Chapter 88 Kashton
EIGHTY-EIGHT
KASHTON
The guys and I are all sitting at our desks in the office when the door opens and Devin enters.
Haidyn looks up and stops what he’s doing when he sees who it is. “I was about to come join you and Charlotte.” He frowns and asks, “How was she?”
“Good.” Devin nods. “She wasn’t as dehydrated today, so it took her longer to finish her IV.”
“Well, that’s good.” Haidyn nods to himself.
Charlotte has had one hell of a hard time, and she’s not far along. The three babies are going to take it out of her for sure, and they’re not even here yet.
“Here’s that file you asked for, Kashton.” He drops it onto my desk, and I stare at the folder. “It took a lot of digging, but it was there.”
“What’s in the file?” Haidyn asks.
I open it up and scan the document. Running a hand down my face, I sigh. “My father was a founder.”
“A founder?” Saint asks.
I shut the file and sit back in my seat. “I started taking the enhancement after I found out Everett was one. It took me until after Eve returned to realize I wasn’t having hallucinations.”
“Because you already had the enhancement,” Haidyn adds, and I nod.
“What about Eve?” he asks Devin. “Adam said she had a blood transfusion. Did that affect her founder gene?”
“No. She was given blood that was from a founder,” Devin answers. “But she already had it, so there shouldn’t have been any side effects.”
“Whose?” I growl, knowing she hasn’t hallucinated other than the one time the Lords forced it on her for her initiation.
Devin sighs and answers. “Adam’s.”
“Fuck.” I want to kill that motherfucker. He gave my wife blood? I know I’m supposed to be thankful, but it pisses me off. I could have given her mine. I hate any connection that my wife has to him. Which is crazy because there was a time I would have done anything for Adam. Times have changed.
“I would have killed him,” Haidyn says, reading my mind.
“Here’s this one as well.” He drops another file onto my desk, and I rip it open.
“What the fuck is this?” I ask, now pissy.
“These are Everett’s medical records from when she was seeing the fertility doctor.”
“What about the eggs?” I ask Devin, not understanding the words on the paper. I didn’t want to ask this in front of my wife, but it didn’t make much sense to me why Garrett had it done.
“From what I’ve read on her files, Eve was having a hard time getting pregnant.”
They raped me for years, she said to me. It was because they weren’t getting the results they wanted. Babies.
“So they placed her on fertility drugs thinking that would improve her odds. But when that wasn’t working either, they decided to try in vitro fertilization.”
“How does that work?” Saint asks.
“She was given hormones to stimulate the ovaries and produce the eggs. Once the eggs are matured, they are retrieved. They are then combined with whoever’s sperm.
Last, the healthy embryos are transferred back into the uterus.
” He frowns. “But from the records, they never made it far into the process. Eggs were retrieved, looks to be over two years’ time, and Garrett had them frozen for future use. ”
“But why?” Saint asks. “They were raping her in hopes to get her pregnant while also retrieving the eggs? How many kids did they fucking want? I mean, if there were kids running around here, we would have eventually noticed. Our fathers barely raised us. How the fuck were they going to raise all these babies?”
“Sell the eggs is my best guess,” Devin answers.
“Fuck,” Haidyn hisses, slamming his fist on the table.
Devin sighs. “At first it was to get her pregnant. Then they realized they could just take her eggs. Everett was extremely malnourished, which was probably why she was having trouble conceiving. When she finally started having a cycle, it was very irregular due to trauma and abuse, and her hormone levels were lower than ideal. Even if they were successful, she could only carry so many children at a time. Plus having to carry the child for nine months. All they needed were her eggs. She has founder and Spade-brother DNA. They could have sold them to any Lord…or Lady…for top dollar.”
“Or to Dollhouse.” Saint shrugs. “It makes you wonder, though…” He pauses, looking from me to Haidyn. “If we have siblings out there that we don’t know about.”
Haidyn glances at Devin. “Did they keep records? If my father paid to be with a breeder, maybe the others did too.”
He shakes his head. “Not that I’ve found.” Then Devin looks at me, and I nod that he can go. I’ve heard all I need to hear.
When he lingers, I bark. “What?” I’m on fucking edge right now.
“The last page,” he says.
I turn to the last one and read over it. My stomach sinks as I skim over the information.
