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“Yes, sir, just a little…” Her voice fades.
Her eyes roll into her head, and she falls flat on her back. The plates fly and crash across the hardwood floor. In an instant, the four of us are up and racing to her side. I break into a cold sweat as I kneel beside her.
“Oh, my God!” Mom cries out. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, Mom. Call an ambulance,” Isaac replies, quick to join me.
Stella can barely keep her eyes open. I don’t like the white tone of her skin, nor the sweat covering her brow. Her pulse is erratic, and she’s struggling to remain awake.
“Stella,” I say quietly, hoping she’ll regain consciousness. “Stella, what’s going on?”
“Stay with me,” Isaac mutters, unable to take his eyes off her.
Levi is on the phone with the dispatcher from 911, passing all the details to them. Beau is speechless, one hand resting on Stella’s shoulder. Mom and Dad are up and looking down at us, a mixture of concern and surprise swirling in their eyes. I’m pretty sure it’s written all over our faces at this point. We’re more than four worried business owners huddled around the half-conscious maid.
We’re four men who clearly have something to do with her—more than what professional ethics would ever allow. I don’t care about any of that, though. I only care about Stella. I need her to be okay, and the mere thought of losing her tonight or on any other occasion cuts deeply through me. The pain that follows is atrocious. I don’t want to feel this way ever again.
“Stella,” I whisper.
She can’t answer. She’s sliding back into the darkness.
21
Stella
I’m drifting in and out of a strange, warm place.
My mind is a blur. The faces of my children flutter before my eyes. Ava’s sweet smile. Lucas’s giggles as he offers me a dandelion. The day he was born. The day I had to hold them both, crying my heart out when Elijah mailed me the divorce papers. The plus sign on that pregnancy test. The baby. Oh, God, the baby. Is there something wrong with my baby?
I need to wake up, but how? I’m as soft as butter and tired, spread too thin. My skin feels cold, yet my heart burns red. I can feel the sweat dripping down my temples. The sting of a needle. A flurry of agitated voices echoing in my head.
Loneliness. It’s all I’ve ever felt, for as long as I can remember. Fractured memories of a hard childhood return to haunt me. I’ve always had to toil for every breadcrumb of love and affection I ever got. Even with Elijah. It was never easy. It was never free. I’m exhausted.
“Stella, come back to me,” Isaac says. I can hear him. I can feel his breath tickling my ear.
Someone touches me.
Noah.
“Can you do something?!” Levi shouts. He sounds angry. He’s probably worried.
“I can, if you’ll give us some room,” a man replies.
The smell of roast beef lingers in my nostrils. I was carrying dinner plates away from the table. I fainted. Where am I?
My baby.
“My baby,” I whisper.
“Did she say something?” Beau asks in his soft French accent. It’s like music to my soul.
“She’s coming to,” Levi says.
My eyes peel open. There are so many faces. Most of them familiar. Handsome men who claimed my body and my heart, my very soul. I remember the moments we shared. The delight of their lips. The strength of their arms. The soft feel of skin on skin. I was happy and forever sated. I was theirs, and they were mine.
Yet now I lay feeble on the floor, limp and breathing raggedly as I try to understand what’s going on with me. My own flesh has betrayed me. I fell. In the middle of dinner with the Kendricks, I collapsed. Exhaustion, stress, the pregnancy—all three played a part in this.Oh, no. Mrs. and Mr. Kendrick are still here. Watching me. And two paramedics are working to bring me around.
“Shit,” I mumble, the severity of my situation coming into full focus as one of the emergency responders comes closer with a syringe.
