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“Sorry, no rescue party just yet,” I joked. “You’re stuck with just me.”
“What are you… How?” Grace muttered, groaning as she tried to maneuver herself into a sitting position. I helped her move her legs and swing them over the side so she could sit up at the edge of the bed. Her breathing was heavy, and I was sure her stomach looked like it had doubled in size in the couple of weeks since I’d seen her.
“Please tell me they did not bring you here.”
I nodded, shuffling back a little so I could sit with my back against the opposite wall. “They did. I don’t know what’s about to happen. I know it’s not good, though, right?”
She gripped the blanket beneath her, her fingers tightening around the itchy gray woolen fabric. It was the only other thing in this room besides the bed and a pillow.
“What is this place?”
Her shoulders slumped. “A prayer house.” The name sounded familiar.Something I’d heard Hawk and the boys talking about recently?“When they think we have wandered from our faith, we are sent here to find it again.”
I scoffed. “You’re locked in a room until you admit defeat and fall into line.”
“I did not tell them about Kadey’s birthmark.”
The sudden admission shocked me, and I shook my head. “I never thought you did.”
Tears dripped onto her cheeks, and her brow pinched into a heavy frown. “You did not?”
Shaking my head, I forced a smile.
Even when Hawk had made the connection earlier, I knew Grace would never have told these people about Kadey. She was a mother. She knew what it was like to create another being and love it so much more than you could have possibly imagined.
She also knew how painful it would be to have that person taken from you.
And I knew she would never do or say anything to put me in that position.
“We had some older children with us that day,” she explained, resting one hand on her belly. “They saw Kadey’s birthmark. I thought if I kept quiet, I could get out and warn Taylor so he could hide you and Kadey. But—”
“But the accident happened.”
She nodded. “Then they knew I was traitorous and hid me here.”
I scanned the room.
The wardrobe doors had been removed, and the windows were barred on the outside and nailed closed.
Grace forced a tired smile, swiping at a couple of stray tears. “These rooms are made to keep people in. There is no esca—” She groaned loudly, “Ahh,” and curled her arms around her stomach.
I scurried across the floor, my heart skipping a beat. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“Oh no, no, please,” she whispered, lifting her gaze to meet mine, her eyes growing wide and round. “My water.”
Her pastel pink dress began to change color in her lap as amniotic fluid soaked through the fabric. My mouth fell open, not a single word coming out, just pure shock settling in.
“Oh… oh!”
“Contractions?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her face was pinched in pain as she tried her best to suck in a long deep breath. She leaned back onto her hands, letting her head hang back as she grabbed fistfuls of the blanket.
I got to my feet, ran over to the door, and slammed my fist against it. “Hey! Someone,” I screamed, pounding harder. “You need to get her to a hospital. She’s in labor.”
I waited.
Expecting the door to fly open.
