She Said to Wait, But Our Baby Couldn't novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Second Call

Miles's POV

I had not planned to touch anything.

I came to stand at the back with a thumb drive in my pocket and my hands where people could see them.

But the usher was already on the steps, and the sound tech was reaching for the first cable, and I knew what Willa's face looked like when somebody told her to wait.

I had seen it once at 3:19 in the morning.

So I had already walked to the second A/V table, and asked the volunteer sitting at it for the laptop.

"I'm not supposed to," she had said.

"Neither am I."

She had looked at the stage, and at the woman in cream linen who was lying to six hundred people.

Then she moved her chair.

I had plugged in the drive and cued the second file, and I waited with one hand on the volume until the microphone died on the stage.

Now I turned it up as far as the room would take it.

The second file opened with breathing.

Fast and shallow, with a door lock turning.

Willa's voice came through the ceiling, hardly a whisper.

"I'm in the bathroom. He took the phone from me. Please send someone. I'm locking the door."

The dispatcher answered, calm and close.

"Ma'am, are you bleeding?"

"Yes. A lot. The baby hasn't moved since I called. I keep pushing on him and he doesn't..."

On the tape, a fist hit the bathroom door.

Dean's voice came through the wood.

"Willa, open up. Gwen says you need to breathe. Please don't do this."

"Don't answer him," the dispatcher said. "Stay with me. I have a unit two minutes out."

Then there was a long stretch of nothing but her crying, quietly, with her mouth against the phone.

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