Page 17

Lena picked up the paperwork she had brought with her and grabbed her purse from the floor next to her chair. She was ready to get up and go when everything was quiet. She could feel his gaze burning her skin the whole time, but she refused to look.
At that point, he questioned it out of the blue, tearing off all the layers of indifference. “Where is it?” “
Her eyes sprang up to meet his inquiring ones, which were mocking.
He waved his hand in the air and said, “The baby, I mean.”
Why did he have to wound her so badly?
She let out a gentle sigh and turned her eyes away from him. She didn’t answer and walked toward the door. She had to leave before she broke down. She couldn’t let Kellen see her so vulnerable.
“Hey, I asked you something,” he said in an angry voice.
She heard him moving behind her and knew he had also risen up and was walking around the desk to get to her.
She was so angry that she forced back the tears that were pouring down her face. It hurt her head to do so.
“I’m not required to give you an answer,” she responded as casually as she could.
Kellen clucked his tongue as he got closer to her. She still didn’t turn around. She knew she had to get out of there right then, but her feet felt like they were made of lead. Her soul screamed because Kellen was begging for the baby that wasn’t there anymore.
“Then I think it’s too soon. Nine months are still going on. Is the daddy, Ryan, still in touch? Kellen was now close behind her, and his voice was getting more and more predatory. “I saw him here in Velden, too. By the way, is he willingly sharing you with Damien?” Or are you cheating on him too? Or maybe you’re bored with him and want to play with Damien instead. I heard that you had been staying in Damien’s place for a while. Is he really that fantastic in bed? “
She was so angry that she turned around and slapped him hard across the face. The force of her hand hitting his cheek made his face jerk to the side.
Her shaking hand fell to her side. She panted, and for a second, the vision in front of her blurred. But this was not the time to give up, so she blinked away the blurry patterns. The next second, Kellen pushed her up against the door, his angry breaths fanning her face and his hands holding her upper arms too tightly.
“How dare you!” he yelled, sneering.
Lena winced as he tightened his grasp. “I should have done it a long time ago,” she said. It was the truth, and she wanted to do much worse to this man. But would it erase everything she’s gone through?
She saw that his lips were squeezed together in an unnaturally narrow line, and his brows were furrowing in the deepest frown. “You have the nerve to talk back so brazenly after cheating on me the way you did! Right in front of me! What type of a shameless whore are you? “
Lena laughed after a moment of silence. It sounded worse than crying to her own ears. By that point, Kellen’s grip on her arms was hurting her, but she didn’t say anything. It was nothing compared to the pain that had burned her insides like the worst forest fire.
“But aren’t you cheating on me too?” “You’re forgetting, Kellen, that you’re still married to me,” she remarked, her voice full of laughter and her eyes full of sorrow.
His face got pale, and his body relaxed a little. Lena slipped out of his arms as he let go of her.
Lena had never known it was possible to love and hate someone so much, all for one person. All of her strongest feelings had to be about this man, and there was nothing she could do about it. It was like trying to stop a planet from spinning.
She scooped up her paperwork and purse that had fallen on the floor earlier, and her whole body shook. Without wasting another second, she stormed out of Kellen’s office and out of the building.
She had to go home right away.
Lola was probably still in the bathroom with her upset stomach, but Lena had reached her limit. She called a taxi, got in, and texted Lola to let her know she had left. The blurs in front of her eyes kept coming back like nightmares, and her head hurt as much as her heart did. A metallic taste grew in the back of her throat, and she choked on it.
The bad flavor made me feel ill and sweet.
Damien had been trying to call Lena for an hour with no luck. He had told her yesterday and every day before that they were going to pick up her test results, which included blood tests, an MRI, and some X-rays, and then they were going to see her doctor right away, as he had been told to do. The worst part was that the doctor wouldn’t say what they were thinking until they were sure, which made it seem like something dangerous.
Damien grunted as he shoved the phone roughly into the pocket of his blazer and grabbed the car keys. He suddenly thought of all the ways she could be sick or in danger. She was answering his calls, and even Lola had told him a while ago that Lena had left Kellen’s office bathroom without telling him.
Damien was quite scared that she would be sick.
He had seen her in the worst situations and when she was healthy. He didn’t want to go through those experiences again.
But fate hardly ever pays attention to what people say.
Damien was so worried that he practically flew out of his apartment. His vehicle screeched out of the driveway and onto the dark street. His home was not far from Lena’s, but when things were like this, even the shortest distances felt like they were taking forever.
He got to her apartment and saw a hunched-over figure on the sidewalk. He did a double take, his eyes widened, and his foot slammed down on the break. The next thing he knew, he was running out of the car to get to the person who looked almost like they were one with the shadows of night.
“Lena! Damien croaked, “Damn it to hell,” and knelt down in front of her. “What happened to you? Are you hurt? Oh my God!“
His hands shook as he tried to raise the hair that covered virtually her whole face. He carefully held her cheeks and lifted her bent-down face. When he saw what he saw, he screamed in horror.
“Goddamn it! Lena, your nose is bleeding?“
He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped away the blood that had dripped down her nose. Her breath was coming out in short, weak pants, and Damien saw that her eyes were glazed and dazed, and her whole body was shaking. Even though she looked up at him when he kept asking her to, it was like she was looking past him.
Damien’s heart was filled with fear.
He picked her up and put her in the car, fastening her to the passenger seat. He called Lola and then drove to the hospital. He felt terrible about this, really terrible. He remembered the tests she had gone through without telling him. He remembered the time he found her in the street, drenched in rain and looking sick. But she wasn’t bleeding through her nose like that. His logical side screamed that they were about to deal with a disaster, while his emotional side hoped and prayed that nothing like that would happen.