---- Chapter 14 Serena wasn't finished. Her eyes darted to her baby, Mikey, who was in a carrier on a nearby chair. Suddenly, she let out a piercing scream. "My baby! Oh my God, my baby!" She lurched towards the carrier, deliberately knocking it so it tilted precariously. Mikey, startled, began to wail. "She tried to hurt my baby!" Serena shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at me. "Olivia pushed the carrier! She tried to kill my son!" The accusation was so outrageous, so patently false, it left me speechless. Michael leaped up, his face a mask of fury, directed entirely at me. "Liv! What the hell did you do?" he yelled, rushing to Serena's side, who was now dramatically sobbing, clutching the baby. "Michael, | didn't touch him! She's lying! She knocked it herself!" | protested, my voice shaking with shock and anger. But he wasn't listening. He was too busy comforting Serena, checking the baby, who was crying but clearly unharmed. "You're insane, Olivia!" Michael snarled at me. "Attacking Serena? Trying to harm a child? What is wrong with you?" ---- The injustice was a physical blow. He didn't even consider my side, didn't question Serena's sudden, theatrical outburst. He immediately believed her, immediately condemned me. + The stress, the shock, the lingering pain from Serena's slap, it all culminated. A sharp, debilitating cramp seized my abdomen, far worse than before. | gasped, doubling over, clutching my stomach. "Michael..." | pleaded, a genuine fear for my own baby gripping me. He glanced at me, his expression contemptuous. "Save your act, Olivia. No one's buying it." He turned his back on me, focusing entirely on Serena and her son. Abandoned. Accused. In physical pain. The world tilted, darkness encroaching at the edges of my vision. My legs gave way. | collapsed onto the plush carpet of the lawyer's office, the last thing | saw being Michael's retreating back as he led Serena away, his arm protectively around her. My unborn child. The stakes were impossibly high. Despair, cold and absolute, washed over me.