I heard Monte yell, making me open my eyes. I was still alive. I blinked a few times, watching Monte repeatedly slam the man against the concrete. The man tried to crawl away, but Monte grabbed him again, pinning him down with a rage I had never seen in real life.

“Phileigh! Phileigh! Are you okay? Are you—Oh my God. You’re bleeding! The baby—” She gasped, making me look down. There was blood on my legs. My stomach twisted.

“My baby!” I cried just as Monte ran over with his chest still heaving and picked me up.

“Y’all gotta pull through this. You gotta fight, little man, for KB. He needs y’all,” he said as he placed me in the back seat of the car.

“Get in. We gotta get her to the hospital!” It was the last thing I heard before I blacked out.

My eyes fluttered open slowly, and the beeping of hospital machines greeted me followed by the harsh, bright lights and my head throbbing. I was at the hospital, and my mind immediately went to my baby. Had I given birth? I sat up, trying to look at my belly, and saw Kellon sitting beside me with his head down and hands clasped together like he was praying.

“Kellon…” I whispered. My voice was barely audible.

His head snapped up, and in two steps, he was at my side, gently grabbing my hand like he thought he’d never see me again.

“Phee baby.” He exhaled, kissing my knuckles with tears in his puffy eyes. He’d been crying. “You’re up. Do you remember what happened?”

“I was attacked,” I whispered.

Images of the masked man pushing me down and hitting me in the head flooded my memory, and everything came rushing back to me all at once. The masked man had hit me. He’d pulled a gun. Then there was blood. I looked down at my stomach. The tears already started to fill my eyes.

“The baby? Is the baby okay?” I cried. Before Kellon could respond, the door burst open.

“She’s awake?” One of the nurses gasped as a team of nurses and doctors entered my room.

“That’s a miracle,” another doctor murmured, and they exchanged shocked glances. “We weren’t expecting consciousness this soon after that amount of blood loss and the trauma to the head. This is good.”

My eyes bounced between them, trying to process what they were saying. I’d lost a lot of blood. From where?

“You’ve been in and out since it happened,” Kellon said gently, his thumb brushing across my hand. “You lost a lot of blood from the gash on your head.”

That answered my question.

“Phileigh, you have a mild concussion and some bruising. You’ll need to rest and be monitored for the next few days as this type of trauma can cause developmental or physical injuries to the baby.”