The bedroom had turned into a dark, suffocating trap.
"She is crowning! I see the head, but the blood—there is too much blood!" Laila's voice lost its icy composure for a fraction of a second. She reached into the dark space between Isabella's thighs. "Isabella, with everything you have left! Push!"
The final minutes felt like an eternity. Isabella's teeth ground together with such force that a small crack echoed from her jaw, a line of bloody saliva slipping from the corner of her mouth. She didn't scream this time; she gathered the last remnants of her soul, her toes curling into the sheets, her entire body shaking as if in a seizure, until with a wet, heavy rush, the tension broke.
The child slid into Laila's waiting hands.