“What is it?” Haidyn demands.
Ignoring him, I continue reading, trying to comprehend it. My wife is going to take this hard. Can she catch a break? Everett deserves happiness and to move on with her life. The one I vowed to give her.
“Kash—”
The door opens, cutting off Haidyn. I shut the file, open my top drawer, and slam it shut.
Everett and Charlotte both enter with big smiles on their faces while giggling, and Devin slips out. I love to see my wife happy. She’s always glowing, but there’s something special about her loving life. I hate that I have to ruin her day.
Haidyn stands and walks over to Charlotte. “Devin said you were having a good day.”
“I am.” She throws her arms around his neck and stands up on her tiptoes to kiss him while he leans down to meet her.
“How about I take you to lunch?” he offers.
“Yes. Please.” She beams. “I could eat.”
“You guys want to join us?” he asks.
“I’ll check with Ashtyn,” Saint answers.
I shake my head. “We have plans with the contractor.” Eve walks over to my desk and sits on it, facing me.
We all bought the land across from Carnage and are each building a house.
I’ve never had a problem living here with the guys, but I can’t wait to have a home to ourselves.
My wife deserves a life that doesn’t include this place.
It’s already bad enough that she chose me—a constant reminder of what our fathers did to her.
“Want us to bring you something back?” Charlotte questions, turning to face us.
“No thanks.” We’ll grab something after.
Everyone leaves the office, and my wife smiles at me, but it falls when I don’t return it. “Everything okay?” She places her hands on my face and leans into me.
I’m terrified of losing her. Those three weeks without my wife were fucking hell. I’ve spent all my life feeling alone, and having her with me has been heaven. Sometimes I wake up after a nightmare of burying her all over again. But this time, I don’t get to dig up a body that wasn’t hers.
“Kash—”
“I’m fine. Just tired,” I lie.
She gives me a sly smile and falls onto my lap while she slowly slides her sundress up. My hands go to her bare thighs, and my eyes drop to the nude-colored thong that covers her smooth pussy. “Well, maybe you should get some sleep tonight.”
I laugh at that. I’d much rather lose sleep fucking my wife than dream about a life without her. “Come on.” I slap her thigh, wishing I could toss her onto my desk and fuck her, but we don’t have time for me to play with her. “He’ll be there soon.”
She picks up her cell off my desk and smiles proudly, getting to her feet. “I’ve got my design ready.”
Of course she does. I’m going to build my wife her dream home. It’s the least I can do for the woman who showed me what living is all about.
The phone beeps in her hands and her smile grows, scanning the incoming text. “What is it?” I ask.
“Well…” She nibbles on her bottom lip. “Janice just messaged the girls in our group chat. She wants to throw a party—a big reception for all of us who eloped.” Her hopeful eyes meet mine. “That’s stupid, right? The other Ladies should have one. But we don’t need—”
“Nothing about being married to you is stupid,” I interrupt her. “I think it’s a great idea.” Seeing my wife dressed up, getting to show her off, celebrating a night with her friends and family. It’s exactly what she deserves.
Her eyes drop to her cell, and she types back her response with the biggest smile on her pretty face.
I open the door to see Devin waiting to talk to her, and I allow him to step in, knowing her smile is about to go away.
EVERETT
“May I speak to you?” Devin asks.
My smile falters when Kashton shuts the door, closing the three of us inside the office.
I look between them. “What is it?” I ask, sitting down on the couch.
When Devin doesn’t answer, I look at my husband, who walks behind his desk and opens a drawer, pulling something out. “Kash, seriously. What’s going on?”
He comes to stand in front of me. “I had Devin do some digging.”
“On what?” I lick my lips nervously.
“Your pregnancy.”
I search his eyes, and a panic settles in my chest as it tightens. “Kash…what did you do?”
Sitting next to me, he takes my shaking hands. His pretty blue eyes search mine when he starts to speak softly. “You were never pregnant, Eve.”
I rip my hands out of his. “What? Of course I was.” I look up at Devin, and he just stares at me. “Tell him.”
“Untie her,” my father orders Laura, nodding to me.
Laura comes to the head of the table and undoes my wrists. I can’t feel them. She tied them tight, and then I was pulling on them. They might as well have been cut off.
