Chapter 3

3 The alley ended at a low wall. The thugs must have heard them coming and left Ashley there, for everyone to see her shame.

Mark was the first to break. He ran over and grabbed Ashley, held her close.

He saw the injuries, what they'd done to her, and his jaw tightened, his eyes red.

I ran over, shaking, and hugged her too.

"Ashley, Ashley. Please, wake up!"

"Call 911, hurry!"

I took off my jacket to cover Ashley, and the paramedics got there right away.

Ashley got rushed into surgery.

Because they found her so fast, her insides weren't as bad as mine had been.

The worst part was her bowels were pulled out and needed to be cut, and had got infected, and even though they saved her uterus, she'd probably never have kids.

Compared to what I went through, it was nothing.

I lost a kidney, my uterus, and my baby, not to mention a lifetime of disability.

Ashley hadn't cared about what happened to me. What would she feel now that it happened to her?

I didn't feel happy, only a bottomless pit of hate.

Mark was a mess outside the operating room. He looked at me like I was the enemy.

"Why didn't you pick up Ashley sooner? If you'd been there, none of this would have happened. She's only 18 years old, what's she going to do now?"

"You're a terrible mother!"

I glared at him. "So you're saying this is my fault?"

"You were the one always offering to pick her up. I called you today to say I had something else, and you rushed right over?"

Mark turned white.

I scoffed. "By that logic, it's all your fault. What could be more important than Ashley's safety?"

"School gets out at 3:00, but you didn't even call me until 3:30. So how can you act like this is my fault? If anything bad happens to Ashley, I'll never forgive you!"

I felt nothing but hate and anger.

And I bet there was a reason why Mark couldn't pick her up that day. Something fishy was going on.

And Ashley? She seemed like she knew those thugs.