Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
She had wanted to wait to have kids, but he had insisted that they have them early. He wanted a family right away. When she had protested, he had gotten forceful with her and when she had secretly attempted to take birth control, he had found it and replaced the pills with placebos. Of course, she’d not discovered this until she was already pregnant and couldn’t understand why it had happened. It was only then that she had popped the small packet of tablets from their plastic case and examined them closely, only to discover that the foil on the underside had been removed and replaced. Taking the pills to a pharmacist confirmed that they were nothing more than inert tablets. It had only gotten worse from there. He didn’t like how she looked pregnant and stayed on her constantly about not eating too much.
“You’re going to end up being a fatty and then I’ll never be able to get it up to try again for sons,” he snarled at her as she was undressing for bed when she was only about a month along.
It had hurt her so badly to hear the man she had fallen in love with say that and knowing that she was only pregnant because he tricked her into it that she had taken to wearing full pajamas to bed and never undressing in front of him, even after the babies had been born. The doctor had cautioned her not to get pregnant again too soon after the babies being born, both because of the damage such large multiple births could do to her body, but also the dangers of her cervix being weaker and causing her to not retain the pregnancy.
So, she had gotten a second set of birth control pills. One pack was left in the bathroom in his view and had a tablet flushed every morning. The other was hidden in the kitchen cupboard beneath the recess in the bottom of a cookie jar and she took her tablets from there every day, checking to be sure the foil with bright red letters across it was intact before every dose. With the way he pawed at her every night, there was no doubt that he had already replaced the ones he thought were the real deal again.
“My sister had a horrible husband,” one of the women was saying to her. “He was an Alpha too.”
“Excuse me?” Constance replied, thinking the comment was misplaced, but she had been so lost in her own thoughts that maybe she had missed something.
The women had moved to the living room for their own cocktails, though Constance couldn’t really join them due to breastfeeding. She sipped her sparkling water as they all talked among themselves, finally growing quiet and standing to one side. She briefly glanced at her watch, hoping they would be going soon.
It was nice to have female company, but she still had to clean up the mess in the dining room, get it washed up and then go relieve the Taylor girls so they could go home and she could hopefully get a little rest before the infants’ next feeding time. Most people would just leave it until tomorrow, but Blane would come unglued if he woke up to find such a mess left over after the dinner party. It was better to be tired than listen to his ranting about her ineptitude as a wife and housekeeper.
“I’ve seen that look before,” the woman said, standing to one side and sort of whispering quietly to her as the other women chatted one another up.
“I’m not sure what you me-mean,” she stammered, feeling a bit upset with herself that she had perhaps betrayed her true feelings to one of Blane’s guests. What if the woman said something about it to her husband and it got back to him? He’d be livid.
“Don’t worry. I won’t say a word, and I won’t ask questions, but if you need some help, give me a call. Here’s my number,” the woman told her, slipping a simple black card into her hand and engaging another woman who was quickly approaching in a different line of conversation.
Constance wanted to look at the card, but she didn’t dare. Instead, she quietly slipped it into the small pocket of the linen slacks she was wearing and joined in on the conversation about home decor. Many of the wives of Blane’s potential investors were entrepreneurs themselves, with businesses that ranged from selling simple home crafts to multi-national corporations. Most of them were Alphas, though a few were Omegas. Occasionally, she would find that one was human, which was common in some packs, but not their own. It was frowned upon but not forbidden.
It seemed like an eternity before everyone was finally filing out. The card felt like it was burning a hole in her pocket as she waited to see what was on it. Once everyone was gone and she was alone in the kitchen, she dared peek at it while Blane was seeing to something back in his den.