Erica turned her head and saw Laura standing in the doorway, one hand on her heavily pregnant belly, a cup of water in the other.

Carter's face changed instantly into something gentle. He crossed to her.

"Why did you come out? It's cold out here. Go back inside."

Laura didn't move. Her eyes went past his shoulder and settled on Erica.

"Are you and my husband acquainted?"

The air went silent.

Carter opened his mouth, but Erica got there first.

"We are."

She looked at the gift bag in Laura's hand and gave a small smile.

"Those cufflinks you sold me — I'm the one who gave them to him."

Laura's eyes went wide.

"He and I were together for five years."

The color drained out of Laura's face in an instant.

The cup shattered on the floor, shards of porcelain scattering everywhere. She stumbled back a step and caught the doorframe, lips trembling as she looked at Carter.

"Carter, is it true? Were you two together for five years?"

Carter's face went ashen, fury churning at the back of his eyes.

He spun around and closed the distance to Erica in a few strides.

Crack.

His hand landed hard across her face.

She staggered into the wall with a dull thud.

Her head rang, her vision blacked out for a moment, and something warm slid slowly down from her temple, staining half of what she could see red.

Before she could steady herself, a large hand clamped down hard around her throat.

Carter's fingers tightened, pinning her whole body against the wall.

"Didn't I tell you? Don't run your mouth. Don't set her off!"

Erica's hands went to his fingers on instinct, trying to pry them loose, but he didn't budge.

The suffocation rose over her like a tide. Her feet kicked uselessly against the floor, her nails dragging bloody streaks across the back of his hand, and still Carter showed no sign of letting go.

Her vision began to blur, the ringing in her ears louder and louder.

She looked at his twisted face and it struck her, suddenly, as utterly unfamiliar.

Was this the Carter who had once held her like she was precious?

The Carter who'd said, "Anyone who dares upset you, I'll never let them off"?

The Carter who'd said, "You're the only one I'll love in this life"?

The dark closed in thicker and thicker, and she felt herself starting to give out.

And then —

"Ah! My stomach — it hurts so much!"

Carter's grip froze.

He looked back and saw Laura clutching her swollen belly, her face white as paper, sliding slowly down the doorframe as fine cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

"Laura!"

Carter let go of Erica's throat in an instant and rushed over.

With nothing to hold her up, Erica sank limply to the floor, dragging in gulp after gulp of air, her throat raw and burning.

She lifted her eyes and through the blur saw Carter kneeling beside Laura, gathering her carefully against him, his voice frantic to the point of breaking.

"Laura, how do you feel? Where does it hurt? Look at me, look at me!"

He fumbled his phone out of his pocket to call 911, his other hand gripping Laura's and pressing it to his own cheek.

"Don't be scared. I'll get you to the hospital right now. You and the baby are going to be fine, do you hear me? You'll be fine!"

He hung up, lifted Laura into his arms, and started toward the elevators.

He passed right by Erica without a single glance.

The elevator doors closed, and Erica was left alone, sitting in the empty elevator hall.

She leaned against the wall, the blood from her forehead already reaching her jaw, and at last she made up her mind. She took out her phone and sent a text.

"Dad, I'm not marrying Carter. I'll go through with the arranged match."

She shoved the phone back into her pocket and pushed herself up off the wall, swaying on her feet.

Her head spun so badly the whole world tilted around her.

Once she was out of the complex, Erica flagged down a cab to the hospital.

In the car, she closed her eyes, and the image kept coming back to her, Carter carrying Laura into the elevator.

He'd been so frantic, so afraid, as if Laura were the only thing in his life that mattered.

And she counted for nothing.

She lost track of how long they drove before the car stopped.

The driver glanced back. "We're here, miss."

Erica opened her eyes, paid the fare, and pushed the door open.

She hadn't even reached the ER lobby when two tall men in black suits stepped into her path.

She froze.

One of them spoke, his face blank.

"Miss Butler, Mr. Maddox told us to wait for you here."

Her heart gave a hard jolt.

A flicker of something almost absurd rose in her chest, a small hope. Had Carter's conscience finally caught up with him?

"He sent you... to take me to get my head looked at?"

The two bodyguards traded a glance.

"Mr. Maddox says his wife urgently needs a transfusion. Your blood type matches hers. Please come with us."

Erica stood there rooted to the spot, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.

"For Laura?"

"Yes, Miss Butler. Please come with us."

Erica took a step back. "No."

"I'm not going. I'm a patient too. I need to see a doctor myself. Get out of my way."

The two bodyguards exchanged another look and didn't move.

"Miss Butler, please don't make this difficult for us."

"Mr. Maddox said it's because of you that his wife needs the blood. You brought this on yourself."

"I already told you, I'm not going." Erica stepped around them and headed toward the ER lobby. "He wants blood, he can figure it out himself. The hospital blood bank is full of it. Why does it have to come out of my arm?"

She'd taken two steps when a strong arm caught her from behind by the elbow.

"Sorry about this, Miss Butler."

The next second she was hauled clean off her feet.

One on each side, the two bodyguards lifted her whole body without effort, ignoring how she thrashed, and carried her in long strides across the hospital lobby toward the inpatient wing.

"Let go of me! Let go!" Erica kicked her legs wildly. "Help! Somebody help me!"

