"I heard you booked the best VIP suite here. You wouldn't mind giving it up for me, would you? Just this once?"
Joel stared at me, his face cold.
"Pauline. You really know how to run, don't you."
"What's next—hiding from me in a hospital?"
He didn't even glance at my swollen belly.
"Give the room to Lily. She's having complications."
I sat on the bench and looked up at him.
"I need a room too."
Joel let out a cold laugh.
"A room for what? There's nothing wrong with you."
"Lily's delicate. What are you doing fighting her for a bed?"
Lillian stepped forward and snatched the hospital bag I'd set on the chair.
She ripped the zipper open and the baby clothes inside spilled across the floor.
She nudged them with her foot, lip curling.
"Oh my, Pauline—what even is all this? These little rags?"
"Joel got me a full set of custom ones, you know."
She stood on top of those soft little garments, laughing so hard her shoulders shook.
Joel watched her from the side, indulgent, unbothered.
"Enough. Forget about her. Let's go to the room."
I looked at the clothes on the floor, dirty now under her shoes.
I'd sewn every stitch of them by hand over the past six months.
I stood up slowly.
"Take the room."