Page 131 of Bene

Standing from the toilet, she quickly flushed the mess down, avoiding looking at the spinning, disgusting water as it went down. That wasn’t the only thing she pointedly ignored, either. The blinking pregnancy test with it’s flashing Pregnant on the small screen taunted her as she went about washing her hands and checked her reflection in the mirror.

Make up still perfect.

Dress unstained.

Certainly nothing to say her life as she knew it was ending today, and it was all because she had brought it on herself.

Oh, her stare was dead, for certain. In her gaze, she found nothing. No emotion, and no life. So far, she had managed to hold it together for this horrible day. How long that would last … Vanna didn’t know.

Finally, she dropped her stare.

The test looked back at her.

Pregnant.

The word flashed as fast and clearly as it had when she took the test twenty minutes ago. The test was supposed to take thirty seconds to give the positive or negative result. Like everything else in her life that seemed to be one giant joke lately, the test took all of ten seconds before the word Pregnant started to blink.

That’s when she puked.

When had she started to suspect?

Vanna couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe it was the fact that two months ago, when Mario forced her into his home, she’d lost her freedom which meant also losing access to her doctor who handled any medication she needed. A missed appointment left her without the birth control shot that she had done religiously.

Never failed.

Until now.

And then she had that moment with Bene in the restaurant bathroom. A split second of weakness where she didn’t think to say—I’m not safe. It wasn’t his fault, or hers, really. Bad decisions seemed to be par for the course with them, and this was just another one of those added onto a very high pile that was still growing every single day.

Her period never came a month or so after missing the shot. It could take a while, the doctor had explained when she’d first starting getting it, and they were required to tell her every last detail of the birth control. She kept holding onto that—it would come.

It didn’t.

Her mornings went from ignoring the passing days on the calendar to attempting to hide the fact she vomited minutes after waking.

Because God …

If Mario even suspected she was pregnant, he would know it couldn’t possibly be his child. She’d not let him touch her once, despite his efforts. Apparently, even a monster like him could have limits because he kept his word on that.

For now.

Until tonight.

And damn … what happened then?

She stared at the pregnancy test again, remembering how quickly she had slipped into the gas station around the corner from the church to grab it while her chaperone stayed in the car, convinced she just needed some Tylenol for a headache.

She had to know.

Before she walked down the aisle.

Before it all ended for her.

She had to know.

And now she did.

She was pregnant with the child of a man she loved, but who hated her, and she learned the news on the day she would be forced to pledge her life, body and soul, to a man who wasn’t worthy to lick the soles of her white leather heels.