Her belly cramped angrily—a tearing, brutal pain that radiated out and settled in her lower back—aching, sharp and ceaseless. It drove her to curl up on her side and tremble. She felt a sticky wetness pooling between her legs, felt it spilling over the back of her thigh. She hoisted herself out of bed, instinctively keeping her hips raised and clear of the sheets. Bent over, she hurried into her ensuite bathroom and sat shakily on the toilet. Another cramp racked her, this one more brutal than the last, and she wrapped her arms around her belly, leaned forward and rocked back and forth until it eased. She ran a wad of toilet paper between her legs and got scared when it and her fingers came back soaked in blood. “Ohmygawd,” she breathed and flushed it away. Fina counted back in her head. Her period was overdue, by at least two weeks. She hadn’t thought about it earlier because she’d been too overwhelmed by everything else going on in her life to pay much attention to her body.
