Bang, bang, bang.
My eyes shot open, heart racing, breath shallow. The sound was real. My bedroom door.
"Bella! Bella, wake up!" Leo's muffled voice came through, bright and too loud for morning. "Our in-law is here!"
The dream, with its visceral terror, clung to me like a shroud. The blood, the violence, Adrien's pleading eyes – it was all too real. My body trembled, and I instinctively reached for my abdomen, a phantom pain echoing. The jarring reality of Leo's voice, however, was a sudden, sharp break from the nightmare.
"In-laws?" I croaked, my voice thick with sleep and the lingering residue of fear. The banging on the door was insistent, almost frantic.
"Your rich husband's mother is in our living room right now!"
That woke me up. "What?!" I shot upright, hair a mess, pajamas clinging. My heart went from nightmare panic to very real panic in seconds.
I stumbled to the door, yanked it open, and Leo grinned like he'd just dropped the biggest bomb. "Told you."
