Chapter Three #3
The door clicks softly shut behind her. The room seems to still. Stretch. Tighten.
My throat closes. My hand instinctively presses to my abdomen.
Ashon doesn’t speak. And he probably doesn’t need to. With the air between us suddenly electrified and heavy, every second seems to shriek loud and condemning.
When I chance a glance at the man frozen at the foot of my bed, he’s statue-still, but his eyes…awurade…his eyes are grappling hooks, fastening me in place.
I swallow. ‘Ashon—’
His gaze sharpens even more lethally. ‘You’re pregnant?’
I don’t answer because I can’t. Saying I didn’t know feels…sounds disingenuous. But I don’t even need to. My silence says enough but whether it spells my damnation I’m about to find out.
‘Answer me, Cilla.’ His voice rises, jagged and sharp. ‘You’re pregnant?’
‘Sounds like it.’ And there it is. Simple. Unavoidable. And yet it tastes like glass.
He stills. Like a storm eye before it visits devastation on everything in its path. Me.
And then he laughs, low and humourless. ‘Of course. Of course you are.’
‘Ashon—’
His hand slashes through the air, silencing me. ‘This is why you agreed so fast. The conditions. The fake relationship. The promises. The mysterious ask reserved for later. You were already playing your next move. Your ultimate ace in the hole.’
I sit up, heart hammering, the IV tugging slightly at my arm. ‘How dare you. That’s not at all what I—’
‘What you planned?’ he spits. ‘Get pregnant? Let me catch feelings? Reel in the Biney fortune? God, Cilla, I was right, wasn’t I?
I played right into your hands.’ There’s ashen mockery in there with a shocked, heavy dose of it aimed at himself.
As if the Great Ashon Biney can’t believe he’s been swindled.
I straighten my spine, even as my insides churn.
‘I didn’t plan this. And I didn’t tell you because I…
I thought it was still…unlikely. Because I needed space to figure things out for myself if—’ My words freeze as he stiffens even harder.
‘I guess I mostly didn’t tell you because I knew you’d react exactly like this. ’
His eyes blaze. ‘So what? I’m just supposed to accept it? Take your word that I’m the father and carry on like everything’s fine? Do you know how cliché this play is?’
My hands tighten in the hospital sheet. ‘In your world, maybe. In mine, you’re supposed to trust me. But clearly, that hasn’t even occurred to you.’
‘Nice try, attempting to flip this onto me.’
‘I’m not attempting anything. I suspected. I never got around to verifying. That’s the truth whether you accept it or not.’
His nostrils flare and even before he opens his mouth, I know I’ll despise what comes out of it. ‘I’ll accept it. After you take a DNA test.’
I freeze. ‘Absolutely not.’
His nostrils flare. ‘Why the hell not? We’re in the right place for it. I see no reason to delay or refuse. Unless there’s something you want to admit?’
I glare every ounce of hatred I possess for the implication and for this man and everything he stands for.
‘Something like what, exactly?’ He opens his mouth and I slam up my hand before he can speak.
‘Actually, stop. Because if you’re about to say what I think you are, I can’t account for what I’ll do. ’
Ashon displays not a single ounce of remorse or regret for the unstated slur. ‘This is resolved very simply. Prove it.’
‘No, I will not. Because I’m not going to let you put me on trial for something I didn’t do.’ My voice is sharp now, my temper finally clawing its way out. ‘I’m not some con artist trying to score a Biney heir. You don’t get to accuse me of trapping you and then demand my blood.’
‘You think I’m just going to roll over and accept this? You drop this on me like a grenade—’
‘It’s not a grenade. It’s a baby.’ I breathe, voice shaking but steady. ‘And whether you like it or not, that baby’s already growing inside me. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t scheme for it. But I’m dealing with it.’
He’s silent. For once.
I rise to my feet, wobbling only slightly. My whole body feels too light and too heavy all at once. Like my emotions have outgrown me. He frowns and starts to reach for me. ‘You need to stay in bed—’
I snatch myself out of his reach. ‘You want to control this the way you control everything else in your life?’ I whisper.
‘Then here’s the harsh truth. This time things are out of your control.
We did this together so you don’t get to dictate things out of guilt or anger or pride.
And you sure as hell don’t get to punish me for not living up to the fantasy you constructed for your own benefit. ’
I brush past him, pulse pounding, leaving behind the antiseptic walls, the IV, the bombshell I left behind and the man who made me feel seen for a single night—before making me feel disposable.
And outside the door, I pause. Press my palm against my belly.
And breathe.
I might have scored a point just now, but I have very little doubt that Ashon Biney will recoup his shock, strategize and come at me even stronger.
And I’ll need to be prepared.