Avowed (The Manipulation Trilogy Book 3) by Alicia Taylor, Natalie Townson Page B

She’s had the baby?
    “Beauty,” I breathe. “Are you okay?”
    Ella doesn’t respond to me. She begins singing a lullaby to the bundle in her arms. My pulse races at the thought of meeting our daughter but fear soon sets in when I realise all this blood must have come from somewhere.
    “Hush little baby don’t say a word,” she mumbles quietly. 
    “Ella?” I question again when she doesn’t turn to face me or acknowledge me.
    Her back goes rigid and she slowly turns to face me but what I see when she does turns my blood cold. Her green eyes are soulless. She stares at me like she doesn’t know me and the blood coating her clothes and body seems to be dry.
    My eyes slide down her front to the baby cradled in her arms but it’s lifeless. There are no flailing arms and legs, no sounds to be heard. It’s still. I try to cough past my constricting throat as I look back to Ella’s face but it’s no use. The sight of pain in her eyes nearly drops me to my fucking knees and cuts off all air flow to my lungs.
    Our baby isn’t alive.
    “No,” I whisper. “Tell me she’s okay.”
    A sob rips from Ella, and our daughter falls from her arms to land with a thump against the floor, sending me into action. I stride across the room a scoop the baby up, needing to do something, anything, to help her.
    “Call 999 Ella!” I shout in panic. I wipe blood and gore from her tiny face, trying to clear her airways but my hands just seem to smear it more. “Come on baby,” I rasp.
    Ella doesn’t move. She stands silently behind me, no longer crying, as I work to do something for our daughter. We can’t lose her. My beauty won’t survive another loss in her life. She’ll shut down and I’m not fucking sure I’ll be able to bring her back to life from a loss like this.
    Fuck, I’m not sure I’ll survive this.
    Unbearable pain slices through me as I remove the bloody towel wrapped around the baby and see nothing but more blood. Where the fuck is all the blood coming from?
    “Ella,” I shout, needing her to snap out of her state of shock and help me. I freeze when a maniacal laugh spills from behind me. Turning my head, a wounded sound tears from me and I stumble back and land on my arse at the sight that greets me. It’s not Ella.
    It’s Lydia .
    Blood oozes from her wrists and spills onto the floor as her arms hang limply at her sides. She tilts her head to an odd angle and watches me and I try to back away with the baby. She steps forward, following us with a glint in her eyes that scares the ever living shit out of me.
    “Lydia?”
    A grin spreads across her lips, blood coating her teeth. It’s not a nice grin, not pleasant or friendly. It’s a twisted grin. Her eyes hold me captive as she tilts her head to the other side.
    “Do you like it?” she questions, motioning around the room. I follow her lead and look around to all the blood smeared everywhere. “This is for you. You did this,” she says, bringing my attention back to her.
    “No,” I deny, shaking my head. Lydia slowly nods her head up and down.
    “You did this. All this blood is on your hands.”
    I look down at my hands and they’re covered in blood. My baby’s blood. I search around looking for her. She was just in my lap, but don’t find her. She’s gone.
    “Where is she?” I ask. That maniacal laugh spills from Lydia again. It’s not a natural sound, it’s raw and animalistic. “Where is my baby?” I shout. 
    “You killed her. You killed them both,” she sings in delight as she points behind me.
    Turning my head, my stomach drops out my fucking arse. Ella is lying in a heap on the floor in the corner, and a pool of blood is spread out around her motionless form.
    “No, no, no, no. NO! She’s not dead. She’s not.” Crawling along the floor to get to my beauty is hard. I slip and slide in all the blood, not able to reach her. “ELLA!” I shout, denying what I’m seeing, trying to purge the pain I feel out of my body so I