He adjusted the sleeves of his suit and picked at a piece of imaginary lint. “Steven already lost a baby today. Do you want him to lose his wife also?”
“What?” My voice was an echo of itself as I tried to process this new information.
Like the coldhearted bastard he was, Harris responded without emotion, “Amelia was six weeks pregnant. Sh
e lost the baby today.”
My breaths were coming in fast. How did he know this? Harris knelt down in front of me. He reached for me and I knocked his hand away. How dare he touch me! “Ashlin, slow your breathing down. I don’t want you passing out. Ashlin, calm down. I don’t want you hurt. You’re going to be my wife.”
Tears formed in my eyes. To get him out of my sight, I closed them. Wife. Wife. Wife. Was he insane?
“Ashlin, what’s it going to be?”
My mind was jumbled. I needed a minute that I didn’t have to think. If I broke up with Gael, I could call and explain what happened as soon as Amelia made it out of surgery and was in the clear.
Harris cut off my thoughts. “And before you think that you can call him later and explain, know I’ll yank it all away. Everything, Ashlin. You’re responsible for your friend’s recovery. It’s going to take months and she’s going to need my help. Even daddy dearest, Winston, doesn’t have the power I have to get her what she needs. I’ll make their lives a living hell. She’ll get lost in the system.”
I pictured Amelia and Steven helping Gael at the restaurant. They had always been there for me. There was no choice, but to sacrifice my own happiness for the sake of theirs. I’d never be able to live with myself if Amelia died and I could have stopped it. Tears rolled down my face. I knew what I had to do, but the thought was as if my own heart was being sliced open.
“I hate you, Harris,” I spit.
He shrugged. “You’ll learn to love me. You loved me before, you’ll learn again. What’s it going to be?”
The words felt foreign on my tongue. “I’ll break up with Gael.”
“And move back in with me?” Harris bombarded me, making it impossible to hold my own with the stakes he had.
There wasn’t much time. “If Amelia gets better. You need something to keep you motivated. You may have me under your roof, but I will never sleep with you.”
Giving me a grin that I used to find attractive, but now found repulsive, he confidently spoke, “We’ll see. At some point, you’ll have needs.”
I scoffed and looked away. “Make the phone call to bring the surgeon, Harris.”
“You call Gael first.”
My world was about to end.
ICE LEACHED INTO my veins. “You want me to call Gael? Now? Harris make the phone call. Amelia doesn’t have much time.”
“Make it quick and believable, Ashlin.”
This was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. I knew Amelia didn’t have time, but making me do this was like putting a square peg through a round hole. “He won’t believe it, Harris. He knows how I feel. We exchanged I love yous not thirty minutes ago. I agreed to move in with him yesterday. He’s flying up here tomorrow. Gael will know I don’t mean it.”
Harris stood and paced the room a few times.
I begged. “Please call for the doctor.”
Stopping on a dime, Harris narrowed his eyes at me. “Call, Gael. Tell him it’s too fast and you’ve realized your home is here.”
Knowing at this point I had no other choice, I grabbed my cell phone. My hands were shaking. I can do this. I’ll figure out a way to get free from Harris. I can do this. More tears rolled down my cheek as I thought about giving up the one thing I had ever wanted. Amelia needs me. She’ll die without the doctor.
Harris’ cold voice demanded, “Put it on speaker. I want to hear it.”
“You’re a sadistic bastard.” There was no compassion in the man I once lived with.
My heart fought my finger from pushing Call. As the phone rang, I thought I would die as my insides shredded.
“Hey, sweetheart. How’s Amelia?” I closed my eyes feeling the love in his voice one last time.