The next morning, Ivy woke up late. When she came down, breakfast had long ended. She strolled to the kitchen and requested some food before coming back to wait for it at the dining area. Thankfully, Cammie and Lottie had gone shopping so it was only her and the helpers in the house.
When the maid finished setting the table, Ivy was surprised to see how much food they had dished for her.
Seeing the confusion on her mistress's face, the young maid smiled. "Madam asked the cook to prepare a banquet for you since you're expecting a child," she explained and added, "Would this be okay?"
Ivy scoffed. "Why am I not surprised?" She muttered under her breath before turning to the maid. "This is enough. You may leave."
The maid took a bow and returned to the kitchen. Ivy stared at the food for a moment, her appetite lost. She picked a few pancakes and ate them before leaving the table and returning to her room.
It wasn't up to an hour after she returned to her room that Ivy started to feel different. She started to feel a kind of heat radiating from the pit of her stomach. At first, she thought it was merely a stomach ache but after almost ten minutes, she was writhing in pain and there was a red line of blood trailing down her legs.
"Dad!" Ivy cried. She was sweating and rolling on the floor in tears. Her hands were wrapped around her stomach. She groaned in pain as she struggled to reach her phone and dialed her best friend's number.
It rang thrice before her friend picked it up.
"Hey, Ivy, what's up?" A young woman's cheerful voice rang on the other side of the phone but Ivy was in too much pain to notice.
"Kendra… hurry, my baby…." Ivy gritted.
"Ivy, are you alright?" Kendra's cheerful voice was instantly tainted with fear. "What baby? Talk to me! You know what, hang in there!" Kendra said and ended the call.
Ivy closed her eyes, praying that nothing would happen to her child. She knew something was wrong when she was served a banquet but how could she be so stupid to believe that Lottie would care for her or her child? She had been so gullible and had eaten from the food.
Ten minutes later, the door slammed open and Kendra ran in. She immediately crouched on the floor where Ivy's head was only to see her friend bleeding and struggling to stay awake.
"Hang in there, Ivy!" Kendra tried to lift Ivy but the latter had added a lot of weight. After a few tries, she got Ivy to stand and wrapped her hands around her neck and then they walked out of the room carefully.
The hall was empty, save for the maid who had served Ivy. She was the only one in the living hall when Kendra and Ivy left the house. Immediately, she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.
Meanwhile, Kendra's driver helped Ivy into the car before driving out of the compound like a maniac.
"Kendra," Ivy whispered, holding Kendra's arm with one hand, "My baby… please don't let anything happen to my baby. Please help me."
Kendra frowned. She did not understand what Ivy meant by a baby. Nonetheless, she took Ivy's hands in hers and nodded. "Your baby is safe, Ivy. I promise." She sighed, turned to the driver and hissed. "Hurry up, Harry!"
"Yes, ma'am!" The driver replied and quickly stepped on the accelerator.
….
The driver ran into the hospital while Kendra ran behind them. He was carrying Ivy who was already unconscious. As soon as they ran into the hospital, Ivy was placed on a stretcher and a number of nurses gathered around, wheeling her to A and E. As soon as the stretcher crossed the doors of an Emergency room, Kendra and Harry stopped as they could not go further.
Kendra paced up and down, chewing her nails while Harry returned to park the car properly before returning. When he saw how tense his mistress was, Harry sighed.
"Miss Lucas, you look tense," Harry said and Kendra stopped pacing, turning to him. "I believe Miss Rhys will be fine," he added with a small smile.
Kendra shook her head and exhaled slowly. "I hope so, Harry. I really do," she whispered, looking at the dreadful lights on the emergency door.
….
Almost thirty minutes after they had taken Ivy in,, the emergency room's door opened and a doctor came out. Immediately she saw him, Kendra sprang to her feet and rushed to him.
"How… How is she, doctor?" Kendra asked in a panic-stricken voice. She glanced at the closed door and whispered, "She'll be fine, right?"
The doctor, a middle- aged man with a goatee beard nodded. He put his hands into his pockets and stuck a leg in front of the other. "She'll be fine, so will the child," he replied. "The mother seemed to have consumed something that would have harmed the foetus. Luckily, you brought her here just in time."
Kendra paused. "Pregnancy?"
The doctor nodded. "Yes. As a matter of fact, she is about six weeks gone," he confirmed as Kendra's pupils shrank but he did not notice. He continued. "Right now, we've placed her on medications and watch. So, she'll be asleep for a while. In the meantime, come with me to fill out a form."
Dazedly, Kendra followed the doctor. She did not even know how she filled the form and even returned to the room where they had taken Ivy to.
'Ivy is pregnant?' Kendra thought. She found it hard to believe that her best friend, Ivy, of all people, was six weeks pregnant and she had no idea. It was almost impossible. She had thought Ivy was acting up about the baby but hearing it from the doctor felt like she had just been slapped with a hard reality.
How?
…
At about five o'clock in the evening, Ivy finally woke up. The first thing she did was to place her hand on her flat tummy.
"My… baby?" She began to cry.
Kendra, who had been standing by the window, turned around. "The baby is safe," she replied.
Ivy lifted her tear filled eyes and called out to Kendra in a weak voice. For a moment, neither of them said anything to each other and only spoke with their eyes.
Ivy's heterochromic eyes asked: "Did something happen to my baby? Is it safe?"
Kendra smiled and came to sit next to her friend, patting her legs gently. "The baby is safe and so are you."
Ivy's tears fell as she threw herself on Kendra. "Thank you, Kendra. I thought I had lost my baby… Thank you so much."
Kendra patted Ivy's back with a small smile. After the hug, she met Ivy's gaze. "So, when were you going to tell me about this baby?"
Ivy looked away. She apologized to Kendra and then narrated everything that had happened. Right from when her father had informed her of the alliance with the Reynolds, to when she had conceived a plan and even executed it. By the time she finished, Kendra's expression had turned to one of disbelief..
She shook her head. "Wait! Let me get this straight…. Your stepmother tried to get rid of the baby by sabotaging your meal?"
Ivy nodded. "Unfortunately…"
"How could she do that!? What kind of a stepmother puts her stepdaughter's life on the line because of her ego?" Kendra suddenly felt like going over to strangle Lottie.
She took a deep breath and turned to Ivy. "What are you going to do now?" She inquired worriedly. "I don't support you going back to that house. Next time, you're really going to die!"
Ivy sighed. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them. She looked at Kendra and responded in a whisper, "I have only one choice now."