Kat woke with the sun shining through the window into her room. Again, she had no idea of the time. The next six months stretched out in front of her like endless torture. Maybe she’d ask Adam for a watch so she could at least tell the time. She missed Lann so much the ache was unbearable.
Forcing herself to get a grip, she got up and selected an outfit from the closet without putting any thought into it. After dressing, she made her way to the kitchen. She was starving. As Eve had predicted, now that her nausea and the attacks had passed, her appetite was increasing.
In the doorframe of the kitchen, she stopped at the sight of an elderly lady making pancakes.
The woman looked up. “I’m Margaret.” She didn’t offer a smile. “Take a seat.” She waved the spatula at a chair by a small table. “They’re almost done.”
The aroma of coffee filled the room. Kat sniffed with appreciation.
Margaret dumped a pancake in a plate in front of Kat and pushed maple syrup across the table. “Coffee?”
She looked up with surprise. “I thought I wasn’t allowed any.”
“I know they didn’t want you to have any,” Adam said from the door, “but we’re not going to be quite so cruel.”
He wore jeans and a white golf shirt, which gave him a more relaxed air than the day before.
“Eve said it wasn’t good for the baby,” Kat said.
“Ah, Eve. Well, she’s a stick in the mud, isn’t she? Our philosophy is more relaxed. We tend to believe if the mother’s happy, the baby’s happy.”
Kat studied him. “Who are you?”
Margaret gave her a funny look.
“We’re the people who will give you back your life.” Adam walked to the coffee machine and poured two cups. “Eat. Your pancake is getting cold.”
He put a mug in front of Kat and took a seat opposite her. She cut into the pancake while he added two sugars and milk to her coffee. It brought back a painful memory of Lann preparing her coffee just the way she liked it. The sudden jab in her heart had fresh tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. To hide her emotions, she pulled the mug closer and brought it to her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Adam asked.
“Nothing.” She’d never speak about Lann to these people. She wouldn’t mention as much as his name. She wasn’t going to soil his memory with them. “Why did you do this?”
Adam feigned innocence. “Give you coffee?”
“Everything.”
“Everything?” He smiled. “Ask me one question at a time and I’ll do my best to answer it.”
“Why did you give me a scholarship?”
“For you to meet the aeromancist, of course.”
“Why?”
“We knew he’d be fertile with you.”
“How?”
“My father is a man of resources.”
His father. “Why do you want my baby?”
“Imagine what you can do if you can manipulate the weather.”
“Your father likes sunshine?” she asked with a raised brow.
He chuckled. “A man can bring the world to its knees with the threat of an ice age. Or how about just America with pending hurricanes? A man who rules the weather, rules the crops. Crops are food. Food is a very, very dangerous commodity, Katherine. You’d be surprised how much people with money will pay for food when they have none.”
It never dawned on her how powerful Lann was. The realization took her breath away. But Lann would never abuse his power in such a way. What they intended for her child filled her with horror.
“You want to turn my child into a monster,” she whispered.
“It all depends on how you look at it. Do I look like a monster?”
His words drove the awful truth deeper. His father was going to raise her child as his own. Her baby would be brought up as Adam’s brother. No. Lann would rescue their son. She hated Adam, and she hated his father.
“Who is your father?”
“You can call him Godfrey.”
Godfrey. The mention of that name was like being pushed under a cold shower. She stared at him in shock. “He sent David for me.”
“Eve took you to that clinic. She was going to abort your baby. David was supposed to pull you out before, but then you decided to run.”
The pieces suddenly came together. “When David tried to cut a deal with us, you terminated him.”
He only smiled as he sipped his coffee.
“So, it was your father who did experiments on David.”
His eyes tightened. “Why would you ask questions that endanger your life? If I tell you that, I can’t let you go. You know that.”
“But you just told me everything else.”
“We tell you what we want you to know.”
The coldness of his tone made her shiver. Yes, Adam was a monster. He seemed civil on the outside, but inside he was just as rotten as his father.
He motioned at the mug between her palms. “Your coffee’s getting cold too.”