“What?” she snapped. She charged in and stared down at the floor. “How could you bleed all over the floor, Georgia! You do realize guests have to come up here too, right?”
“Lola, didn’t you hear me?” I pleaded. “I’m in a lot of pain. I need to go to the hospital right now!”
“Georgia, I told you I would need you tonight! Why would you let this happen tonight of all nights? I have really important people downstairs who are about to donate lots of money to my cause. I can’t take you to the fucking hospital right now! I have to be here!”
“I can drive myself,” I groaned. “It’s no problem. I’ll go myself.”
“No—you can’t go back downstairs right now. The party is shifting inside. People will notice you and I can’t have this night ruined.” Could she hear herself? I mean, really, could she? I was literally losing my baby and all she cared about was her fucking party.
“I’ll tell Corey to call Clyde. He’s a good doctor. He can tend to you in your room.”
“But, Lola, he’ll take a while to get here and I—”
“GEORGIA!” Lola screamed in my face. She’d turned red, veins appearing on her neck. “Get the fuck out of here! Go to your room! You’ll be fine! I’m fine, aren’t I?” She tugged on my arm, pulling me out of the bathroom and shoving me toward my wing of the house. “Go!” she screeched. “While I find someone to clean up this shit.”
“Oh my God, why are you acting like you don’t care?” I shouted, turning back to face her.
“Because I don’t care, Georgia! I really don’t give a shit about you or a baby you shouldn’t even be having! You always need some kind of attention, but I can’t give it to you tonight!”
“But I wanted this baby!” I cried.
“And I wanted mine, but you don’t see me wallowing about it, do you?”
“That’s because you killed two people!”
A hand struck my face and I released a sharp gasp. She’d slapped me. The slap was loud and it stung. I cupped the left side of my face and stared at her, horrified.
“You wouldn’t make a good mother anyway, Georgia. Look at you. You’re pathetic. Why do you think I hired you? Someone who has no independence? You work here under contract and I’m damn sure not letting you go. Not after everything you know about me. I let you slide when you married Dion. I figured a lonely girl like you needed a man to get through life, but don’t get carried away with your tongue. Now go to your room and wait for Clyde to get here.”
This was comical, wasn’t it? Well, in a dark way. I thought Lola’s miscarriage would make her take this matter more seriously. But all she cared about was her party and the money. My baby meant nothing to her. Hell, I meant nothing to her, and I realized it that night.
Corey’s friend Clyde did show up and checked me over. He wrapped me in a few blankets and, per Lola’s instructions, took me through the kitchen when the guests were outside again, to his car and then to the hospital, but by then it was too late.
The baby was gone. I’d bled everywhere, tried to stop the blood with a pad. The pad was soaked by the time Clyde showed up.
He had no words.
Neither did I.
I stayed the night at the hospital, sobbing. I was alone, with no one to check in on me or talk to me. I called Dion so I could tell him what had happened, but he didn’t answer. Didn’t even respond to my text messages. Clyde didn’t know me, so of course he didn’t stick around. I thought Lola would come to see me the next morning, but she didn’t. And you know why? Because she didn’t give a fuck about me. She’d said it.
Instead, I checked out when it was time and caught a bus back to Biscayne Bay. I was still hurting, my uterus raw and achy. As I spotted that mansion on the hill with the terra-cotta roof perched beneath the sun, with the big sapphire ocean behind it, something inside me just . . . snapped.
It takes a hell of a lot for a loyal woman to snap, you know? I was patient and kind and forgiving before, but I couldn’t forgive this. I’d lost something important to me—the only thing that was keeping me going, pushing me through the long hours at the mansion. Getting me through the constant yelling and scolding and coldness. Through my divorce. That one thing that was keeping me going was gone and I was left with nothing at all.
Long gone were the days when I cared about Lola’s well-being. Long gone were those memories I’d had of her, when I’d considered her a long-lost sister. I thought I’d take Lola’s secret to the grave, but she didn’t deserve that from me. She didn’t deserve anything from me.