Chapter Thirty-One
I arrived at the hospital as soon as I received the call, and now I felt uneasy as I stood outside of my wife’s room. I couldn’t believe this was happening. “I’m sorry, Mr. Brannington. Your wife had what’s called a chemical pregnancy.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” I asked her.
“She had a miscarriage.”
“But, she’d taken a pregnancy test this morning that was negative.”
Or was it? She had told me that she wasn’t pregnant, but how could I be sure after the fiasco with the birth control? Sure, she had been more agreeable lately, but that could’ve all been an act. I hated the doubt creeping into my head, but I couldn’t shake it no matter how hard I tried.
“Will she be able to conceive again? Carry a baby to term?” I had to ask. If she couldn’t, I’d have a decision to make for the future.
Not now, though. Not tonight. Ekaterina had to be devastated.
“Of course, although I would like to run a few more tests. Many women experience this, especially those who are so early on in their pregnancies as your wife was. Most do not even realize they’d conceived yet.”
Maybe Dr. Kane was right. I had no idea what to believe, and to know that something I needed so badly was gone, and before I even had a chance to come to terms with it all felt a lot like the rug had been pulled out from under me.
I couldn’t think about my own needs right now, so I headed back inside Ekaterina’s room. Not sure what to expect, I didn’t anticipate to see her fully dressed and pacing back and forth. At the sound of the door, she stopped, then turned in my direction.
“I want to go home. Dr. Kane said there’s no reason for me to stay any longer.”
“Are you certain? She didn’t mention that to me out in the hall.”
“You’re talking to my doctor about me without me even being there?”
She now seemed angry about that, which made me narrow my eyes. Were my earlier suspicions really that off base? I cleared my throat and ignored the look of righteous indignation on her pale cheeks.
“You are my wife.”
“I’m not some possession, though. My medical history is all mine.”
“What are you trying to hide?” I asked her.
She just shook her head as her eyes rolled back into her head. “I’m not getting into this with you while here at the hospital. I want to leave, so I’m?—”
“Let me at least make sure that you are ready. I?—”
“I wasn’t asking for your permission. I came here via ambulance, but I know Eli’s here because I saw him pacing before you arrived. I’ll go home with him.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she was right. The hospital wasn’t the place. Throwing my hands up in surrender, I stepped out of the doorway. “Whatever. I’ll see you at the house.”
I spun around and stormed out of the emergency department.
Nolan went to speak until he saw what had to be a murderous expression on my face, and wisely decided not to.
He cleared his throat as I passed him, then followed behind me.
Not many knew how important a child was to me right now, but my right-hand man did.
And it had to be that godforsaken will that had me so upset.
Right?
Not even wanting to give credence to any thoughts flashing through my head, I went straight to the SUV, then waited for Nolan to take the wheel. Once the man stuck the key into the ignition, he looked over at me.
“To your grandfather’s? Or to your place?”
“My place. I can’t stomach another second with my Daideó today.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened in there, boss.”
“What happened?” I asked him.
“I wasn’t snooping, but I heard your exchange with the doctor. I truly am sorry, King.”
“Just drive,” I said to him as I turned my attention to the window on my right side.
A half hour later, I was home, and Ekaterina was not. I’d called Eli to see what the holdup was, and he advised that she had wanted to stop by the gym to grab her things from her locker. Since she was with him, I wouldn’t worry about her whereabouts any longer.
I did need to relax and settle these raging thoughts in my head.
I’d lost a child I didn’t know existed, and might’ve even lost my puisín, too.
The latter shouldn’t have bothered me so much, but she had gotten under my skin, and possibly even into my heart.
Hell, I knew that she had, and that pissed me off more than anything else she could’ve done.
Or so I thought. A short while later, I received a phone call from her hot yoga instructor, who had wanted to check on her. She must’ve already been gone before Ekaterina got to the gym. I told her that my wife would be okay soon, but I didn’t divulge any personalinformation to this stranger.
It was only when I got off the phone that I thought about what the doctor said she had.
My cell phone was still in my hand, and I googled both ‘miscarriage’ and ‘hot yoga’ and saw that it was not recommended for pregnant women at all.
