Chapter 38

Lauren's POV

I sat there in the pool of blood, still holding my sweet child’s body in my arms. My heart felt as though it had been ripped out of my chest and crushed into dust. I kept trying to convince myself that she wasn’t gone, that any moment now her little chest would rise and fall, that her warm brown eyes would flutter open, that she’d look at me and smile the way she always did. But reality was cruel, and it stared me right in the face.

My eyes had turned red and swollen from endless crying, and tears kept falling no matter how hard I tried to stop them. My head ached so terribly it felt as if it might split open, but the pain inside my chest was far worse, something no medicine could ever cure. My hands were shaking violently as I clung to her, afraid that if I let go, I’d truly have to accept that she was gone. My dress was soaked through with her blood, clinging to my skin and heavy against my body, but I didn’t care about that, not even for