Chapter 78

The night was restless, to say the least. There wasn't enough ice in the world to help my current situation, and Tylenol might as well have been a damn Tic Tac. Sometime in the middle of the night, I decided a bath might help relieve the aches and soreness.

When I pulled up my shirt, I gasped at the purple and blue marks on my belly that rounded my side to my back. It was no wonder I couldn't get comfortable or ease the pain. By the looks of the bruises, I'd taken a beating.

I cautiously stepped into the warm bath water, but leaning against the tub hurt more than sitting straight. My hand ran over my belly, and I made a mental note that the hardness hadn't gone away, but hell, maybe it had felt that way before, and I just hadn't realized it. My stomach may have been this way, but I knew for sure the throbbing waves that rolled up my spine had not existed prior to the fall.