Chapter <b>222 </b>


    The very mention of Alexander’s name made my eyes gutter. I loathed the notion, but if he had anything


    to do with this…


    Would he have angrily caused the fire on my family’s home after I specifically asked him not to destroy it? Could that forged contract have been the catalyst for him doing something so vengeful and heinous?


    I couldn’t imagine the Alexander I knew doing something like that. But right now, I couldn’t entirely rule


    it out.


    And Lilith was right; if he knew I had snuck out and was here, he might distrust me even more. Not to mention the fact that if he had anything to do with the fire, I might be putting myself in and my child in grave danger by showing myself here.


    “I’ll go,” Lilith said then, gently ushering me back into the shadows of the forest where I couldn’t be spotted. “I’ll look around and ask someone. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”


    I nodded, and Lilith gave my hand onest squeeze before hurrying over to the wreckage. I watched her the entire time, my hand pressed t against a nearby tree to steady myself. Her form blurred behind my tears, but I saw her jog up to a firefighter and ask something.


    The firefighter shook his head grimly. Lilith hesitated, and they exchanged a few more words before she


    returned to me.


    “Don’t say it,” I choked out, turning away. “I don’t want to hear it.”


    Lilith didn’t say a word. Just pulled me close and held me tightly.


    I couldn’t help it anymore. One tear came, then another, and soon I was sobbing openly into her shoulder, leaving behind damp marks on her shirt where my tears and saliva fell. Lilith held me the entire time,


    rubbing soothing circles on my back.


    “It was all I had left of her,” I choked out between sobs. “It was the one thing I wanted from that house.


    And now… Now…<i>” </i>


    My voice was lost beneath another sob, and I began to crumple, knees trembling so hard they couldn’t


    even hold me upright anymore. Lilith struggled to keep me on my feet and pulled back just enough to


    look at me.


    “I know, dear,” she murmured, cupping my face in her hands. “I know it hurts, but they’re just things. And we really must get back before-”


    Before she finished, her words cut off in a sharp gasp. Her hand pped over her mouth, and she eximed from behind her palm, “E–E! Your water–it broke!”


    Sniffling, I pulled back and looked down at my legs. I hadn’t realized it during my pathetic wailing, but


    my water had broken. Liquid was seeping down through my jeans. There was so much of it that it had


    begun to pool up in my boots.


    All I could do was stare in shock.


    <b>“</b>You’re going into prematurebor,” Lilith said, gripping my shoulders. “It must be from the stress. E,


    we have to get you to a hospital.”


    I couldn’t bring myself to speak through the sudden wave of fear and confusion that was washing over me. My pregnancy was only seven months along–it was still dangerous to give birth this early.


    But then the first contraction came like a freight train mming directly into my abdomen, and I cried


    out, copsing to my knees on the forest floor. My fingernails dug so hard into the base of the nearby tree


    that I was certain I’d drawn blood.


    “Oh–oh dear!” Lilith gasped, trying but failing to help me to my feet. The pain was too great, radiating down my legs until they felt paralyzed from it. Shit. I was going to give birth right here on the forest floor,


    wasn’t I?


    “Need some help?”


    Lilith and I both snapped our heads up at the sound of the familiar voice. Through the haze of pain and tears, a figure that I’d hoped not to see again–and especially not now–stepped out from behind a copse


    of trees.


    Sophia.