I ended up making her toast and pouring her a glass of milk which I took back up to her. She took one look at the food and beat feet for the bathroom.
I followed behind and held her hair again while she threw up. I waited until I’d cleaned her up at the sink and took her to sit on the bed to ask the obvious. “Are you sick like this every morning?” I was surprised when she answered with a nod.
“Okay, do you need to lay back down or something?” I never felt more out of my depth. She shook her head and got to her feet, making me have to move out of the way from where I’d been crouched on my feet in front of her.
“It doesn’t last that long.” She walked to the night table and took the glass of milk. She drank it down way too fast, and I remembered the half-eaten apple she’d shown me the night before that was her dinner.
There was no end to my problems, it seemed. As soon as I think I’ve got one thing figured out, something else comes along. I guess that shit was supposed to make me back down. But I love a challenge. And somehow, winning this shy beauty had become my greatest one of all.
DRACO
I took a shower after I went downstairs and headed for my private study. I had a lot to think about and the study is where I do most of my thinking. The dark almost somber room with its cherry wood furnishings and the heavy drapes that remind me of my grandfather always puts me at ease.
I couldn’t sit behind my desk like I usually do though, so I paced the room back and forth with her being the only thing on my mind. It’s as if everything else, whatever I’d worried over or found important before last night, was no longer of interest.
I was consumed with finding ways to help her in the meantime. I knew that what I was about to do was going to make a lot of changes and feelings may be hurt. And my own parents might not agree with my decision.
So it wasn’t something I could just rush into I decided to put the bigger matters on the back burner for now and focus on what I could do at the present. Her workload wasn’t that hard, I’d checked. But what about when she started to show? There have to be a way to keep her out of everyone else’s line of sight. But most pressing right now is her living arrangements. They need taking care of starting right now.
After spending the whole morning brainstorming I came up with an idea. Something that would keep her in my wing for now without too many questions being asked.
At least during daylight hours. I still have yet to figure out how I was going to get her back into my room at end of day without anyone noticing.
Before I could take care of all of that though, there was one more thing I needed to do before it was too late. I’d played around with the idea of holding off until things on the home front had been taken care of, but I somehow felt that I was best if I took care of this now.
No matter what, I’m not going back there again, so it didn’t matter if I did it now or later. For honor’s sake I chose now. I made the call before I left the house and headed out after taking on last look at her, dusting the living room.
“Do you like chocolate?” Now why the hell did I ask her that? She turned from the coffee table she’d been cleaning to look at me standing in the doorway. The slight blush on her face and the light in her eyes was answer enough. “I’ll bring you back some.” I took one last look at her tummy before leaving out the door.
It wasn’t getting easier to accept the baby now that I knew she had no feelings for the man who’d got her that way. The little bit of jealousy I’d felt now makes me feel stupid, after hearing what had been done to her.
I could say I was gonna make it up to her, but there’s no way in hell that’s gonna happen. There’s nothing that can erase that heinous shit. But I can do my best to make the rest of her days darkness free.
My meeting with Charlotte an hour after I left the house went pretty much the way I’d expected. There were tears and recriminations as expected and a whole lotta hurt.
“Is there someone else?” I wasn’t about to lie, and neither was I about to put Sofia in the middle of this. So I skirted the issue.