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My mother had rung a few hours earlier, as though sensing from overseas my mental chaos, my psychological disturbance.I preferred to call it pre-baby jitters.I should have created a nursery in my old bedroom, instead I’d created my art studio and painted the landscape that had been haunting me.

I cleaned my paintbrush off with a wince.Perhaps I needed therapy after my heartbreak with Evander.If I hadn’t been pregnant with his child I might have tried dating someone else.I might have tried even harder to forget about Evander.

A pity he’d consumed me.He’d been my everything.

Fate had given me his baby to love.

I’d set up a cradle in the bedroom I’d taken over after my mom had gone.I’d placed it right next to my bed where I could monitor my newborn at all hours of the night.

I touched my stomach with a smile.I’d do everything in my power to nurture and protect my baby.

I turned around simultaneously to a piercing sharpness tearing through me.I gasped, pressing my hand harder against my stomach while my other hand moved lower, between my thighs.Sticky warmth coated my fingers before I lifted them to see the bloody evidence.

My heartbeat slowed, my vision blurring as disbelief filled me.Then a shrill whimper burst past my lips, a sound dredged from the deepest corner of my soul.

Thiswasn’tthe start of childbirth.What I was experiencing wasfarfrom normal.

I took another step out of my studio and toward my cellphone that sat on the kitchen bench.Tearing, terrible pain lanced through me and I doubled over with a sharp cry.

“Evander, I’m...sorry,” I gasped brokenly.

Chapter Nineteen

Evander

Ason...I’d had a son!

I rode my Harley like the hounds of hell were on my tail.Like I was doing my best to escape a past trauma that I hadn’t even known existed, until now.

But I couldn’t escape it.Not while it snapped at my heels and bit deep into my soul, making me bleed internally.

The wounds might be invisible but I was dying inside.

My jaw tightened as I accelerated, pushing the motorcycle faster and harder.I took a corner at dangerous speed, spraying gravel as my back wheel slid beneath me.I regained balance and control, my heart rate steadying.

Fuck.