Lover (Betrothed 3)

“You don’t need to feel overwhelmed with me. Whatever happens out there doesn’t affect what happens with us. This relationship is for life. There is nothing in this world that will ever divide us. When I married you, I pledged my loyalty, my lifelong commitment, my devotion. Nothing will break that. Ever.”

Her eyes shone with emotion before they tilted to the ground.

My fingers moved under her chin, and I lifted her gaze. “Nothing.”

She slowly moved into my chest and rested her forehead against my hard body. She took a deep breath when she felt me, like she was letting the stress evaporate from her skin.

My arms wrapped around her waist, and I pulled her close to me, holding her like she needed this as much as I did. I smelled her hair, felt her beautiful curves, held my wife like a man madly in love.

She must know I loved her…because it was so fucking obvious.

It was so obvious that I was desperately, stupidly, ridiculously in love with my wife.

16

Sofia

The hotel was the only place I had privacy, so I sat on the toilet in the bathroom with the stick in my hand. I held it between my fingers and stared at the results.

Pregnant.

I wasn’t shocked by the results because I already knew that’s what it would say. I hadn’t had a period in almost two months. Since I was so regular, that just wasn’t normal. I wasn’t some scared teenager who wasn’t ready to be a mother. I was a grown-ass woman who wanted a family.

Just not like this.

I had no idea who the father was. I’d slept with Hades the night before I was captured, so maybe that was the moment I conceived. But it easily could’ve happened when I was a prisoner of Maddox.

No way to know.

What would Hades say when I told him? Just when we tried to move past what happened, this curve ball was thrown our way. We could’ve moved on, but now that there was a baby in the mix, we would always be reminded of what happened.

We wouldn’t survive that.

When Hades told me he was committed to me forever, I almost told him the truth. But I knew he wouldn’t be as supportive if he knew I was pregnant by the man who’d raped me. He’d be disgusted, probably ask me to get an abortion.

I’d considered the idea too, but I couldn’t go through with it.

Even if I did a DNA test to conclude it did belong to Maddox…I still wasn’t sure. If that happened, would Hades force me to do it anyway? He didn’t have the same sense of morals as I did. To him, everything was black and white. He’d killed people before. He wouldn’t lose any sleep over this.

But if I kept the baby, he might leave me.

I wished there were a way to know who the baby belonged to before I approached him with the news. I couldn’t keep this secret forever. He always saw me fully clothed now, but eventually, he would start to notice the changes in my body. He was too smart to be fooled.

I clutched the stick in my hand and closed my eyes for a moment. The one person I wanted to turn to was the person I couldn’t confide in. He was my best friend…but now he was a stranger.

I hadn’t wanted to marry him in the first place, but now I couldn’t picture my life without him. I wouldn’t know what to do if I lost him. The man had become everything to me. He didn’t look at me differently after what happened, and that made me realize how good of a man he was.

Made me realize how lucky I was to be married to him.

But maybe all of that would change when he knew the truth.

I grabbed my phone and made the call.

Damien picked up right away. “Sofia, everything okay?”

He asked the question because I never called. “Can you meet me in fifteen minutes?”

We met at a restaurant across the street from the hotel. I took a gamble leaving the property because Hades was in and out of the hotel throughout the day. Once he realized I was gone, he’d want to know where I was.

If I told him I was with Damien, I could lie and say I was comforting him about their relationship. It was believable.

Damien and I didn’t order anything because neither one of us was hungry. We just needed a place to talk. The waitress kept bugging us, so Damien ordered us a couple of drinks and an appetizer just to get her off our back. Now we had two glasses of wine, but I didn’t take a drink because I couldn’t.

Damien gave me his full attention. He was tense at the table, his shoulders rigid and his hands balled tightly into fists. He’d already asked me what was wrong three times, and since I never gave an answer, he decided to be quiet.