Chapter 43: Chase

My body responds with an electric jolt, and I’m on my feet at the bathroom door in the space of a heartbeat. "Liv?"

Her voice is choked with panic when she answers. "I’m bleeding."

My own panic thrums through my chest, metallic and whirring. I’ve read enough pregnancy books by this point to know that this is really, really bad. And all I want to do is rush in there and cradle her in my arms and also call 9-1-1 and also just fix it, because that’s what I do, I show up to a scene and fix things.

That’s what I do.

And then a calm settles over me—not as detached as it would be on a call, but still rational, still capable and in control. I can handle an emergency. I’m an expert at emergencies, actually, and it’s never mattered more than in this moment, when my heart is on the other side of a bathroom door from my body, bleeding and scared.

"Liv, I need to come in there. May I?"