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"I would rather you weren’t married to that fucking monster," I remarked, and she managed a shaky laugh.
"I’ll find a way to figure it out," she promised me. "I promise. Not like I can pretend I’m faithful if I’m carrying your child, can I?”
Carrying my child. When she said that out loud, it was as though the enormity of the situation really began to set in for me, in a way it hadn’t before. I planted my hands on her belly, even though it was still flat. She wasn’t showing yet, and I figured she wasn’t going to be for a long time, but I couldn’t help but lean forward and plant a kiss against her—against our child, growing somewhere inside her.
"I’ll do everything I can to take care of you two," I swore to her, gazing up at her, my voice filled with such sincerity it almost caught me off-guard. I had never meant anything more in my life.
"Thank you, Alex," she whispered to me, and I could tell from the way she spoke how much this meant to her. I just wanted her to be okay. I wanted her and this child to be safe, no matter what. I needed them to be. My family—my future.
And I would be damned if I let Gregor get in the way of it.
Chapter Nineteen – Morgan
I groaned as I rolled over in bed, a sickness twisting in my stomach. Was this what it was going to be like for the rest of the pregnancy? I felt terrible. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up without losing my mind.
"You want some tea?" Alex suggested as soon as he clocked that there was something wrong. I nodded, rubbing a hand over my face.
"Peppermint, please," I told him. "Something to settle my stomach. I feel horrible."
"You stay right there," he replied, dropping a kiss on my forehead. "I’ll be back in a minute, okay?"
"Okay," I murmured, pulling the covers back up to my chin and closing my eyes to stop the room from spinning. I swear, since I had found out I was pregnant a couple of days before, it was like my body had kicked into high gear, bullying me with all these awful symptoms and morning sickness. I knew my mom had had a rough time when she’d been pregnant with Leo and I, and I figured I would be the same way.
I hadn’t told her about the baby yet, but I couldn’t wait to share the news when the time was right. She was going to be so happy; I was sure of it. She'd wanted to be a grandmom for as long as I could remember, and no doubt she would jump at the chance to help take care of our little one. I knew there was still a whole heap for us to work out when it came to the logistics of the situation, but right now, right here, I could just focus on how I was going to share this precious news with her when the time was right.
My phone buzzed on my bedside table, and I leaned over to see who it was but grinned when I realized it was my mother. Oh, maybe I could tell her now? No, I wanted to be face-to-face when I did that, I was sure of it.
Still, I took the call, lifting the phone to my ear, already looking forward to hearing my mother’s voice. But, as soon as I did, my stomach dropped because the person I heard on the other end of the line wasn’t her.
"Morgan," Gregor snarled down the line at me. "That’s you, isn’t it?"
My heart stopped in my chest. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! What the hell was going on? I thought my mother and Leo would be safe out there, so far removed from everything, but the sound of his voice was a warning—a reminder that it was never going to be that easy. I clasped my hand over my mouth, trying not to let out the whimper of terror that was hitting me full force right now.
"I have someone who wants to talk to you," he told me mockingly, and I heard the phone change hands, though I knew at once who was going to be on the other end of the line.
"Morgan?" my mother murmured. It was as though she was a million miles away right now, talking to me from another realm—from this nightmare dimension, where she had been taken by the last man I ever wanted to be anywhere near her.
"Mom!" I exclaimed. "Mom, are you okay? What’s going on?"
"I … I'm okay," she told me, and I could tell at once that she was lying; I could hear it in her voice. She didn’t want me to panic, but how the hell could I not? The one man I’d wanted to keep her away from, the one person I had wanted her to stay safe from, and he had her, right there in his grasp. I didn’t know what I was meant to do.
"She is for now, anyway," Gregor added, bringing the phone back to his ear. "But it’s not going to stay that way for long, Morgan. You hear me?"
I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn’t know what I thought would happen. I had been living in this fantasy, convincing myself that I could escape from everything he’d demanded of me, but now, I was being faced with the cold, hard reality—I couldn’t. And I would risk my family if I tried.
"You know where the safehouse is," he pressed me. I nodded, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t hear me.
"Speak to me, Morgan," he barked. "Or this is over for her. You hear me? I’ll finish her. I won’t even think twice."
I felt tears pricking my eyes and tried to steady my breathing. Oh, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to scream for Alex, but I knew it would give away that he was still involved, and Gregor might murder my mother in cold blood just out of revenge. I had seen what he was capable of, I had woken in the smoldering fire of that house, and I was sure he would take out my mother without a second thought.
"You’ve been stupid, but you’re lucky that I’m a forgiving man," he continued, his voice almost eerily calm. "You should be grateful for that, Morgan, or else I would have executed you and your entire family already. You come back to me, and we can put this all behind us. But if you don’t …"
I heard the click of a gun at the other end of the line. My mind screamed in terror; my body numb as the hugeness of this began to set in.
"We’ll be raising our child without a grandmother," he spat. "Meet me here in an hour. If you don’t make it in time, well, I’ll take care of this. And then, I’ll come for you. You understand?"
"Gregor—" I pleaded with him, but before I could get out another word, the phone went dead. I stared down at it for a moment, shock consuming me.
