Chapter 65 Chapter 65
The silence that followed the doctor’s departure was not peaceful. It was volatile and monstrous. The air in the room felt thick. I can't even swallow down the saliva stuck in my throat.
I was supposed to have my period ten days ago. I missed them and I didn't even care to notice.
In that moment, I didn't feel the happiness of a new life growing inside me. I was completely stunned to even move.
My stomach felt hollow, despite the life supposedly inside it. My body remained frozen against the headboard while Adrian walked back and forth, pulling on his hair.
It seems like he was just on the verge of losing himself.
He hadn't said a word since the doctor left, but his energy was vibrating throughout the room, making it even more difficult for me to breathe.
I needed room to wrap my head around the things happening in my life. For the first time, Adrian's presence was making everything even harder.
He walked from the window to the door, then from the door to the wardrobe, back and forth. His face was furious and his jaw was so tightly clenched that I could see the muscles twitching in his neck.
"Adrian," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Please... Calm down."
He was making me feel more dizzy.
"Calm down?" He snapped at me "Seriously?"
For a moment, I was taken aback by the face of Adrian that I witnessed. His eyes were bloodshot red, his nostrils flared and his fists were tightly clenched as if he was just seconds away from punching me.
"While I was rotting in that hospital bed, fighting to come back to you... You were sleeping with him and..."
He left his words hanging in the air.
"I told you everything, Adrian," I said, adjusting my back against the headboard. I didn't have the energy to stand up, not after the news I had heard "I told you why I went back. I did it for Aurora. I didn't have a choice."
Suddenly, something inside him snapped.
He whirled around and kicked the small wooden chair near the vanity. It crashed against the wall and I visibly flinched at my place. My hand reached up for my heart that almost jumped in my chest due to his sudden outburst.
Abruptly, he turned around to look into my eyes.
"You have a choice now, Cynthia!" he roared, "You have a choice right this second. You are going to get rid of it."
My heart stopped. A moment of silence followed his words as I took my time to discern his words.
"Wh- what?" I asked
"The baby," he spat the word as if it were poison. "We are going to a clinic today and will get rid of it. Just take it as a complication from the food poisoning. Forget about its existence as it never happened. Do you understand me? It. Never. Happened."
My throat turned dry. He was not the man I knew.
I stared at him in horror, my hand instinctively moving to my stomach. I wasn't even sure if I wanted this baby. The thought of having another tie to the Vaughn family made me want to scream. But hearing what Adrian said, made my blood run cold.
"You can't be serious," I breathed.
"I am dead serious!" He leaned over me, his hands gripping the mattress on either side of my hips. "I accepted Aurora. I love that girl as if she were my own blood. I didn't care that she had Lucien’s eyes or his smile because I was the one who raised her. But this? This is different. I will not raise a child that was conceived while I was lying in a coma. I will not look at a baby every day and be reminded that you chose him while I was dying!"
"Nothing was in my hand. It just happened" I blinked back at the tears stinging my eyes.
He nodded and licked his lips before stepping back.
"But aborting this is in your hands. You never wanted to go back to Lucien. Right? Then you definitely don't want his dirty blood in your womb again!" He inhaled a deep breath. "Let's get it aborted, today itself"
I remained silent. My breathing became shallow, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead.
"We can have a family, Cynthia." His voice suddenly turned soft "We can have ten children if you want. But they will be ours. They will be mine, not his. I won't have another Lucien's child growing up under my roof. We are getting married only after getting rid of this thing!"
He pointed at my stomach.
I shook my head and shifted more into the pillow, anything to make some distance from the man groaning over my head.
"I don't know, Adrian... I’m not sure about this baby. But I haven't made up my mind about marriage, either. You are assuming things. I don't..."
"What else do you want, Cynthia?" He asked in a deep and dangerous voice "Don't test my patience anymore!"
I had so much to say but no word came out of my mouth. It was not that I was scared of Adrian, I was just too stunned to see this side of him.
He was never like this! Coma has done something to his brain.
"I have given you five years! Five years of my life, my money, my protection! And all I ever get from you is 'I am not sure' or 'I need time.' I am done waiting, Cynthia. I have reached my limit."
His fists clenched.
"What else are you waiting for? For Lucien to come through that door, whisk you away, and play happy family again?"
"No! That’s not like..."
"That's like it!" He shouted
I flinched.
He exhaled a sharp breath, pinched his nose, and walked to me once again.
"I have spent my entire life being the 'good man.' The one who listens and waits in the shadows while men like Lucien take whatever they want. I have been rejected by the world, by my family, and now by you. But not anymore. I am not losing you to him again. You are going to marry me. Today. And that's final"