Stripping Her Defenses Read Online Free Page A

of tires drowned out the song that had just began to play on the radio.
    Not understanding what was going on, my breath hitched in my throat, and a second later, the sound of metal crunching and scraping overwhelmed my ears. My shoulder impacted against something, and I screamed as pain radiated over the upper left side of my body. Then I felt something like claws digging into my left side, over my ribs. The world began to spin around me.
    Terrified that something would happen to my baby, I turned my body away from my driver’s side door as much as I could and hunched over, using my arms to protectively cover my stomach.
    The world kept spinning until there was another devastating impact of some sort against my driver’s side door. More glass shattered. My car finally shuddered to a stop, but the momentum of the sudden cessation threw my body backwards into my door, causing a scream to rip from my throat as the sharp, penetrating claw sensation tore across my mid to lower back. It felt like something was trying to rip me open, and I couldn’t get away.
    I grabbed the steering wheel with my left hand as a debilitating pain stabbed through my abdomen. I felt my mouth open, and my chest and throat vibrated from the wail I let loose, but I didn’t hear it.
    My ears were buzzing, my head felt like it was swimming, and even though I knew my car had stopped moving, the world still felt like it was spinning around me. I tried to suck in some air, but found it impossible to do so. It felt like there was a ten ton elephant sitting on my chest, refusing me the breath I desperately needed.
    Another harsh, crippling pain shot through my midsection, and that was the moment some clarity hit me. My baby! Oh, God, my baby! Was he okay? Had something happened in the crash and this pain was telling me he was in trouble?
    I tried to call out for help, but I still couldn’t hear anything. Screaming in both pain and aggravation, overwhelmed by the sense of helplessness, I begged for help.
    Spots appeared in my line of sight, and the edges of my vision turned black. Please, God, no. Not now! I couldn’t lose consciousness now! I opened my mouth as far as I could and prayed that I was yelling for help as loud as possible. It was hard to know since I still couldn’t hear anything other than the white noise vibrating between my ears. Could anyone hear me?
    As the dreaded black spread across what little I could see of the mangled remains of my car around me, I prayed. Begged God. Offered him everything, including myself, if he would save my child from death. Pleaded for someone, anyone, to come along and help me save my precious boy. Nothing was more important than my son.
    And as the black took over, I hoped fervently that someone had heard my cries for help. Because, as much as I had thought before that a life without Riley in it would be impossible, I now realized that a life without our child was what was truly unimaginable.
     

Chapter
    3
    Kara
    A month later…
    I sat at my kitchen table in the same set of sweats I’d worn to my final check up with the obstetrician yesterday. Going to that office was the cruelest slap in the face I’d ever endured. Whomever had thought it was a good idea to make a woman who’d recently lost her child go to a doctor’s office filled with a bunch of happy pregnant women was a fucking idiot! If I hadn’t had to keep that goddamn appointment so I could finally get out of this godforsaken house, I wouldn’t have gone at all. However, it was something both the doctor and my mother had told me was mandatory before I could leave town. They needed to check my hormones after losing the baby.
    Who gave a shit about my fucking hormones ? It was all I could do to drag my ass out of my bed once a day to pee in the toilet so I wouldn’t soil my bed. Needless to say, I really didn’t care about hormones.
    A cup of hot tea was placed in front of me. I looked up to where my mom stood on the other side of the table.