Page 4 of Bae

“I’m taking a shower. Want me to wash your toes?”

“I can reach my own toes,” I told him.

“It’s good practice for in a few months, when you can’t,” he rebutted and jumped out of bed.

“I’ll be there in a few,” I called out as he disappeared into our massive adjoining bathroom.

I smiled to myself and sat up, dangling my feet over the side of the bed. I was only wearing a black lace bralette with a pair of matching boy shorts. Romeo liked seeing my barely-there belly, so I pretty much slept with it on display now.

I padded across the soft rug beneath our bed as I pushed at my knotted, messy hair. I felt stiff and sore this morning. I must have slept wrong. A warm shower would be like heaven.

The shower was on and steam was rising up from behind the glass doors as I moved past it and toward the water closet (that’s a private room for the toilet). Romeo was standing at the sink, naked, with a toothbrush in his mouth and grinned, toothpaste all over his lips.

I laughed and shut myself in the small room.

It was then that life as I knew it changed.

Another surprise thrown my way… It was the kind that made me recall why I never used to like them.

Fear so raw pelted me it felt as if I were being physically ripped in half. It almost overshadowed the pain I noted in my body.

The pain that wasnotfrom sleeping wrong.

With unsteady hands, I finished up and stood there in the center of the room, hearing a loud buzzing sound fill my ears. I pushed past it, knowing I couldn’t succumb even though I wanted to.

I flung open the tiny door and wobbled out into the bathroom.

Romeo was standing at the shower, with the glass door in his palm.

“Come on, slow poke.” He called over his shoulder and threw me one of his trademark grins.

It died instantly on his lips. “Rim?”

He abandoned the door, and it swayed open behind him as he turned fully toward me.

I opened my mouth, but it didn’t work. I tried again.

“Rimmel,” he said, coming toward me, grasping me by the shoulders.

Cramping pain sliced through my lower half, and I whimpered and slumped toward him. He caught me, holding me back so he could look into my face.

“Something’s wrong, Romeo,” I managed.

I felt warmth between my legs and glanced down. Two rivulets of blood trailed down the inside of my thighs.

I started to cry, but not one sound came out of me.

I don’t know much about what happened next. Romeo was there, our entire family was. I vaguely remember the sound of him shouting orders and the sound of the Hellcat’s revving engine.

The memory that is clearest to me about the morning our happily-ever-after gave way to a budding nightmare was when the buzzing sound between my ears faded away and I was left sitting in a hospital bed.

And then there were two…

Pickle was gone before we even got to meet her.

Turns out Daddy might have been big enough for the both of them… but Mommy?

Mommy was the weak one.

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