Page 154 of Tied to You

He steps around the breakfast bar toward me. “It’s not afuckingbaby yet.” His voice is grave.

I scan his face. Angry lines stretch from one side to the other. “You really have got some fucking nerve.”

His eyes darken. The lines deepen.

I don’t care. “I mean it. Fuck you. Fuck you for making me feel like this is my fault.”

“You want me to believe it’s just a coincidence the place you want to run away to is that of your dream, the one with the kid?”

My jaw drops. “Are you serious?” I can’t believe that he remembered that, let alone is using it against me. It was a dream, nothing I can do about it. Disbelief fills me as I stare at him, no longer recognising the man standing before me.

“You’re not denying it,” he says darkly, holding out his hands. “And what about the night at the clubhouse. You had Rocco clear the place out—”

The crack of my palm on his face rings out around us. He doesn’t even flinch, but I watch his face twist as I inhale and exhale in double time. How can he think that that night was a setup, a ploy for him to get me pregnant. “Arsehole.”

The burning flames licking my palm are instant, and I turn, no longer wanting to be anywhere near him. I don’t know what to do or what to say. How can he be so vicious? How can he be so cruel as to put this all on me? All I have done is love him, given him everything I have and for what? To beblamed for getting pregnant? No, fuck that. This isn’t all on me.

Grabbing a bag from our room, I chuck it on the bed. I swing open the wardrobe door, ripping at his things and throwing them behind me.

“What are you doing?”

I don’t look up as I begin stuffing his clothes in the bag. “Isn’t it obvious?” I say enraged.

“You’re not leaving until I know what you’re going to do.”

Going to do?Lifting my head, I look at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Cold eyes find mine as I carry on haphazardly packing. “And you think I am?”

“I think I need you as far away from me as possible. You’re a bastard for blaming me.” I roughly try shoving down the jumper that’s refusing to fit in the bag.

“That right?”

I grit my teeth. “I think you’re so scared at the idea of being a dad that you’re blaming everyone else instead of being a man and owning it. And what’s worse, is you’re now going to get something you don’t fucking deserve!” I tear the jumper from the bag and launch it in frustration at him, making no difference to his posture or the way he’s looking at me. “Me and this baby should mean everything to you.” My breath is running wild, the pain corrosive as he gives me a once over, visibly grimacing at the word baby.

“I knew this would happen.”

“What? What did you know?” I angrily snap my spine straight, my hands wildly going out to my side.

“You’ve known you’re pregnant for five minutes, yet you’re already putting it first,” he says, insulting me again by calling the babyit. Stumping me in the worst way possible, it becomes blindingly apparent that he’s never going to be okay with this.

“You need to go.” I don’t want to be with a man who can hurt me the way he is now.

“This is my house.”

Mine. Not ours. Another crippling ache. “Fine. I’ll go.”

The picture above our bed catches my eye as I go to turn, sparking a fresh stab of pain. Not thinking straight, I quickly look around the room seeing the lamp and grabbing it, hurtling it at the glass frame with everything I’vegot.

The picture smashes like my heart, and I let out an uncontrollable sob, watching as it shatters and breaks, hitting the bed. “Come hell or high water, the only family that willneedyou is the one you’re not man enough to look after.” I hit his ego, turning and exiting the room, swiping at my eyes.

He’s behind me in an instant as I knew he would be, hard hands grabbing me and spinning me around. He pushes his face to mine as my back bows, wanting distance from the man who holds my heart so carelessly when he’s this scared. “I was man enough to tell you from the start that having kids was something I didn’t want.”

“And I told you I was okay with that. But this is happening, Travis, and there is nothing we can do about it now.”

“Yes there is,” he growls, giving my shoulders a squeeze. “You know there fucking is, you’re just being selfish.”

“Me?”