He was right: it did sound crazy.

Despite having never discussed the topic at any length with Ben, Melody highly doubted that he had spoken to a seer or saw something terrible in his tea leaves that would provoke such a dramatic reaction. He’d flown across the entirety of Scotland and half of England to find her here, so whatever feeling he had had to be substantial enough to warrant this behavior. “You think something is going to happen to me?” She echoed, still entirely unsure of how she felt about the revelation. He was desperate, that much was obvious, and her immediate reaction had been that someone had died.

She leaned heavily against the door behind her, her knees suddenly weak beneath her. There were hundreds of times in the past four years that Melody had considered her end and how she’d orchestrate it. She considered potions and spells or the simplicity of a knife. She thought of where she’d do it and was stopped only when she considered who might find her. It couldn’t be Ben — the guilt over her death would eat him alive. Nor could it be their housekeeper or any of her friends. However, by the time Melody managed to plot out the right place, she was pregnant and life no longer seemed so bleak.

Now, Melody felt as desperate as he that they somehow prevent her end. She was Nora’s sole caregiver. She knew the routines and what the little sounds her daughter made meant. She sang her to sleep every night and had such hope over what it would be like to watch Nora grow. She couldn’t die — not now, not like this.

“I’ll go with you.” She told him shakily. “But we’re taking Nora. I can’t - if it’s going to happen here - “ What if instead of her dying Nora did? There was no life for her without her daughter. There was no hope, no future. “I can’t leave her, Ben. We can take her somewhere else if you think it’s too - “ Melody squeezed her eyes shut against the panic now storming her brain. They had to get Nora out too, they couldn’t risk her safety.

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