The next morning, my friend and I waited outside the civil affairs bureau. To my surprise, the first person we saw was Lily.
My fists clenched tightly beneath my sleeves and the pain in my still-healing fingertips, raw from scraping against the door, shot through me like a shock to my heart. Her eyes were red and tears of grievance welled up, ready to fall.
Seeing my friend and me, she slowly approached, sobbing while she said, "I know you didn't lock me in the house on purpose that day. It was a misunderstanding. Robin wanted to file a report, but I stopped him. I wanted to see you earlier, but they insisted on taking turns watching over me at the hospital. I just couldn't get away."
She paused, as if recalling something and glanced at my flat belly. "Is your baby okay? You waited so long to get pregnant ... If anything happened, it might take another seven years. Oh, no, Jacob said he doesn't want to tolerate you anymore, so this could be your only child ..."
I couldn't believe she dared mention my child after what she had done. Before she could finish, I slapped her hard across the face and shouted, "You can fool those idiots, but don't fool yourself!"
Though I didn't hit her that hard, she fell to the ground, clutched her face and cried hysterically. The memory of the fire rushed back and my vision turned red with rage. I took a step forward, ready to hit her again.
But before I could act, I heard Jacob's furious voice behind me, "Stop! What are you doing?"
The next second, he suddenly raised his foot and kicked me in the side of my waist. I flew to the side.
My best friend tried to catch me, but with her injured leg, she fell with me to the ground. The two of us were piled together in a mess and her face was twisted in pain.
Before we could get up, Robin and a group of policemen rushed over and surrounded us, ordering, "Detain these two suspects!" he ordered.
Only then did Jacob remember the baby I was carrying. He turned to me in a panic, his voice trailing off, "Be careful, the baby ..."
But he stopped mid-sentence when he saw my flat stomach, the hem of my clothes revealing nothing but emptiness. His panicked expression froze and he slowly lifted his gaze and asked, "Where's the baby?"
