The baby monitor in my hand didn’t just fall; it crashed to the tile floor, the plastic casing shattering with a sound that seemed miles away. My vision blurred as searing pain radiated from my abdomen, spreading through my body like wildfire.
Everything had happened so fast that my mind couldn’t process the sequence of events. One moment, I had been standing in the nursery doorway, admiring the freshly painted walls—a soft, hopeful yellow—that my husband, Jason, had finished the night before. I was eight months pregnant, heavy with life and expectation. The next moment, I was crumpled on the kitchen floor with warm liquid seeping through my maternity dress, turning the fabric a dark, terrifying crimson.
