Page 7
Légère
Weak, shameful
“You’d like the problem to go away that quickly, wouldn’t you?” my husband asked Réjean. “Unless you want the truce to be over today, the marital agreement will stand until I can speak to your father.”
“If you wish to raise a bastard, that is entirely your choice,” Réjean retorted.
My husband’s spit was still sliding down Réjean’s face, and he was too proud to wipe it off. His status had already been damaged; he could not risk it further.
“You will pay for what you have done,” Étienne said coldly. “Leave this property, you and all your family.”
As frightening as the red-hot flame of his anger had been, his cold granite face was worse, as my husband escorted me with hard, tight fingers into his SUV.
“Pinoteaux family are dogs.”
What was he going to do with me? He hadn’t handed me over to my brother to be left on the side of the mountain to fend for myself. Did that mean somewhere, deep down, he still had doubts about what he had seen? That deep down, buried below all the bullshit someone had been feeding him, he still loved me?
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Come with us,” Placidie said, putting a hand around my arm, the tips of her sharp nails jabbing into my skin.
“Where? I don’t want to,” I said, feeling tears prickle my eyes. “Please, Étienne, just give me five minutes. I don’t understand what you are even accusing me of.”
Faustine’s lip curled up at my obvious distress.
“Shouldn’t it be obvious? Cheating.”
“I would never—”
But Étienne had his fingers firmly on my arm and there was no option but to follow.
I was placed into the back of the SUV, my palms slick with sweat, and we set off down the windy mountain roads, with Étienne at the wheel.
“Stepping out on Étienne?” Faustine asked coolly. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d dare to face his temper.”
I gasped. “Is that what you all think happened? Étienne, tell them. Tell them how much I love you. The very idea is. . . ridiculous. I’m nine months pregnant!”
“Don’t talk to me about the baby. Now get out.”
I looked around, bewildered to find myself at the small, brown-brick building.
“Where are we going? Why are we at the hospital?”
Faustine smiled at me. “Can’t you guess?”
But I couldn’t. I just thought they must be concerned about my baby, making sure he was all right.
I was hooked up to the monitors, my heart in my throat until I heard that reassuring thump thump thump of his tiny strong heartbeat.
There you are, I thought, smiling at the screen as he came onto the ultrasound feed, his little feet kicking like crazy.
Oh, you’re just like your daddy. Restless and full of energy.
Étienne had gone to get a doctor, and I was left alone in the cold sterile room with Placidie and Faustine.
“You just could not keep your legs together, could you?” Placidie said, her mouth in a thin line. “I warned him. I warned him how it would be.”
Tears were rolling down my cheeks now, and I couldn’t stop them.
