Chapter 41 Chapter 41: A Blow to the Heart
Catharine's P.O.V
I watched in complete horror as the realization of what was happening sank in. Caroline clutched her stomach with both hands, her face contorted with fear and panic. She looked up at Xavier with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Xavier, please help me," she cried out, her voice desperate and scared. "Help me and our baby. I can't lose our baby."
Our baby.
She had said our baby. Not his baby. Not the baby. Our baby.
The words echoed in my mind, each repetition like another hammer blow to my already shattered heart. Caroline had claimed ownership of that child, had linked herself to Xavier in a way that excluded me completely.
But Xavier didn't even seem to notice the significance of her words. He wasn't paying attention to the implications, wasn't thinking about how those two simple words had just confirmed everything I had been too afraid to believe.
"Cathy, quickly, follow us to the car," Xavier barked at me, not even looking in my direction. His entire focus was on Caroline, on the woman carrying his child.
Caroline tried to take a step forward but her legs seemed to give out beneath her. She stumbled and would have fallen if Xavier hadn't caught her. Without hesitation, he scooped her up in his arms, cradling her against his chest like she was the most precious thing in the world.
"Hold on, Caroline," Xavier said softly, his voice filled with a tenderness I hadn't heard from him in months. "I've got you. Everything is going to be okay."
He rushed toward the exit, carrying Caroline in his arms, not once looking back to see if I was following. He just assumed I would come, assumed I would fall in line like I always did.
And he left me standing there alone in the middle of Hunter's foyer, surrounded by dozens of people who were now staring at me with a mixture of pity, shock, and morbid curiosity. The whispers started immediately, spreading through the crowd like wildfire.
"Did you hear what she said?"
"Their baby? Not the surrogate arrangement?"
"He got another woman pregnant?"
"That poor girl, first the harassment and now this?"
I stood frozen in place, unable to move, unable to process what was happening. My entire world had just collapsed around me and I couldn't seem to make my body respond.
"Cat."
Hunter's voice cut through the fog in my mind. I turned to look at him and saw genuine concern in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked gently, stepping closer to me. "Do you need help? I can drive you to the hospital, or call someone for you, or..."
I shook my head, cutting him off. "No. Thank you, Hunter, but I have to face this alone."
"You don't have to do anything," Hunter said firmly. "After what just happened, after what he's done to you, you don't owe Xavier anything."
But I did owe something. Not to Xavier, but to the innocent child that Caroline was carrying. Even if that baby wasn't mine, even if it was making me question everything, it was still a life that could be in danger.
"The baby could be in danger," I said quietly. "Caroline drank alcohol. I have to make sure they get to the hospital safely."
Hunter looked like he wanted to argue, like he wanted to physically stop me from leaving. But something in my expression must have told him that my mind was made up.
"Goodnight, Hunter," I said, giving him a small, sad smile. "And thank you. For everything tonight."
Before he could respond, I turned and rushed toward the exit. My heels clicked rapidly against the marble floor as I ran, pushing through the crowd of onlookers. I burst through the front doors and into the cold night air, scanning the driveway for Xavier's car.
I spotted it near the valet stand. Xavier had already put Caroline in the back seat and was climbing in beside her. I ran over, yanking open the driver's side door and sliding behind the wheel.
But when I looked in the rearview mirror, expecting to see Caroline sitting upright in the back seat, what I saw instead made my stomach drop.
Xavier had laid Caroline down across the back seat, her head resting on his lap. He was stroking her hair gently, murmuring something I couldn't hear. The image was so intimate, so tender, that it felt like a knife twisting in my chest.
"Cathy, quickly, drive us to the hospital," Xavier snapped at me, finally acknowledging my presence. "The child could be in danger. We need to get Caroline checked out immediately."
I didn't think twice. I turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of the driveway, my hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white. The roads were terrible, covered in a fresh layer of snow that had started falling while we were at the party. Traffic was moving at a crawl and every few minutes we came to a complete stop.
I focused on the road ahead, trying not to think about what was happening in the back seat, trying not to let my emotions overwhelm me. I just had to get them to the hospital. That was all that mattered right now.
But as we sat in yet another traffic jam, waiting for the cars ahead of us to move, I heard a sound from the backseat. A low, breathy moan that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I whipped around in the driver's seat, turning to look at the backseat.
Caroline was sweating profusely. Her face was flushed red and her breathing was coming in short, rapid gasps. She had shifted position somehow and was now practically sitting on Xavier's lap, her body pressed against his in a way that looked far too intimate for the situation.
"What the hell is going on back there?" I demanded, my voice sharp with confusion and growing alarm.
Caroline moaned again, louder this time, and the sound sent chills down my spine. It wasn't a moan of pain or discomfort. It was something else entirely, something that made my face burn with embarrassment and anger.
"Xavier, I feel so hot," Caroline gasped, her hands clutching at Xavier's shirt. "Everything feels so sensitive. What's happening to me?"
Xavier's face had gone completely pale. He was trying to hold Caroline at arm's length but she kept pressing closer to him, her body writhing in his arms.
"Cathy," Xavier said, and I heard real fear in his voice for the first time tonight. "Park at the side of the road. Right now."
"What? Why? We need to get to the hospital," I said, even as I was already pulling the car over to the snowy shoulder of the road.
Xavier looked at me, his eyes wide with panic and something else. Realization. Horror.
"I think the drink Caroline took had been spiked," he said, his voice shaking. "That glass that was sitting on the bar. The one that was meant for you. I think someone put something in it."
The words hit me like a physical blow. The drink Mr. Hawthorn had tried to force me to take. The drink I had refused and left sitting on the bar. The drink Caroline had accidentally consumed, thinking it was water.
Someone had spiked that drink. And based on Caroline's current state, based on her flushed skin and dilated pupils and the way she was moaning and writhing, I had a horrible feeling I knew exactly what kind of drug had been used.
"Oh my God," I whispered, my hands starting to shake on the steering wheel.
Caroline moaned again, louder and more desperately, and I saw Xavier struggling to keep her from climbing fully onto his lap. His face was a mask of panic and fear all rolled into one. This night had just gone from a nightmare to something infinitely worse.