People in the corridor turned to look, but not one of them stepped forward.

She was carried into the transfusion room and forced down into a chair.

The nurse took one look at her and sucked in a sharp breath.

"What... what is going on here? Her head is injured. We need to treat the wound first—"

"Leave it." Carter's voice came from the doorway. "Draw the blood first."

Erica lifted her head and looked toward the door through blurring eyes.

Carter stood there, arms crossed over his chest, his face dark.

"Carter, I'm a person too. I'm hurt. Can't you even look at me?"

Carter didn't answer.

He tipped his chin at the nurse. "Do it."

The nurse bit her lip, picked up the tourniquet, and tied it around Erica's arm.

Bright red blood ran down the tube into the bag, one bag, then another.

Her face went whiter and whiter, her lips fading from pale pink to gray, her body shaking beyond her control, her vision blurring, a ringing filling her ears.

The nurse looked at the reading on the blood pressure monitor, and her expression changed.

"We can't take any more! Her pressure is too low. If we keep going, she could die!"

Carter walked over and looked down at Erica.

She sat in the chair looking like one gust of wind could scatter her bones.

He reached out and touched her cheek.

"Do something wrong, and you have to be punished."

"Consider this a lesson in what you should and shouldn't say from now on. Behave, and I'll let you stay by my side."

He bent down and said, gently,

"It's not as if a barren woman like you will ever find a man willing to marry you anyway. Isn't that right?"

Erica's lashes trembled.

Her heart felt like a knife had split it down the middle, then kneaded it, torn it, ground it down, until she couldn't breathe.

Whose fault was it that she couldn't have children?

She'd lost the right to ever be a mother saving Carter, and now he was throwing it in her face.

Ungrateful animal.

Carter straightened, glanced at the blood bag, and said to the nurse, "Keep going."

The nurse gritted her teeth and drew another half bag.

At last Erica's head dropped, and she lost consciousness entirely.

The blood pressure monitor let out a piercing alarm, and the mood in the transfusion room snapped tight.

A doctor rushed in, took one look at Erica, and went pale. "Stop the transfusion now! Get ready to resuscitate! We're losing her!"

Carter stood off to the side, watching the medical staff scramble to lift Erica onto a gurney and wheel her out of the transfusion room.

He hesitated a moment, then didn't follow. He turned and walked into Laura's room.

Erica had thought she was going to die. Instead, they dragged her back.

The nurse told her Laura was fine, and for a moment Erica didn't know how she was supposed to react.

She had nearly died in that transfusion room, while the woman Carter cradled in the palm of his hand had been up and lively long before.

The door swung open, and Carter walked in.

He carried a fruit basket, which he set on the cabinet by her bed.

“You're awake?” His tone was flat. “Laura's been discharged too. False alarm. The baby's fine.”

Erica said nothing.

Laura poked her head out from behind Carter.

She wore a loose maternity dress, her cheeks flushed and rosy, looking perfectly well, with no trace of the woman who'd been clutching her belly and crying out in pain the day before.

She came to Erica's bedside and gave a sweet little smile.

“Erica, thank you so much for donating blood! The doctor said if you hadn't given it in time, the baby and I might both have been in danger.”

Erica's lashes trembled.

Laura tugged at Carter's sleeve and said, coaxing, “Carter, let's throw a little dinner at home tonight to celebrate. Let's invite Erica too. She did me such a big favor, I have to thank her properly.”

Carter looked down at Laura, his eyes soft in a way Erica had never once seen:

“All right. Whatever you want.”

Erica closed her eyes. “I won't go. I'm not feeling well.”

“Don't be a killjoy.” Carter's voice cooled a few degrees. “Laura went out of her way to invite you. How could you have the nerve not to come?”

Erica opened her eyes and met his gaze.

Carter crossed to her bedside, bent down, and under the cover of straightening the fruit basket, lowered his voice against her ear:

“I already told Laura that the ‘five years together’ you mentioned was a misunderstanding, that you remembered it wrong, that we were only ordinary friends. When you get there, don't say the wrong thing.”

Erica's pupils widened slightly.

A misunderstanding?

Five years of what they'd been to each other, and he waved it off with one light word: misunderstanding.

She parted her lips, wanting to say something, but her throat felt as if something were lodged in it, and not a single word would come out.

Laura, utterly oblivious, was still smiling beside them.

“Then it's settled!”

……

The three of them went home together.

Laura had just started to punch in the code when the door was pulled open from inside.

“Pop! Pop!”

Two party poppers went off, and gold streamers and glitter rained down, settling all over Erica's hair and clothes.

“Welcome home to our adorable little mom-to-be, Laura, and the husband who loves her most!”

The cheering cut off the instant they saw who was standing in the doorway.

Terence held the second popper he hadn't had time to set off, his mouth slightly open, his expression frozen on his face.

Mavis stood beside him with a bouquet in her hands, her smile stalled at the corners of her mouth before she could pull it back.

The three of them looked at each other.

The living room had been decked out to the hilt.

Balloons and flowers, the coffee table crowded with fruit and snacks, and a photo cast up on the TV screen.

It was a picture of Carter and Laura, the two of them leaning together, smiling with their eyes crinkled bright.

Erica stood in the doorway, looking at Terence and Mavis, the two friends she had once given her whole heart to.