Page 75 of Pretty Little Disaster

“What, now?” He sounds panicked and when I open my eyes, I see how scared he’s looking.

“Yes, now.” I look under my ass and check the couch and sure enough I’m sitting on the huge wet patch. I didn’t imagine it, my waters broke, this is really happening.

I’m in labour and one of my best friends just tried to kill me.

“My waters broke, and the contraaa–” I clutch my stomach when another one hits.

“Nic, these contractions are really close together.” I hear the warning in Madalina’s voice. “We need to get her to a hospital.”

“Baby, how long have you been having these pains? When did your waters break?” Nic fires a ton of questions at me and I shake my head as I focus on breathing through the pain. I noticeVito in his blood-stained shirt dragging Jonah up from the floor and out the door.

“We’ll take care of this, you deal with her.” Dario pats Nic on the back before following his guard out the door.

“Don’t youdarefucking kill him, DeMarco. You leave him for me,” Nic calls out after him, then placing his hand on my shoulder, he starts to breathe with me.

“When this one finishes, we’re going to walk you to the car okay?” he tells me, and I shake my head.

“I don’t think I can move, the pain’s too bad.” I shake my head and start to cry.

“I know how that feels, Lorna, but you want to go to hospital, right?” Madalina speaks softly, though I can tell from the look on her face, and the way she keeps looking at the clock on the wall, that she’s worried.

“He was going to kill us…Gio, ordered it,” I manage to get my words out when I get a break.

“Fuck!” Nic suddenly looks raging. “Mad, run after Dario, tell him to have someone bring in Gio Ferrazza.” He sends her off and looks back at me. “Shall we try standing up?” His attempt to smile only proves that he’s panicking on the inside which makes me smile because, despite all that's happened tonight, he’s here now. Everything’s going to be okay.

“Let's give it a go.” I grip his strong biceps and start to drag myself up but before I can get my legs straight I feel another crippling pain and something weighs heavy between my legs. “Oh fuck!” I look down and my hair gathers round my cheeks and sticks to my face.

“Okay, we’ll just take it steady.” Nic abandons stroking the side of my tummy and pulls my hair back, making real fast work of braiding it out of my way.

“There, just breathe, keep breathing, we’re going to get you to hospital,” he promises.

“No, Nic, it’s coming now, I can feel it.” I steady myself back down on the couch

“Don’t do that baby, come on. Keep moving forward. We’re going to get you to the hospital, there's one ten minutes away, you can wait ten minutes for me, right?”

“Nic. I need to push.” Saying those words makes me feel sick. “I can’t push my baby out here, in Cass’s living room, with no doctors, nurses, or drugs. I had a birth plan. This was not it.” The pain keeps on coming, hardly seeming to fade.

“Mads…” Nic calls for his sister while staring at me and trying to get me to breathe right. “Just focus on breathing andnotpushing,” he tells me firmly, and when Madalina rushes back inside he looks up at her helplessly.

“She says she needs to push.” He shakes his head.

“Okay, then she probably needs to push.” Madalina remains calm as she marches off down Cass’s hallway.

“Wait, where are you going? Mads, she can’t just push, here.” Nic’s eyes follow after her, and when they focus back on me I surprise us both when I start to laugh.

“I’m so glad you're here.” I let relief take over, as I build myself up for the next contraction, knowing that when it comes I’ll have no choice but to ignore his orders and push.

“Oh, Nic!” I grab his arm, when it takes over, squeezing him tight as I push against the pain.

“Lorna, I told you not to do that.” Nic scratches his head and looks out of his depth.

“She really hasn’t got a choice.” Madalina returns with a pile of towels, resting them on the floor between my legs. “You need to take her panties off and take a look.” She rests beside me on the couch and takes hold of my hand.

“An ambulance is on its way, they’ll be here real soon,” she promises.

“I’m so hot in the dress, it’s too tight.” I lean forward, and she unzips the back to loosen it up and as I rest back, she tells me to lift my hips so Nic can assess what's happening.

“I don’t know what I’m looking for.” He peels my panties down my legs.

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