Crushed (Breaking the Rules Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

manage to army-crawl under the door of the handicapped stall. I don’t want to imagine what shit—literally—I’ve crawled through to get to my wife.
    I’d do much worse for her.
    Once I’m fully on the other side, I climb back to my feet. She still won’t look up or answer me. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I hug her.
    “Baby, what’s wrong?”
    Her head lifts, and the pain on her face is gut wrenching. She looks between her legs and pulls her knees apart to show me her panties.
    Her bloody panties.
    “It’s probably normal. We’ll get you to the hospital right away. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
    Her bloodshot eyes meet mine. “This is not normal, Jackson.”
    And she was right.
    That night was awful. I’ve never seen my wife cry so much. She was doubled over with hysteria when the ER doctor delivered the news that she’d lost our baby at thirteen weeks.
    “What do you think, Jackson? Would you like to set up a lunch or something to talk with them?”
    I hear sobbing in the bathroom, and my back straightens. “Set it up, Mom. I’ll talk to Andi.” She’ll need some convincing to adopt, but I’ll do it.
    She promises to let me know, and then I hang up, tossing my phone onto the bed as I rush into the bathroom.
    “Are you okay?” I demand as I tear the shower curtain open.
    She nods. “I need to talk to you about something.”
    I sigh, relieved that her cries weren’t from something worse. Another loss. “Good, because I need to talk to you about something as well.”
    I finish undressing before I join her in the shower. She’s already washed her hair and body, so I quickly do the same. Once we’re both clean, I slide my arms around her and pull her against my chest. We hug tight under the spray of the hot water, the silence thick as we both prepare to tell the other something big.
    “You go first,” I say and kiss the top of her head.
    She sighs but bursts out what she has to say. “I was on the miscarriage moms’ site again and one lady miscarried after sex, Jackson. We can’t take that risk. I messed up tonight, but it can’t happen again.”
    I want to be angry with her, but I can’t. It’s her body. What the fuck do I know?
    “Did you call Dr. Ellis and ask him?”
    “No, but—”
    I interrupt her. “Well, I think your doctor should have the final say. Not some woman from the Internet, Andi. Before you make any decisions based on one thing you’ve read, call him first.”
    She’s silent. She resents the fact that I hate that fucking website. Every time she gets on, she becomes so damn obsessed. I don’t trust the reliability of those posting one bit.
    “Fine. I will call him.”
    There it is again. Fine. Fine does not mean “fine” in this household. Fine means “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
    Another extended silence stretches out between us. Even though we’re hugging one another, she feels so far away from me.
    “Your turn,” she murmurs after a while. The water in the shower is quickly cooling.
    “Mom says there’s a family, the Grimeses, in her church that wants to do an independent adoption. I told her we’d meet with them.”
    She pushes away from me and snaps her head to look up at me. “You did what?”
    “Listen, Andi, we’ve talked about this many times—that, if things don’t work out, we’ll try adoption. This is a perfect opportunity. We don’t have to go overseas like Bray and Olive did for their little girl, Astryd. We can do it all here— in our city. ”
    She pins me with an angry glare. “You’ve already set yourself up for disappointment. You’re already working on plan B when there’s nothing wrong with plan A! You aren’t giving me or this baby a chance, Jackson.”
    Before I can respond, she yanks open the shower curtain to get away from me. To fucking run away.
    “Stop,” I growl and clutch onto her upper arm. “Plan A is always in force. We want to have multiple children. If both plans work, Andi, it will be