AllFreeNovel
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My hand was raised, but for the life of me, I couldn’t swing. Tulips. Horses. Fucking street tacos.
“I’m trying so hard to be the wife you want. There’s nothing you say that I won’t do. I would be a good mother.”
It was my turn to explode.
“You’re not going to be a mother. Not now. Notever.”
The blood seemed to drain from Laura’s face, and her expression turned hard as she looked at me. My brain was jumbled, and my mind was spinning. God, was I really going to be sick? I felt like it, and I couldn’t even figure out why. Had I been this nerve wracked since that one day? Since college and finding out I might be a dad? That suddenly, I wasn’t? That it might not be mine? There was no question about this Laura. If she was pregnant, it belonged to me. Mine;all mine. God, what was I doing? This had definitely been a mistake.
“I warned you. I told you. You kill our baby, you better kill me too.”
“You don’t even know if there is one.”
“Neither do you.”
“You will not have my child. I won’t let you.”
Paler, she turned, blinking through the tears that were spilling free. “Then I guess there’s nothing left to lose.” She jerked against the cuffs. “Well, don’t just stand there. Swing that paddle,husband.Master!”
“You better watch it.”
“Swing! Swing the fucking paddle!” She pulled harder at the cuffs, trying to get to me. “Swing! Do it! Coward! Swing at me! End this. End it!”
Red tinted my vision, and sound wavered as my hand twitched. With any other slave, I would have beat them to a bloody pulp. There would have been nothing left but meat and mush on my floor. But those eyes. That body, scarred and transformed from carrying a life. Possibly carrying another that I’d helped create. Hardwired to protect. Right this very minute, she was twisting and going wild to come after me. To probably kill me or at least try. All for what? Because I wouldn’t let her carry my child? Because she couldn’t go through another loss?
“Do it! You want this. This is what you bought me for.Hit me. I fucking dare you.” Her leg kicked out towards me as she sobbed, barely brushing the side of my calf as she did. “Stop waiting. End this right now. I c-can’t.” She sucked in a deep breath, collapsing to hang by her secured wrists. “I can’t do this any-more. I. I. I hate you!” She barely managed back to her feet, twisting and trying to kick. Blood trailed down all the way to her biceps. If she didn’t stop, she was going to cut her wrists wide open. That did give me pause. I didn’t have leather restraints. I didn’t even have a material at all. The cuffs were metal with slightly jagged, unforgiving edges, intended for pain if the slave fought. Laura wasn’t stopping.
“You knew this was going to happen.”
“Knew what? That you’d turn out to be a horrible husband. A horrible father!”
My teeth ground into each other for reasons that stabbed into me. Reasons, I could barely face. “I told you—”
“And I told you.”
“Your threat. Right. As if you could stop me.”
Her stare narrowed, changing expressions into a look I’d never seen from her before. It was pure predator. Protector. It was a mother, and it brought back that ping. That fluttering deep within that called to me.
“Laura—”
“Madeline. Laura is your fake wife. She’s dead now. You killed her when you ended your game. Now,you face me.”
My brow drew in. “You’re Laura because I say you are.”
“No. That would mean I’d be complying with your wishes. I’m not, anymore. You ruined that.”
Ruined.
Ruined.
My mother said I ruined everything.
Anger boiled through every inch of me.
“You’re Laura, and you’re still my wife.”
“You just said I wasn’t. Besides, I don’t want to be. I can’t be a wife possibly carrying a baby you want to kill. A wife who already lost one child. And you want to take away the other one? Take away something I’m carrying inside me? Take away the only thing I have left? Never! I am not your wife.She is weak. I am not. If you want this baby gone, you’ll fight me to take it.” Again, she kicked. “Do it! I’m right here. I’m right…I’m. I…” Her breaths turned deeper as her eyes started scanning the floor, lost.
