Chapter 138: Miscarriage
He laid Ruby gently across the back seat of his car, brushing her hair away from her face, his chest tight with panic.
Rayna jumped into the driver seat of hers just as Stefan slid behind the wheel of his.
The engine roared to life as he sped off, his grip tight on the wheel, with Rayna driving just as fast behind him.
"She’s going to be okay," he whispered. "She has to be." He kept telling himself as he kept driving while glancing at Ruby through the rearview mirror.
And in the backseat, Ruby lay motionless, pale, and silent—as Stefan drove faster than he ever had in his life, praying to a God he wasn’t even sure he believed in that he wasn’t already too late by the time he’d arrive at the hospital.
The white walls of the hospital waiting room felt colder than usual.
Stefan sat stiffly on the plastic chair, his elbows on his knees and his fingers tightly laced together. His heart was pounding—loud, heavy, and uneven. His clothes were stained with dust from the fall, and his palm still burned faintly from when he’d hit the ground shielding Ruby.
But that pain was nothing compared to what was twisting inside of him.
He hadn’t said a word since the nurses rushed Ruby through those double doors. Only the quiet hum of machines, the soft shuffle of feet, and Rayna’s occasional shifting in the chair beside him kept the silence from swallowing him whole.
His eyes were fixed on the wall ahead, but his mind was anywhere but there.
He had been just in time.
One second later, and Ruby would have been—