Chapter 22 Chapter twenty-two
~Ellie~
“Claus,” I said, my voice already sharp before I meant it to be. “What’s wrong with you lately?”
He turned to me slowly, as if dragging himself through molasses. His eyes were distant, unreadable, but I could see something festering there.
“You and Sylvia,” he said, too quickly.
That word. Everything inside of me snapped.
“For goodness sake, Claus,” I stood up, hands trembling even though I was trying to sound composed. “You’ve been… comparing yourself to Sylvia again. Acting like he's having a competition with you, Sylvia is your twin for cry out loud. Why? What’s with this attitude, Claus? What is it you’re trying to prove?”
For a moment, he didn’t answer. He just stared, and in that silence, I could hear my heart beating against my rib cage.
Then he exhaled, slowly, bitterly. “You really want to know?”
I folded my arms, bracing myself. “Yes. I really want to know.”
“It’s because,” he began, his voice rising just slightly, “you seem happier when he’s around. Happier than you ever are with me.”
For a second, I just blinked. The words didn’t even absorbed into me, they bounced off the walls of my mind and echoed back in a language I didn’t recognize.
“What?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
He looked straight at me then, and there it was, the accusation I hadn’t expected, the jealousy that had been simmering beneath the surface for days. “You smile more when Sylvia is around,” he said. “You light up. You talk. You laugh. With me, it’s like you’re… enduring something. Like you can’t wait for me to leave the room.”
The air left my lungs in a violent rush. “You think I’m happy because of Sylvia? Because Sylvia happens to make polite conversation?”
“You think I don’t notice?” he shot back. “The way you change when he’s here? The way you relax, like suddenly you can breathe again?”
That was it. That was the moment I lost it.
I could feel something clawing at the back of my throat, rage, fear, heartbreak, all of it coiling together until I couldn’t separate one from the other.
“Are you accusing me of something again?” I screamed, the sound tearing from my chest before I could stop it. “What exactly are you trying to force out of me, Claus? Why this days you do think I’ve been, what? Lying to you? Betraying you? Cheating on you?”
He stood too now, his chair scraping harshly against the tile. “That’s not what I said.”
“Then what are you saying?” I shouted, stepping closer until I could feel the heat of his anger mingling with mine. “You’re twisting everything! You’re making something ugly out of nothing!”
He opened his mouth again, but I didn’t let him speak. The words poured out of me like wildfire, uncontrollable, consuming. I hit him in the chest, once, twice, my fists barely making an impact against his solid frame. I wanted to hurt him, but more than that, I wanted him to feel me. To understand that I wasn’t some calm, hollow shell who would just nod and accept his insecurities.
He caught my wrists, his touch firm but not cruel. “Ellie, stop,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re upset..”
“Of course I’m upset!” I cried. “You’re accusing me of being happy! Of finding joy where you can’t! What do you want from me, Claus? To be miserable just to prove my loyalty?”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer. The silence was worse than any insult.
And then suddenly the room tilted.
It happened so fast that at first I thought the rage had made me dizzy. The floor swayed beneath my feet, and I pressed a hand to my stomach instinctively. A sharp cramp twisted through me, deep and primal, unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
I staggered back a step. The world blurred at the edges.
“Ellie?” Claus’s voice softened instantly. The anger vanished from his face, replaced by something else, fear. “Ellie, what’s wrong?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My other hand joined the first over my abdomen. I felt it then, a warm, wet sensation seeping downward. My knees went weak.
When I looked down, time stopped.
Blood.
A small, dark patch spreading across the front of my pale dress, soaking into the fabric, blooming like a nightmare flower.
For a heartbeat, my mind refused to connect the dots. And then it did. The realization struck like lightning: I’m bleeding.
“No,” I whispered. My vision doubled. “No, no, no...”
“Ellie,” Claus moved forward, his face pale as paper. “You’re, Goodness, Ellie, you’re bleeding....”
“I know!” I screamed, my voice breaking apart. “Oh God..Claus..it hurts...”
I tried to take a step, but my legs buckled beneath me. He caught me before I hit the floor, his arms strong around me, but everything inside me was chaos, the pain, terror, disbelief. I could barely breathe. The cramps came again, sharper, tearing through me like blades.
“Ellie, stay with me,” he said, his voice shaking now. “I’m calling the healer”
“No...no, it’s too soon,” I gasped. “The baby...”
My throat closed around the word. The baby. Our baby. The one I had started to imagine—tiny fingers, soft breaths, the faint flutter I had felt every morning like a promise.
And now, that promise was unraveling.
“I can’t lose it,” I whispered, clutching his shirt with trembling fingers. “Please, Claus...I can’t..”
He was crying then. I could feel the tremor in his chest as he held me closer, trying to press the life back into me with sheer force of will.
“Stay awake,” he begged. “Ellie, please, stay awake.”
But I couldn’t. The pain was too much, the blood too warm, the world too dim. I felt the edges of consciousness slipping, fading like light underwater.
Everything became distant, the sound of his voice, even my own heartbeat. I thought about the fight, about how small and stupid it suddenly seemed. About how I wished I could take back every word, every scream, every desperate push against his chest.
I wanted to tell him I was sorry. That I didn’t mean it. That I loved him, even when he made me furious, even when he didn’t understand.
But the words never made it out.
The room tilted again, and the last thing I saw was his face hovering above me, pale and frantic, his lips moving in a prayer I couldn’t hear. Then darkness swallowed everything.