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“Shut up, Harlow,” he gritted out.
My eyes darted around the room, but I didn’t see the doctor. I hadn’t even realized she’d left.
“Where’s the baby?” he asked in a soft, dark voice.
My head shook quickly, and I tried to repeat the words that the doctor had said, but all that was coming out were squeaks of pain.
“Do not show your pain.” He emphasized his demand by digging in harder, and moved his other hand down my leg to press his fingers into the inside of my thigh. “Where is the baby?”
“C-Collin, p-please. I-I-I”
He removed his hands and paced away from me. “Get dressed,” he ordered without looking at me. As I dressed, he spoke. “We’re going to go home. You’ll drive in front of me, and you will stay in front of me. I don’t think I need to tell you what could happen if you tried to get away from me, do I?”
“No!”
“Good; dress faster.” He continued pacing and clenched his hands into fists over and over again. “I will use that time to calm down, and you will use that time to come up with a damn good explanation for what happened Friday night and today, you understand me?”
“Collin, how can—”
He closed the distance between us so fast, I started falling back. “Do you understand me?” he seethed.
“Yes! Yes, of course I do!” I whispered frantically.
Collin nodded and gave me a once-over, then brushed back my hair, which must have gotten messed up when he slammed me down. “Good. Let’s go.” We walked quickly out of the office and the building, but just before we got to my car, he stopped me and held out his hand. “Give me your purse.”
I knew better than to question him when he asked for something, and normally I wouldn’t have thought twice, but now all I could think of was the secret phone. On shaky legs, I handed over the purse and tried not to gasp out loud when he reached inside.
“You won’t need this. I don’t need you making any calls, and you shouldn’t be driving stupid enough to get pulled over.” He handed over my keys and stalked away from me.
I blew out a ragged breath once I was in my car, but the fear only grew with each passing moment on the drive home. I was supposed to be meeting Knox in half an hour, and not only would that not be happening, but I wouldn’t able to let him know that I wouldn’t be there, or why.
By the time we got home I was doing everything not to throw up, but thank God Collin didn’t seem to be any angrier than when we’d left, which hopefully meant he hadn’t found the other phone.
Collin put his arm around me as we walked up to the house, but I knew it was all a ruse for anyone who might be watching us, as everything was. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that the drive home had actually given him time to calm down. Collin only calmed down when he was done teaching me a lesson.
As soon as the front door was shut behind us, Collin grabbed my hair and flung me back against the door.
Putting a hand on either side of my head so he was caging me in, he leaned close
. “Where is the baby?”
“You heard her, there was no—”
“Then how the fuck did you get that test to say positive? How have you been magically feeling like this may be our time, Harlow?” he screamed.
“I don’t know why it said that. You heard her!”
Collin grabbed my shoulders and shook me once before slamming me back, making my head smash against the door. “Not good enough, Harlow!” When my head rolled forward, he grabbed the top of my hair and yanked my head back. “You are worthless,” he spit out. “You mess up time and time again, I’m constantly having to correct you, and you can’t give me what a wife should. After two and a half years, we should at the very least be past me having to correct you, don’t you think? Shit, we should have been past that after the first month!”
“I try,” I whimpered, and attempted to blink away the darkening in my vision. “I don’t want to mess up, I—” My slurred words stopped, and my head rolled forward again.
“Jesus Christ,” he scoffed, and yanked my head back up, but this time his other hand wrapped around my throat and began squeezing. “I’ve looked every time and I’ve never found any birth control pills, which means you hide things better than I thought, or there’s something else going on. But I know there is something going on, Harlow.”
I tried desperately to bring in air, but there was nothing, and he didn’t seem too affected by the fact that I wasn’t breathing or that I was gripping and scratching at his hand and arm, trying to get him to release me.
“So let’s do this differently. Are you going to try to get pregnant now?”
Nothing but choking sounds left my mouth as I continued clawing at his arm.
