Page 205 of Stand: Part One

Taking the cue, Sid finally spoke. “Well, Jaden, it seems we have some very good news to share.”

My eyes slid back and forth between him and Darren, the idea of good news sounding like an ominous trick. I could feel myself starting to panic inside, my heart rate elevating as my breath hitched. But when my gaze caught the sly grin hiding in the corner of Darren’s lips, I felt all the blood leave my face.

No.

No. No. No.

“Turns out, you’re not actually sick at all, Jaden,” Sid continued. “You’re just pregnant. Congratulations.”

And just like that, a bomb went off in the room.

Suddenly, the only thing I could hear was my racing heartbeat mixed with that awful ringing. A wave of dizziness threw off my balance as my stomach clenched from an invisible blow to the gut. My breath caught in my throat, denial trying to convince me I had to have misheard Sid.

My mind went completely blank, like reality was just a whirlwind of white noise and I was only dreaming. It was just a figment of my imagination.

But that familiar stab of ice-cold terror shot its way up my spine as the heartbreak of another betrayal smacked me right in the face. With my mouth quickly drying up, I found it difficult to speak.

“What?” It was all I could manage to say.

Darren’s head tilted forward. “You heard him, Jaden.”

My focus glazed off to the side, my brain trying to wrap around how it was possible. But it couldn’t be.

“No, that can’t be right,” I argued, looking at Sid for validation. “We replaced my birth control implant. I can’t be…be…”

Sid’s gaze wavered as his eyes fell to the floor. “Well, actually, Jaden, we?—”

“Your replacement was a dud, Jaden,” Darren answered plainly for him.

I felt my entire body harden in place. “A…a dud?”

“You’ve been off birth control for the last two months.”

Oh, God, I was going to vomit again. This couldn’t be happening. Two months? My eyes locked with Sid’s, looking for the confirmation that he had conspired with Darren to trick me like this. But the guilt and regret coating his face told me the horrible truth.

I sucked in a breath of disbelief, horror drenching my voice. “Why?”

Darren tilted his head, his stare narrowing like I’d just asked a stupid question.

“You know why.”

My eyes fell from his to the floor as my brain worked through the web of denial I was still trying to spin inside. But as my hands moved to clutch my lower abdomen, the proof hit me there just like another bullet.

Suddenly, all the fucking we’d been doing made sense. He had been trying to get me pregnant the entire time. And he apparently had succeeded.

“You…” I started, still working to accept what was happening. “You lied to me. You both fucking lied to me!”

Darren’s expression didn’t change, his hardened features unwavering in the face of my obvious distress. Instead, he just tilted his head, his voice cold and detached.

“A lie would imply that I told you something I knew was false. I’ve always been honest about what I expect from you, Jaden, especially as my wife.”

My eyes widened from his sheer audacity to spin this with his typical twisted bullshit logic.

“It’s still deception!” I argued. “You’ve?—”

“Deception?” he mocked, cutting me off. “You mean like how you deliberately deceived me to help Kayla escape? When you lied and told everyone she was dead? That kind of deception?”

My stomach flipped at the memory of what he’d done to me for helping Kayla and covering for her. Regret snaked through my blood, wishing now I had made a different decision back then. My jaw clenched hard as my fists curled in anger.