Surely, my wife would’ve known that. Despite any tests, there was always the possibility.
She was way too smart for her own damn good sometimes.
I then thought about the drinking at Cillian’s party and being careless enough to get drugged, when again it should’ve been something she knew about.
And earlier, she hadn’t seemed very upset about the miscarriage.
“Did you do this on purpose?” I asked aloud.
Unaware that Ekaterina had arrived home, the sound of the front door slamming broke me out of my thoughts, and I leveled my gaze at her. She was shaking her head in disbelief as she stood there. We stared at each other for several seconds before she closed her eyes and reopened them.
“Fuck you, Kingston!” She walked over to the wine fridge and pulled out a bottle of Irish whiskey.
“Hey, you shouldn’t drink that until...” I said, intending to warn her about drinking while pregnant, but her sarcastic laugh and my realization again of what happened stopped me midsentence.
“It’s a good thing that I’m absolutely not with child. At least not anymore.”
“We should talk about this,” I said to her as I got up off the couch. She ignored me completely as she poured some liquor into a glass, then tipped it back to swallow the amber liquid in one swallow. She quickly poured another. “Don’t you think you’re overdoing it now?”
This time, she turned around, and while I expected her to flay me with her quick tongue, she instead hurled the glass at my head, and I ducked just in time for it to shatter into pieces behind me.
“What the fuck, Ekaterina?”
“I hate you, and your entire family. I wish I had never laid eyes on you...your cousin...your brother ...” she spat out and placed emphasis on the reference to Princeton.
“You need to calm the fuck down,” I said, especially as memories of what happened last time she had gotten pissed off at a Brannington while drinking came flooding back.
Granted, I didn’t intend to let her out of here to drive, and I definitely wouldn’t allow her to run me down, but I still needed her to cool down.
“And you need to fuck off. I wish it had been...”
Whatever she had meant to say, she stopped before saying it. My gaze met hers, and there was nothing but pure hate in those normally chocolate depths of hers. She was not only angry as hell, like a wounded hellcat, but the color of them was pitch black.
Is this what Princeton saw before his life was viciously ripped away from him?
“You wish it had been what? And when? You wish it would’ve been me instead of Princeton that night at the party?”
Her head snapped back, and she covered her face with her hands.
Her entire body began to shake, and I thought she might have been crying, but as I got closer, I heard her laugh.
The evil bitch was happy that my brother was gone, and obviously getting a kick out of taking his life and imagining it had been mine instead.
She finally uncovered her face. “ This is it, and has been it all along.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You hate me because I took your brother away from you. Even after what he did to me, you?—”
“Princeton never attacked you. He had no need to,” I reminded her. “He was a Brannington for fuck’s sake.”
“Doesn’t make him any less of a would-be rapist.”
Now, I was the one getting angry. “We both know you’d lied about him to save your own ass. Your father likely put you up to it, but I know the truth.”
“You wouldn’t know the truth if it bit you in the ass. Your brother attacked me, and I tried to get away. He jumped in front of me .”
“Because you were acting crazy like you are now. You?—”
“You haven’t seen crazy yet, so get the fuck out of my way. I can’t stand the sight of you right now.”
“That makes two of us,” I said as I angrily turned and grabbed my cell phone and keys.
Once I made it to the door, I placed my hand on the handle, and she let out a wry laugh.
“You can run all you want, but you’ll never outrun the truth.
Your brother paid for his sins, and one day the two of us will pay for all of ours.
My being stuck in this loveless marriage of hell is part of my penance.
Losing our baby was another. Soon, you will get yours, too.
And when you do, I hope it hurts just as much. ”
I threw up my middle finger as I exited the loft.
Once I closed the door, I rested against it.
Ekaterina was wrong about one thing. I was already paying for my sins, and being married to her was just part of the price.
Only, I couldn’t tell whether it was the love or hate for her that hurt the most. It didn’t matter.
I finally regained my composure, then brushed Nolan off as I headed to my Porsche.
I needed to take a drive to clear my head, if that was even possible at this point.