Hiss
The fall came fast and hard.
Eliana’s nails raked scratches down the railing before she lost her grip completely and tumbled down the stairs.
She only had time to fold her arms protectively over her stomach.
All of it happened in an instant.
On the landing above, Vivian and Chloe went down together, heads knocking, tangled in a heap.
Nathaniel felt something shove past him in the chaos, and then he saw Eliana already falling.
He reached for her too late.
His hand closed in the empty air.
The corridor lights, motion-activated, had already gone dark from the stillness.
Only the dim green glow of the exit sign lit the space, giving everything a strange, sickly cast.
At the bottom, Eliana managed to push herself upright.
She looked up and saw Nathaniel’s hand, still hanging in the air, too slow to have caught her.
He’d been the one who caused it.
“Eliana!”
Chloe’s voice cracked with panic.
Her scream triggered the motion sensors, flooding the stairwell with light again.
She shoved Vivian off her and scrambled down to the landing in seconds.
“Eliana, are you how bad”
Chloe’s voice broke as she gripped Eliana’s shoulders, half-sobbing.
Cold sweat covered Eliana’s face.
Every part of her body ached hands, feet, her skull throbbing from the impact.
None of it compared to the pain tearing through her stomach.
It was bad enough that she nearly blacked out from it alone.
“Eliana…”
Chloe’s panic was pure now, because she knew exactly what this meant for her.
Concussion.
Abrasions from the head impact.
Some bleeding has already started.
The baby’s still there, but this is dangerous.
Bed rest, immediately, if we want any chance of keeping the pregnancy
That’s what the doctors had told Eliana, back when she’d first come in.
Chloe’s colleagues had told her, too, how Eliana had begged them through the pain to save the baby.
And now she’d just fallen down an entire flight of stairs because of Chloe.
Because of this fight.
Tears spilled down Chloe’s face, guilt closing around her throat like a fist.
She fumbled her phone out, hands shaking too hard to dial properly at first.
“Eliana, I’m calling for help right now.
Just hold on.”
Eliana was in too much pain to speak.
Something kept slipping away from her, second by second, and she couldn’t stop it.
Through the pain, she forced her eyes up just in time to see Nathaniel turning away from her, reaching down to help Vivian to her feet instead.
Gentle.
Careful.
Every ounce of attention on someone else.
Her mouth opened, some instinct screaming at her to call out to him.
Nothing came out.
She watched him pull Vivian into his arms.
The motion lights cut out again, and in the dim afterglow from the exit sign, all she could make out was the outline of the two of them, standing close together.
Tears slid silently down Eliana’s face, her chest cracking open with something she couldn’t name.
“Nate…”
Just as Nathaniel started guiding Vivian toward the exit, that single word slipped out of her.
He stopped.
He didn’t turn around.
He just stood there, staring out at the cold, empty corridor beyond the door.
Late at night, hardly anyone is around.
Quiet.
But nothing about him felt quiet on the inside.
Chaos, seconds ago.
By the time he’d registered what happened, Eliana was already at the bottom of the stairs, and all he could see was his own hand the one that hadn’t moved fast enough.
His nails dug into his palms, fists shaking with the force of his own grip.
“Nathaniel.” Vivian’s voice, soft, beside him.
He looked down and saw her cheek swollen and red, a small bruise forming at her temple.
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, his voice came out level.
Detached.
“Eliana.
Take care of yourself.”
Then he led Vivian out through the exit.
“Nathaniel Cole!”
Chloe’s anguished scream tore through the corridor behind him.
This time, he didn’t stop walking.
Inside the stairwell.
Eliana watched him disappear.
As she left, Vivian glanced back once, eyes full of mockery, of triumph, of quiet satisfaction.
The posture of someone who’d already won.
Eliana closed her eyes, tears streaming freely now.
Yes.
She’d lost.
Completely, this time.
Why had she called out to him at all?
Hadn’t she already known exactly how this would end?
Was some part of her still refusing to accept it?
Or was it simply because this child carried his blood too and some fractured, stubborn part of her heart hadn’t let go after all?
She’d sworn to herself she’d guard her heart better than this.
Why had she broken that promise, even for a second?
Tears kept falling, and the pain in her stomach only sharpened.
She’d never felt grief like this.
Like she might actually die from it.
“Chloe…”
She barely knew what she was saying, Chloe’s name slipping out on pure instinct.
Chloe was already sobbing openly.
She kept wiping at Eliana’s tears, but they wouldn’t stop, no matter how many times she tried.
“Eliana, this is my fault.
All of it.”
Chloe pulled her into a tight hug, crying harder.
“I’m so sorry, Eliana, I’m so sorry…”
The pain was pulling Eliana under now, consciousness slipping.
The dream surfaced again behind her eyes.
The crimson skirt swirling as her parents danced.
Young Nathaniel’s innocent face at the window.
Pain.
So much pain.
Mom.
Dad.
What do I do now?
Eliana cried until there was nothing left, her sobs fading into broken, shallow breaths.
Right before the darkness took her completely, her hand lifted weakly into the air, reaching for something.
She couldn’t hold onto anything at all.
“Eliana!”
Chloe watched her hand go slack and fall, and screamed like something inside her had torn open.
The motion lights flared back on.
Chloe saw the spreading pool of blood beneath Eliana.
It soaked through her clothes, spread across the floor, stained the front of Chloe’s white coat.
She froze, helpless, screaming for the doctors to hurry.
They arrived within seconds, lifted Eliana onto a stretcher, and rushed her toward the emergency room.
“We’ll save her, don’t worry.” A colleague squeezed Chloe’s shoulder briefly before running to catch up with the team.
Chloe stood frozen, staring at the blood pooled across the tile.
She didn’t move until a nurse gently cleaned her hands, wiped her face, and steered her along behind the stretcher.
…
Elsewhere.
Nathaniel got Vivian settled into the car.
The door shut.
The seatbelt fastened.
He made no move to start the engine.
Eliana’s eyes kept surfacing in his mind the exact moment she’d hit the ground, replaying over and over, unwelcome.
“Nathaniel,” Vivian said gently from the passenger seat, “if you’re worried about her, go back up.”
“I’m still right outside the hospital.
You can see her the second you go back in.
I’ll be fine getting myself home.”
He didn’t answer, just gripped the wheel, knuckles bleaching white.
Vivian lowered her head, pulled a wet wipe from her bag, and dabbed carefully at her mouth.
Lipstick.
And a faint smear of blood, left over from Chloe’s slap.
She set the stained wipe down where he’d be sure to see it, expression carefully arranged into guilt.
“I got carried away back there.
Getting into it with Dr.
Bennett like that I know I didn’t actually push Eliana, but still…”
She set the wipe aside, leaned in, and took his hand, eyes glistening.
“I’m sorry, Nathaniel.
I only wanted to protect you.”
He looked down at her hand wrapped around his.
For reasons he couldn’t quite place, what surfaced in his mind instead was Eliana’s hand, years ago holding him exactly like this, back when his grandfather’s illness had first terrified him half to death.