She has to see my empathy when she comes out a few minutes later.
“I had nothing in me to puke up. So air. Yeah. Vomiting air and getting fired. That’s how my day is going.”
I rise, head to the fridge and get her some bottled water.
“I don’t want that,” she snaps.
“You don’t wanna get dehydrated,” I volley, extending my hand.
She snatches it from me. “If I’m not puking it up, I’m peeing it out. I don’t think my body wants to hold any liquid whatsoever.” Despite her arguing, she still opens the bottle of water and takes a long drink.
“What happened?” I ask, “And try to breathe, baby. You’re really worked up.”
She shakes her head. “No. Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why?”
“Because you…” She points at me and her finger shakes as her eyes narrow. “You might declare revenge on them and lock them in your basement. Forget it. I’ll handle it myself.”
She storms down the hall.
I follow her into our bedroom closet where she’s pulling a hoodie off a hanger, or more like fighting with the hanger.
“Out please, I need to change,” she gestures, red-faced.
“I can handle seeing you in your underwear, baby. I’ll refrain from ravishing you for a minute while you talk to me. Hard as it’ll be.” I smirk at the double-entendre.
Her blistering glare should scorch me, but frankly, it amuses me.
She leans forward and asks, “Did you miss the part where they fired me? And they’re lying about why, but whatever. You got your wish. Happy?”
“No. Not if you’re not happy. What can I do?”
“Buy the company, give it to me, and let me fire them all.”
I raise my brows.
“Or I’ll be like you and keep them working for me but rule with an iron fist and some waterboarding.”
I chuckle. “Now you’re showing you get me.”
“I’m not serious. You can leave me alone; that’s what you can do. I’m gonna take a nap. Because I’m exhausted and I have a headache. And sleeping means not puking or feeling like puking. And then I’m gonna hunt for a lawyer and look into filing a lawsuit for unlawful dismissal. Maybe even sexual discrimination because they are firing me because I’m pregnant. ”
“You want me to-”
“No! I’m doing it myself. Stay out of it.”
“Baby. We have a lawyer, and-”
“Killian, I swear to God if you don’t stay out of it, I’ll be really, really angry. I’m already angry with you for this on top of devastated with you because of all that other stuff.”
I raise my hands defensively. “Understood.”
“I mean it. You do not want to fuck with me right now, trust me on that. You might wind up locked in a basement.”
I back away, unable to hide that I’m fending off a grin. “If you need anything, I’ll be in the living room. I’ll just grab my laptop.”
She spins away and begins undressing.
And as I collect my laptop, I’m beaming with pride, surging with affection. Because this woman, my woman, she’s not weak. She’s not broken. She’s strong. And maybe I’ve got a little bit to do with her finding that strength within herself. I’m not about to get cocky and point that out, though, and wind up with another boot in my gut or elsewhere. I’m gonna leave her to her nap.
28
Violet
I wake up and the first thought I have is, am I spotting?
I go to the bathroom, and nothing. Thankfully. Is that fear going to plague me until this baby comes?
This baby is eventually coming. It’s early, way early, but at some stage in the not-too-distant future, an actual baby will be here. I count up the months.
August.
I feel a strange sensation, a fiercely protective one. My hand splays over my stomach. This baby is smaller than a grain of rice right now, if I remember right, but we made something that’s eventually going to be a person. And it’s up to me to protect this person.
Relief swims through me. Thank God Ray never threw away my birth control pills. Thank God I never got pregnant by mistake while I was with him. To be tied to that man that way, especially while I was feeling so broken – it would hurt a lot. To give my child that man for a father? Ugh.
They say things happen for a reason. But what reasons are there for me going through that relationship? Did it really have to happen this way for me and Killian to wind up together? Or am I dealing with this relationship with Killian now because it’s going to lead me somewhere else entirely? That thought hurts. It hurts a lot. Too much.
Because despite everything, I’m obviously in love with him.
And I don’t know if it’s healthy for me. I don’t know if what he feels for me is real or manufactured from his hatred of my ex.