We sat outside a little longer. When I spotted Wallace coming from a distance, I nudged the older woman beside me.

“Ma’am, I’m getting a little hungry. Could you please grab me a hot dog?

“Check your phone. I just sent you the money.”

As I said that, I sent her twenty dollars.

She grinned from ear to ear. “Sure. I’ll go get it for you. Just wait here.”

The moment she turned around, Wallace arrived, with Shane right behind him.

“Where’s Dulcie? How is she?”

I pointed toward the hospital room, and Wallace shoved the door open without another word.

A second later, Dulcie’s sobs rang out from inside.

“Honey, our baby’s gone. What are we going to do?”

Just as Shane was about to follow him in, I grabbed his arm.

“Why are you here?”

Caught off guard, he instantly looked uneasy.

He swallowed hard. “I...”

But before he could finish, Wallace came storming back toward me.

Without saying a word, he shoved me straight into the room.

“Haley Walker, you bitch!

“Do you have any idea you killed my baby?”

The force of it slammed me hard against the wall.

Dulcie was still lying in bed, crying like her heart was breaking.

“Haley, I trusted you. That’s why I agreed to go on this trip with you!

“But no matter how careful I was, I never imagined you’d hurt me like this!”

That one sentence lit Wallace up all over again. I could tell that with just one more push, he really might kill me.

“Dulcie, what are you talking about?

“I have no idea what you mean. How did I hurt you?”

Even with me pressing her face-to-face, Dulcie didn’t panic. She just kept sobbing as she spoke.

“I told you I was pregnant and asked to switch berths with you.

“But you refused. I had to keep climbing up and down, and then I lost my grip and fell.”

The second she finished, Shane jumped in.

“Haley Walker, I can’t believe you’d do something like this!

“What kind of person are you?

“You told me at home that you were jealous Dulcie was pregnant, but I never thought you’d actually go this far!”

With Shane backing her up, Wallace completely snapped.

“You bitch!

“Do you know how hard it was for Dulcie and me to get pregnant?

“Do you know how much we gave up for this baby?”

As he spoke, his hand went straight for my throat.

I cried out in panic, “Wait! I have a witness!”

Dulcie immediately started screaming too. “Wallace, it was her! She’s the reason our baby is gone!

“You can’t let her get away with this!”

Wallace already had a violent temper. Hearing Dulcie say that only pushed him over the edge.

He started shouting that he was going to kill me.

I hurriedly pulled out my phone. “Wait, I really do have a witness!

“Dulcie lost the baby because of her own actions!

“I have a wit...”

Before I could finish, a loud slap cracked through the room.

Everyone froze.

Even Wallace stood there stunned, one hand pressed to his face.

He looked nothing like the man who had been raging a second earlier.

I quickly grabbed the older woman. “Ma’am, please, calm down!”

I had asked her to come here as a witness, not to start hitting people in a hospital.

But she was even fiercer than I had expected. She shook off my hand and slapped Wallace across the face again.

This time, Wallace didn’t dare lose his temper. He actually looked a little wronged.

“Aunt Sarah... what are you doing here?”