Total pages in book: 331
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 315585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1578(@200wpm)___ 1262(@250wpm)___ 1052(@300wpm)
Devin sighs. “They were injecting you with fertility drugs to trigger ovulation. They contained hCG. That’s why your body thought you were pregnant. Resulting in a false positive pregnancy test.”
I give them my back and run a hand through my hair. “No.” I spin to face them. “I wrecked my father’s car, killing a man. It caused me to lose the baby and to need an emergency hysterectomy.” I fist my trembling hands.
“Eve—”
“I know what happened, Kashton,” I snap, interrupting my husband. “I was there. I went through it. That is not something you forget. No matter how much you want to.” It was not a hallucination. That was real.
“After your accident, you were given an ultrasound.” Devin’s eyes soften. “There was no pregnancy detected. The hysterectomy was not the result of a miscarriage due to the wreck,” Devin explains. “It was a punishment.”
“Punishment?” I whisper, and my stomach drops. How many times have I heard that word in my life? More than I can count.
“You couldn’t get pregnant, and after you tried to commit suicide, your father knew the odds of you getting pregnant were slim. By then he had your eggs. That was all he needed. So he took the option of you having children away from you.”
My legs begin to tremble in my heels.
Kashton walks toward me, and I take a step back, shaking my head. “I was pregnant.” My throat closes. “I chose to…kill us…” I whisper.
“I’m so sorry, Eve.” He reaches out and grabs my hand, gently pulling me into him. His tatted knuckles softly brush my hair from my face. “You were never pregnant, angel. It was just one more thing they took from you.”
I sniff, and tears sting my eyes, clouding my vision. “But Dollhouse…the paperwork—”
“Fake,” Devin says. “It was all fabricated documents the doctor forged for Garrett. He had them written strictly for Dollhouse. If the Lords knew that he had taken that option from you, he would have been punished, considering your status. Because to the Lords, there is always a chance, and you are a founder.”
I allow Kashton to escort me over to the couch, and I fall down onto it. Pulling my hands from his, I lean over and bury my face into them.
I mourned a child who never existed? I blamed myself for years because I lived and killed my child. It was all a lie.
Was any part of my life ever real? My father controlled so much, and he still does. He wanted me to go crazy, and I hate to say that he’s winning.
EIGHTY-NINE
KASHTON
Devin exits the office, and I place my hand on my wife’s knee.
She looks up at me, and tears fall from her pretty green eyes. I hate this for her. I asked Devin to dig, and what he found was something I never thought of. I couldn’t keep this from her. She deserves to know the truth. Better now than later. Eve hated herself long enough for something that never even happened.
“I…” She licks her red lips. “I didn’t see any other option.”
“I know, angel.” I take her hands in mine. “You did what you thought you had to do.” She was alone, confused, and terrified.
She frowns, taking her hands from mine. “It was a lie. I wasn’t…” She trails off, unable to say it. “Do you know how scared I was?” She gets to her feet.
I can’t even imagine. “Eve—”
“Laura told my father there was a twenty-five percent chance it would be his.” She runs her hands through her hair nervously.
“Laura? She knew about this?” I demand.
She gives a rough laugh. “The percentage of my father being the father had to be higher than that, since your father preferred to fuck my ass while he reminded me how useless I was as a woman.”
My teeth grind.
“My father told me he hoped it was a girl so she could give him what I couldn’t—children. He was going to let his brothers rape her. He was going to rape her,” she shouts, her wide eyes on mine. “And if it was a boy…he was going to train him to hate me. To rape me. Either way, he was going to get what he wanted. I couldn’t do it.” She shakes her head. “Let them treat her how they treated me or turn a boy into them.”
“I know.”
“And it was a lie,” she chokes out and whispers, “I wasn’t pregnant.” Taking a deep breath, she places her hand over her mouth. “I felt so guilty that I survived.”
I step into her and wrap my arms around her shaking shoulders. What if she had died? Garrett would have won.
He wanted to control her mind and her body, and he would do anything to break her. To make her think so little of herself. Garrett hated the fact that she was willing to die to prevent her child from having the same fate she did, so he took the option away from her.