When Ste finally drifted back to consciousness, muted voices hovered in the periphery of her mind.
"The high fever was triggered by extreme exhaustion... Furthermore, Ms. Cameron is one month pregnant. Her body is incredibly weak, and she''s experiencing spotting. I''ll prescribe some medication to stabilize the pregnancy. Absolute bed rest, and no sexual activity for the next three months, or she will miscarry... This ointment is for the bruising. Apply it morning and night."
Ste blinked her heavy eyes open. As she tried to sit up, a vicious wave of vertigo mmed into her, nearly dragging her back under.
"Star." Joshua was instantly at her side. "You''re awake?"
She murmured a weak response and took in her surroundings. The stark white walls and sterile smell told her she was in a hospital.
"What..... what happened to me?" she rasped.
His dark eyes clouded with guilt. "You copsed from a fever."
"A fever?"
The dizziness made her brain sluggish, but the agonizing memories of the previous night came flooding back with crystal rity. Looking at the devastatingly handsome face of the man hovering over her, the image of the monster from the night before oveid his features. Her body went rigid, her breathing shallow with sudden panic.
Almost instantly, Joshua sensed her terror.
"Star, are you hurting anywhere else?" he asked.
She stared into his eyes. "Do you remember what you didst night?"
Sensing the shift in the room, the doctor quietly slipped out, clicking the door shut behind him.
Joshua remained silent for a long moment. "I lost control. I''m so sorry."
"Then tell me," she demanded, her voice shaking. "What exactly did you say to mest night?"
He froze.
Ste''s heart plummeted into her stomach.
She knew it. She had guessed right.
He had suffered a total psychotic break, and now that he was lucid, the memories of his violent assault werepletely gone.
Clearly wanting to deflect from the darkness of the previous night, Joshua softened his gaze. "Star... you''re pregnant. Did you know?"
She stared at him, blindsided. "What did you just say?"
He took her hand, a tender, breathless light dancing in his eyes. "You love children
so much, right? Now we''re going to have one of our own."
Ste''s mind shed back to his manic, terrifying whispers from the night before. He wanted a baby. And now, impossibly, there was one.
But they had always been so careful. How could she be pregnant?
"How... how far along?" she asked numbly.
"The doctor said exactly forty days."
Forty days.
The realization hit her like a freight train. There had been exactly one time they hadn''t used protection, Back when they were madly in love, when she had willingly surrendered herself to him in the heat of the moment.
Panic wed at her throat. If she forced him to undergo the hypnosis, if she wiped
his memories of her... what would happen to this baby?
Worse, if he knew about the child, he would fight the hypnosis with everything he had. He would never let her go.
But could she really abort her own child? The baby created out of their deepest love?
When she was pregnant with Keen, considering an abortion hadn''t torn her apart like this. She and Haynes had been practically strangers locked in a bitter marriage. But Joshua was different. He was the love of her life.
For the first time in months, Ste waspletely and utterly lost.
Watching her remain dead silent, her face
the food of a single ounce of joy,
the tender light in Joshua''s eyes
slowly bled out, reced by a
e absolute zero
"The timing is all wrong," Ste whispered, almost to herself.
Every trace of warmth vanished from Joshua''s face. He stared down at her, the air
in the room dropping to a freezing, suffocating pressure.
"Star," he warned softly, his voice dripping with lethal intent. "Do not tell me you
don''t want this baby."