Eight months pregnant, Emma Whitaker never imagined a family lunch would end with her falling down the stairs while her sister stood above her pretending it was an accident.

But what hurt even more than the fall was realizing her parents cared more about protecting her sister than saving her unborn baby.

Pain exploded through Emma’s back so suddenly she didn’t even understand what had happened.

One moment she stood near the staircase in her parents’ Ohio home, one hand resting on the banister and the other over her pregnant belly.

The next, the world tilted violently.

She remembered the carpet first.

Beige with tiny brown flecks — the same ugly carpet her mother chose years ago because it “hid dirt well.”

Then came the terror.

Emma’s arms instantly wrapped around her stomach.

Protect the baby.

That was her only thought as her body crashed down the stairs.

Her knees slammed into wood.

Pain shot through her spine.

Her ankle twisted painfully beneath her.

Her shoulder struck the wall.

Her head hit hard enough to blur her vision.

Still, she protected her belly with both arms.

By the time she landed at the bottom, she could barely breathe.

Then she heard her sister’s voice above her.

“Oh my God.”

For one second, Khloe sounded afraid.

Emma tried to move.

Agony exploded through her leg and abdomen.

Something inside her tightened sharply.

Wrong.

This pain felt wrong.

Her trembling hand slid across her stomach.

“Please,” she whispered.

Not again.

She had already survived two miscarriages before this pregnancy.

Not this baby.

Not Luna.

Then Emma saw blood spreading across her maternity jeans.

Not dramatic.

Not movie-like.

Just enough to make her heart stop.

“The baby,” she whispered weakly.

No one answered.

Emma lifted her head.

Khloe stood at the top of the stairs, one hand still slightly extended.

Perfect hair.

Perfect sweater.

Cold eyes.

Then her expression hardened.

“Stop being dramatic, Emma,” Khloe snapped.

“You practically threw yourself down the stairs.”

Emma stared at her in disbelief.

The words felt horribly familiar.

You’re overreacting.

You’re too sensitive.

You know how Khloe gets.

Emma had heard those excuses her entire life.

Another painful cramp hit her stomach.

“Mom!” Emma cried.

Slow footsteps finally approached.

Her mother, Diane, appeared holding a dish towel.

She looked at Emma lying twisted on the floor.

At the blood.

At her swollen belly.

And sighed.

Not screamed.

Not panicked.

Sighed.

“She’s being dramatic again,” Khloe said while walking carefully downstairs. “I barely touched her.”

“You pushed me,” Emma whispered.

Khloe stopped immediately.

“I did not.”

“You pushed me.”

“Emma,” Diane snapped sharply. “Enough.”

“There’s blood,” Emma said.

She tried pushing herself upright and nearly blacked out from pain.

“Mom,” she begged. “I need a hospital. The baby—”

“You’re fine,” her father called from the living room.

He didn’t even come into the hallway.

Emma felt her stomach drop harder than the fall itself.

“Dad,” she cried. “I’m bleeding.”

A pause.

Then:

“Khloe is already going through enough. Stop making everything worse.”

The sentence hurt more than the stairs.

Suddenly Emma wasn’t thirty-two anymore.

She was nine years old with a split lip after Khloe threw a brush at her.

Sixteen with her car vandalized while her parents demanded she apologize for upsetting her sister.

Twenty-two after Khloe stole thousands from her bank account and her parents called it “family business.”

Every memory stood in that hallway beside her.

Diane finally crouched near Emma.

Not close enough to touch the blood.