My pulse thudded in my ears.
“I didn’t...” My voice came out in a broken whisper, trembling. “I didn’t betray anyone...”
My gaze dropped.
“No...” I shook my head weakly, my arms wrapping tighter around my stomach as another contraction rippled through me.
Pain.
Real pain now.
Growing. Building.
“I didn’t steal the ring...” I whispered again, as if saying it enough times might make it true in someone else’s mind.
But there was no one left to hear it.
Only the cold.
Only the silence.
And the certainty that I had just been condemned for something I didn’t do.
My only mistake had been catching Violet when she threw herself at me.
If I had stepped aside—
If I had let her fall—
If I had chosen myself instead of instinct—
She might have hit the stone hard enough to lose the child she claimed to carry.
But she wouldn’t have had the chance to plant that ring against my skin in those split seconds of contact.
I’d cared too much.
And now—
I was paying for it with frostbite and terror.
My body trembled violently as I wrapped both arms around my belly, my fingers moving in slow, frantic circles, as if I could shield him from the cold through will alone.
“Hold on, baby,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “Hold on...”
But even my hands felt numb.
The cold wasn’t just on my skin anymore.
It was inside me.
Seeping deeper.
Into muscle. Into bone. Into everything that mattered.
Another contraction hit.
Harder than the last.
