Chapter 3 - The Ambulance Ride
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The pain in my abdomen wasn't subsiding; it was radiating outward, a tight, hot band that made it difficult to draw a full breath.
"Call an ambulance!" Dana shouted, her hand trembling as she supported my back.
Judge Cole didn't hesitate. "Bailiff, clear the gallery. Call emergency services immediately. Ms. Reed, you are detained pending a review of the security footage."
"This is ridiculous!" Marcus argued, taking a step toward the bench. "She's hysterical, not injured."
"Mr. Hale," Judge Cole snapped, her voice like a whip. "You will sit down and remain silent, or you will join Ms. Reed in holding."
Marcus sat down, his jaw clenched, the mask of the reasonable businessman finally cracking.
Within minutes, paramedics rushed into the courtroom with a stretcher. They asked rapid-fire questions—my due date, the nature of the pain, the exact location of the impact.
"Fetal heart rate is elevated but steady," the paramedic noted, listening through a Doppler monitor. "But we need to transport her for observation. Any blunt force trauma at thirty-four weeks requires immediate monitoring for placental abruption."
They carefully lifted me onto the stretcher.
As they wheeled me down the center aisle, I looked back.
My father was no longer standing by the door. He had vanished.
Dana walked beside the stretcher, her grip on her canvas bag tight. "I'm following the ambulance, Nora. Don't worry about Marcus. I'll handle the motions."
I nodded, closing my eyes as the bright fluorescent lights of the hallway passed overhead.
The ride to the hospital was a blur of sirens and clinical questions. I kept my hands resting firmly over my stomach, whispering silent, desperate promises to the child inside me.
You're okay. We're going to be okay.
May you like
For seven years, I had believed that staying with Marcus meant safety. I had traded my independence, my friendships, and my family for a gilded cage that I convinced myself was a home.
Laying strapped to a gurney, feeling the agonizing physical consequence of that delusion, I finally understood the truth. Marcus hadn't protected me from the world; he had protected the world from seeing what he was doing to me.
