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No way. I feel sick. So sick that I run to the toilet and throw myself down just in time before I hurl. After I’ve flushed, I wash my mouth and hands in the sink and stare at the woman in the mirror. I thought I knew that woman, but the longer I look, the more I feel a stranger is staring back at me.
My body tenses and cramps up, and I hold my belly as I sit down on the toilet and wait until it passes. I feel as though someone’s trying to rip into me, and I feel so dizzy all of the sudden. What’s happening to me?
I open the tiny wall closet, hoping to find medicine, but there’s only one bottle of painkillers, and it contains a single pill. Lucky me. I pop it and swallow it down without water. But something else in that closet catches my eye, and I can’t tear them away.
A pregnancy test.
I swallow again and contemplate closing the door and pretending I never saw it, but I did. And a part of me wonders …
I grab it, pull it out of the box, and take off the plastic. Then I sit down on the toilet and look at it for a few seconds. Oh, what the heck. It’s not as if I’ll lose anything from not knowing.
Besides, my panties were already ripped off while I was in the grass, so I’m already halfway there.
With spread legs, I push the stick underneath and pee on it.
Then the waiting begins.
I bite my lips as I tightly clutch the stick.
How long does it take? Seconds? Minutes?
Time is ticking, and so is my heart because the last time I did this, I wasn’t prepared … but now, I’m even more unprepared.
Because when that stick turns bright blue … two lines … my heart sinks into my shoes.
No, no, no, no!
I can’t be … pregnant?
How?
When?
Then it dawns on me … that time with Noah in the Jacuzzi.
The stick drops from my hands, and I immediately run out of the bathroom and shut the door behind me, staring at the wood as if the devil himself is behind those walls.
Thud. Thud.
“Natalie?”
It’s Noah.
Shit.
“Natalie? I know you’re in there. We need to talk,” he says.
“Wait,” I mutter as I hastily put on a new outfit. All they have in the closet are dresses, so I have to make do with a black flowery one.
“I’m coming in,” Noah says.
The door opens before I have a chance to answer, and I’ve only just zipped up my dress. The guards have gone, and I assume Noah told them to leave. Typical.
Still, I’m quaking on my feet when I come face to face with the man who is supposed to be my husband … and now the father of my child too.
No, I can’t think like that. Maybe that stick showed something in error. That happens, right?
“I—” He’s already opened his mouth and was about to say something, but then he stops. “You look beautiful.”
The sheer honesty in the way he says it brings a flush to my cheeks.
I shouldn’t let him get to me like that, but it’s hard in a place like this … And with a man who can so easily spin my heart around his finger.
But I can’t allow him to just wriggle his way back in.
“Look, I wanted to apologize for—”
“Don’t,” I interject, raising my finger. No matter how good the apologies sound, they’re void if he doesn’t mean it. “You’re not sorry for what you did; you’re mad I managed to escape and that you got caught in a lie.”
“I didn’t want it to be like this. I don’t want to hurt you,” he says. “I only wanted to protect you.”
“By keeping me away from my mother?” I hiss.
His face turns dark. “I did it for your own good.”
Always the lies … so many lies …
I push the tears back. “No, you did it so I wouldn’t talk to my father about your dirty plans.”
Noah’s eyes suddenly widen, and I know I have him.
“He doesn’t know I’m his daughter, does he?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer, which is all I need to know the truth.
“I knew it,” I growl, and I immediately barge at him.
He grabs my arm. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Let me go. I’m the president’s daughter,” I say through gritted teeth.
“You’re forgetting you’re also my wife now. A patriarch stands above all, including matriarchs and daughters of presidents,” he quips. “And do you honestly think he’ll listen to you? You’re mistaken if you think he’s a kind man.”
I’m fuming, and I don’t believe a word he says. “I don’t care. It’s worth trying.”
“You’re just doing this to try to hurt me,” he says. “I know I’ve caused you a lot of pain, but doing this won’t make it any better, Natalie, and you know that. Revenge is never an answer to solve your problems.”
