomfort as each inhale and exhale causes a tight pain to reside in my belly.

Alexander stabbed me.

The babies.

“Mills,” I whisper, my voice strained. “I need you.”

He nods his head furiously. “I’m here. I’m going to call—“

“No!” I shake my head and squeeze his hand tighter, terror ripping through me as much as the pain. “Listen to me…I don’t have much time.”

“Ems, you’renotgoing to die.” His boyish features harden along with his clenched jaw and I wish I could tell him to chill. “You arenotgoing to—“

“Shut up, and listen.” My stomach clenches at the strain I just put on it from trying to make my voice sound more assertive. “We’re going to need to move quickly.”

“Okay…what do you need—anything.”

“Where is Alexander?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. You didn’t tell me. Do you want me to—“

“Sir, we’re going to need you to leave,” a female voice chimes in between our vital conversation. “Unless the young lady wants you to stay.”

“We need a minute.” My voice doesn’t come out as anything but muttered through my anguish and the kicks from my babies.

Something is wrong, and they’re telling me.

“A minute,” Mills says louder for me. “Two minutes.”

“But sir—“

“You’re wasting my two fucking minutes,” he snaps. She must leave because he bends forward a little to get closer to me. “What do you need, Lou Boo?”

“I need you to be the father on the birth certificate.”

His face contorts. “You need me to do what now?” I hit him with an exasperated and exhausted look. “Um…Ems, I’m not the daddy.”

“I need you to be.”

“Uh…” He averts his eyes from me, looking for something before returning. “We’ll talk about that later. We need to get you—“

“Two minutes, no time. Alexander tried to kill me. He can’t take the kids.”

Mills’s grayish-blues expand then narrow. “What thefuck?” His cell appears in his hand next, and I squeeze his palm tighter, gaining his focus again.

Blackness edges my vision of my best friend, and I try to breathe through my mouth.

“Mills…” My jaw trembles because I can’t control how scared I am.

I did all this wrong.

If something happens to me, I never got to tell Bishop how much I love him.

“I’m here,” Mills quickly asserts. “I’m here, Ems.”

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