He yanks me off the table, and I fall to the floor, unable to stand on my shaking legs. A burning sensation takes over my chest, and saliva pools in my mouth. I get to my tingling hands and knees and open my mouth. The sour taste makes me gag before I vomit on the floor, unable to swallow it down.
They got me pregnant. One of the Spade brothers is the father. I can’t let them do this to another child.
“Clean your piss up off the floor,” my father barks at me, throwing the test and hitting me in the hair with it. “And the vomit as well.” He huffs, tossing me a towel. “Pathetic.” With that, they all three leave me in the room, kneeling in my own pee and vomit.
I sit up and fall back into the cabinets. My shaking hands go to my flat stomach. I won’t let them do this to me. Or the baby. No one will stop them.
They are Lords. Spade brothers. They are untouchable. They keep me trapped here in this hell that no one even knows exists.
It’s up to me. Picking up the test with two pink lines, I feel that burning sensation in my throat again. “I’ll fix it,” I promise and whisper, “I’ll make sure they never hurt you.”
I’ll end both of our lives. It’s the best outcome either one of us has at this point.
“It was a false positive,” Kashton says, pulling me out of that memory.
“No.” I give a rough laugh. “You’re mistaken. I was pregnant.” I stand, needing the movement.
“There’s no record of blood work,” Devin informs me.
“That’s because they took a urine sample,” I snap, glaring at him.
“You willingly peed on a pregnancy test?” Devin questions with a frown. “And if so, you saw that it was positive?”
“They tied me to a table and forced me to pee on a pregnancy test via a catheter,” I say through gritted teeth. “And yes, I saw the test.”
“Who fucking did that?” Kashton barks, reaching out to me, but I step back.
Devin goes on. “There’s record of an ultrasound—”
“I did not dream this up.” They’re making me think I’m going insane. That it was all a lie.
“We’re not saying you did, angel,” Kashton says softly.
“Yes, you are,” I shout, and my wide eyes meet his. “I was pregnant.”
Kashton glances at Devin, who looks at me with sympathy, and I feel like I’m back in the room with LeAnne all those years ago when she and my father tried to convince me I was seeing a ghost, but the entire time it was my identical twin.
And they knew it. They wanted me to think I was crazy. They were setting me up.
Devin sighs. “They were injecting you with fertility drugs to trigger ovulation. They contained hCG. That’s why your body thought you were pregnant. Resulting in a false positive pregnancy test.”
I give them my back and run a hand through my hair. “No.” I spin to face them. “I wrecked my father’s car, killing a man. It caused me to lose the baby and to need an emergency hysterectomy.” I fist my trembling hands.
“Eve—”
“I know what happened, Kashton,” I snap, interrupting my husband. “I was there. I went through it. That is not something you forget. No matter how much you want to.” It was not a hallucination. That was real.
“After your accident, you were given an ultrasound.” Devin’s eyes soften. “There was no pregnancy detected. The hysterectomy was not the result of a miscarriage due to the wreck,” Devin explains. “It was a punishment.”
“Punishment?” I whisper, and my stomach drops. How many times have I heard that word in my life? More than I can count.
“You couldn’t get pregnant, and after you tried to commit suicide, your father knew the odds of you getting pregnant were slim. By then he had your eggs. That was all he needed. So he took the option of you having children away from you.”
My legs begin to tremble in my heels.
Kashton walks toward me, and I take a step back, shaking my head. “I was pregnant.” My throat closes. “I chose to…kill us…” I whisper.
“I’m so sorry, Eve.” He reaches out and grabs my hand, gently pulling me into him. His tatted knuckles softly brush my hair from my face. “You were never pregnant, angel. It was just one more thing they took from you.”
I sniff, and tears sting my eyes, clouding my vision. “But Dollhouse…the paperwork—”
“Fake,” Devin says. “It was all fabricated documents the doctor forged for Garrett. He had them written strictly for Dollhouse. If the Lords knew that he had taken that option from you, he would have been punished, considering your status. Because to the Lords, there is always a chance, and you are a founder.”
I allow Kashton to escort me over to the couch, and I fall down onto it. Pulling my hands from his, I lean over and bury my face into them.
I mourned a child who never existed? I blamed myself for years because I lived and killed my child. It was all a lie.
Was any part of my life ever real? My father controlled so much, and he still does. He wanted me to go crazy, and I hate to say that he’s winning.