the stairs. One look at her told him she was in bad shape. “Marti, are you okay?”
“No. Hospital.” She couldn’t move. Every little move hurt.
“What happened?”
“She pushed me down the stairs,” Marti whispered. She couldn’t take a full breath, her back hurt so badly. She had no idea how she’d managed to get up to a sitting position.
“Where do you hurt?”
“Everywhere. My back is hurt and my knee. I think it exploded. I’m pregnant,” she sobbed. “I can’t lose my baby.”
“Are you having any cramps?”
“I can’t tell. The pain in my back is terrible.”
“I have to get you to the car to get you to the hospital.”
“Just pick me up, but keep my leg straight. It hurts to try to bend it.”
He put his arms around her, lifted, and she stifled a scream of pain.
“I’m sorry,” Jimmy said and rushed her out the door.
Jimmy put her into her car and threw her purse in the back seat. He got in the driver’s seat, peeled out of the driveway, and raced to the hospital.
Cameron stood in the bedroom doorway, heard the car leave, and felt torn. He shouldn’t have spoken to Marti that way, but fear for his child overrode his common sense. He hated that she’d left and wanted to go after her, but Shelly needed him and he needed to be sure his baby was okay.
He lowered himself to sit on the bed. She cried softly into her pillow. Her back to him, he rubbed her lower back and told her it would be okay.
“Tell me what happened.” He tried to console her, praying she didn’t lose the baby.
“She attacked me. She doesn’t want me to have our baby. She tried to throw me down the stairs, but I moved away, and she fell instead. She tried to kill our baby.”
“She fell down the stairs?” Cameron’s heart stopped. He froze in shock. He’d been in such a hurry to get to Shelly, make sure his baby was okay, he hadn’t realized Marti might be hurt. Oh God, their baby.
“Yes. I got out of the way before she pushed me down. I couldn’t let her hurt our baby. Oh, Cameron, she’s so jealous you’re marrying me. She tried to hurt us. Our poor baby,” she sobbed.
She was laying it on thick, but she needed to go for broke. She’d gotten up the night before and heard everything Marti said to Cameron. Marti was pregnant, and she dared Cameron to make her take a pregnancy test. Only a matter of time before he demanded she do it. Now she had him thinking Marti tried to hurt her. He wouldn’t forgive her for trying to hurt his baby. She only had to get to Saturday and through the wedding. Nothing else would matter. She’d be Mrs. Shaw and there would be nothing anyone could do about it, baby or no baby.
He saw Marti sitting on the stairs. She wanted to say something to him. He didn’t know she’d fallen. She must have been all right to have peeled out of the driveway the way she did. Still, he pulled out his cell and called her. Voicemail.
Frustrated, he rubbed the back of his neck and let out a frustrated breath. Unable to reach Marti, he focused on the woman beside him. He ran his hand over her hair and down her arm. “Can I get you anything? Maybe we should go to the emergency room and make sure everything is all right with the baby.”
“No, darling. I just need to rest. I’m feeling better and the shock is wearing off. All this stress can’t be good for the baby.” She took his hand and held tight. Her eyes found his and he read the desperation. “She can’t live here with us, Cameron. It just won’t work. What if she tries to hurt me and the baby again?”
“She won’t. I won’t let that happen.”
“Lie down with me. When you’re with me, I feel safe. I’ll be able to rest and that will be best for the baby.”
Unable to deny her such a simple thing, he lay down on the bed behind her and pulled her to his chest and held her. She needed to remain calm. Stress during pregnancy could be detrimental to her health and the baby’s.
His mind wandered to Marti as it always did.
Where is she? Are she and the baby okay?
He had a fleeting thought of Marti falling down the stairs, but he forgot it the moment Shelly moaned and complained