Chapter 400 402

Chapter 400 402
Renata

I’m sipping on some weak soup when my door slams open and Rokiades storms in. His chest is heaving, but I’m not sure if it’s from anger or exertion. When he opens his mouth, it becomes clear that the answer is “both.”

“You!” he barks, glaring at the maid standing next to me. “Get out. Now.”

She doesn’t wait around to be told twice.

Rokiades doesn’t immediately say anything to me after the maid scurries out of the room, slamming the door behind her. He just keeps pacing, like an enraged bull with no sense of direction.

My stomach twists a little as I realize the news that must have brought on this reaction. He knows. He fucking knows.

I decide that the only way to deal with this is ignorance. Deny, deny, deny. “Something wrong?” I ask innocently.

His eyes snap to me. “You little whore. You’re pregnant!”

I work my face into an expression of suitable shock. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“That’s not possible,” I dismiss confidently. “There must be some mistake.”

“There is no mistake,” Rokiades growls. “You’re pregnant. The tests fucking proved it.”

“I can’t get pregnant,” I say. “It’s medically impossible.”

Keep it together, I’m screaming at myself internally. Keep your shit together.

“Don’t play pretend with me,” he hisses. “You knew!”

“I didn’t know anything,” I lie smoothly. “I assure you I had no idea. I’m not even really sure I believe you right now.”

“I spoke to your fucking maids! Two of them reported that you’ve been throwing up at odd hours of the day.”

“Because you force me to go running every morning!” I snap back. “I eat nothing and exercise for hours each day. My body can only take so much.”

Apparently, I’m convincing enough, because Rokiades starts to look less rattled. He stops pacing and plops into the chair beside my bed, rubbing his mustache and gazing into the middle distance.

“He’s the father, isn’t he?” Rokiades asks with a sudden and eerie sense of calm.

Why deny it at this point? I want to scream in his face, Yes! Yes, he is, you fucking bastard, and there’s nothing you can do about that. He’s the father, you’re not, and I hope that makes you so goddamn angry.

But I don’t. Saying the words out loud would make it real. I want to keep this child to myself for as long as I can, before the world does what it does best: snatches everything pure away from me.

Rokiades doesn’t care whether I confirm it or not, though. “I didn’t realize how far it went between you two,” he mutters. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Does he know?”

I sit still. Saying nothing. Doing nothing. Hardly even breathing.

His eyes are dark when he finally looks at me again. “What to do with you now? You and the runt in your womb…”

The way his eyes flicker to my stomach makes me immediately protective. And instantly scared. “You can’t hurt my baby,” I blurt out.

There. I said it. I don’t know whether to be relieved that the secret is out… or horrified of what happens next.

His palm flashes out and slaps across my face. I blink away the sting, but I don’t cry out or tear up. Let him do what he wants. I don’t care how many times he slaps me. I don’t care about anything anymore.

“I can do whatever the fuck I want!” he snarls. “I own you. Which means I own that baby, too.”

My hands curl protectively over my abdomen. The gesture doesn’t go unnoticed.

“So tell me, Renata,” he says conversationally. “If you had to choose, who would you pick? Kian or his runt?”

My body goes cold.

“Come on,” he urges, smiling like a man who knows he holds all the cards. “Which one would you save?”

I shake my head.

“If you don’t choose… I will kill both.”

“No,” I breathe. “You can’t do that.”

“I can do anything.” He sniffs again, as though he’s the wounded party. Then he stands up abruptly and lurches back towards the door. “I’m not an unreasonable man. I’ll give you time to make the decision. Twenty-four hours. That’s fair, isn’t it?” He turns to leave again.

“Wait!”

He pauses and looks over his shoulder, one hairy eyebrow arched. “Yes?”

“I want to speak to Kian.”

I can see from his black expression that that’s not what he wants to hear. At this moment, though, I don’t care.

“Very well then,” he sighs after a moment has passed. He turns back to the hall and barks an order to his men. “She wants to go visit the Irishman. She has ten minutes and not a second more. Drag the bitch back by her hair if you have to.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I snap. “I can walk just fine.”

“For now,” Rokiades murmurs, dark eyes glinting with a foul fire. “For now.”

After I’m unshackled and escorted to the side building, I rush over to Kian’s cell and pull open the partition urgently.

“Kian?”

“Renata!” His voice reaches me before his face appears on the other side of the grille.

“Are you okay?” I ask, noticing that his face is slightly pale. It looks like he has a few fresh wounds, too.

“I’m fine,” he says dismissively. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“I… I have something to tell you,” I admit.

“Okay…?” he asks warily.

I take a deep breath. I can feel my heart hammering hard against my chest, but I don’t have the luxury of doing this gently. “I’m pregnant.”

Something flickers across his eyes. “Say that again.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“How far along?” There’s still barely an expression on his face. Is he shocked? Nervous? Upset? Angry? Happy? I have no fucking clue.

“I don’t know exactly,” I say. “It’s still early. About two months, maybe.”

“Two months,” he says softly, his eyes clouding over.

“Kian…” I can’t wait for him to process this. “He knows, Kian. Rokiades knows about the baby.”

He looks up at me, and his eyes focus again. “And he still let you see me?”

“It appears so.”

“But I thought—”

“I thought so, too,” I say with a nod. “Dr. Lenore is the one who broke the news to me. She told me that the lacerations in my womb have healed enough to… to let it happen.”

“Fuck.”

I stare at him, still trying to discern his reaction. “I didn’t think I wanted kids,” I say, desperate to fill in the torturous silence. “But it turns out, I want this one. And I don’t care if I’m the only one that does.”

His eyes snap to my face. “You’re not the only one, Renata,” he whispers. He smiles. It’s only a quarter of his full smile, but I take it.