Page 42 of Wanted

“But how did this happen? I don’t believe it…” I murmured. I knew the truth, but the truth was ugly. I’d rather believe the beautiful lie. Ignorance was the purest bliss.

“You said so yourself. You were barely examined by any doctor while growing up. There’s a high possibility that this has been growing inside of you for a while,” Jordan explained. “

Words evaded me, but I had to know. “So what do we do now?”

At the gates of Alex’s gated community, Jordan rolled down his window, showing his fake ID to the guards. I didn’t speak. I pretended like I wasn’t even there, staring ahead. Once we were moving again, Jordan spoke up, “We get more tests. I’m afraid you have to be hospitalized. You will be operated on, and we can’t have you traveling back and forth. From what I know from this disease, start familiarizing yourself with the idea that you’ll never have your own children.”

After that statement, my mouth remained shut. I stared down at myself, and I despised that my body could hold such secrets from me. I despised myself for not doing anything about my pain earlier. I could’ve prevented this situation if I had just asked Manuel for help…

He wouldn’t have listened.

It wasn’t my fault. I had been a pawn for others to play in a bigger scheme of things.

“I don’t want the operations,” I told Jordan as he parked the car in front of Alex’s mansion. The men guarding the place were more alert than ever. I caught some of their glances full of pity.

“Do you want to die?” Jordan asked.

I shook my head. “I won’t die! I’m twenty. I’ll get better. I’m sure there are treatments?”

Stepping out of the car, I missed Jordan’s hissed mutters.

Kamila rushed out of the house, jogging in my direction. When she reached me, she pulled me into a warm hug. She didn’t know yet. She still thought I was normal.

“What did the doctors say? Is everything okay?” The princess caressed my hair, nurturing me in ways I didn’t know I needed.

“No, nothing’s okay,” Jordan muttered, joining us. His voice cracked. “She has fibroids in her uterus. They’ve been causing her pain all these months.”

I felt Kamila freeze around me. Her warmth was still there, but she was absent. “There must be a mistake.”

“There’s no fucking mistake!” Jordan yelled, and we both twitched at his anger. “I need a day to rearrange the plans. This changes everything.”

“What do you mean?” Kamila asked. As if she felt the sob that I held back, she grasped me harder against her body. She let me know she would protect me.

Jordan announced, “We can’t hide anymore, not with her in the hospital. We’re going public.”

♥♠♥

“Kamila’s been different since…What’s happening to her?” Jordan asked, readjusting the beanie he wore on his head. The day he asked for had passed. Plans had been made. I was due to arrive at the hospital tomorrow. This was my final day of freedom.

Fylox and Kamila were outside. He was trying to teach her resilience in the cold. She was taking it halfheartedly.

I was inside, stirring a simple pot of water on the stove. I couldn’t concentrate well enough to cook something more elaborate than pasta and a basic tomato sauce. I’d offered to cook today because I was growing tired of the inside of my room.

“Hello?”

I rattled myself out of my daydream. “Sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to her. Why don’t you ask her? She should know.”

“You’ve also noticed it?”

There was no use in lying. Jordan was the type of man who spotted a liar from miles away. “Yes.”

Jordan took a couple of steps, entering the kitchen. He stood very close to me now. I knew that he would never hurt me, but Jordan was also an unpredictable man. He didn’t like secrets in this household.

“So?”

“I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe she had sex with Fylox finally, who knows,” I muttered. Kamila’s coping mechanism was sex.

“That’s not it,” Jordan responded. “They don’t have any condoms. Fylox would never touch another person without a condom.”