Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 32431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
The only drawback was fighting off morning sickness or coming up with new innovative ways to evade him as I made a mad dash for the bathroom every morning. The first was impossible. There was no way to fend off morning sickness; the second was a little easier.
I’d convinced him that I was suffering from some sort of bug, but how long would that last? Plus he’d taken to studying me whenever we were in a room together without uttering a word. Nothing new there, but there was something in that look that made me twitch.
After that night, we’d gone back to the silent screw. He was trying hard to regain his discipline, but even though he gritted his teeth to hold his grunts of pleasure at bay, I still felt the change in him.
He was wilder now, and yet somehow gentler. He’d hold me each time after we made love and his embrace was as intimate as having him inside me. I hadn’t been called to the office for one of our hot and sweaty sessions lately because Rachel was back. Apparently she’d been ill that day she went missing, and I still didn’t know where Jonas had been that day but then again it wasn’t the first time he’d been away all day.
With things being the way they were I’d given up on my worrying for now, but the baby was still an issue that I wouldn’t be able to keep hidden for much longer. In a few short months I’ll start showing and then what.
***
Today had been a long day. All I wanted was to go home and put my feet up, watch something on television, and eat a whole tub of ice cream just for the hell of it.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to see Jonas tonight, I never know because he never tells me. I took a quick shower while dinner was cooking and sat alone afterward to eat my grilled chicken salad with a glass of tea as I pawed through a magazine.
I plopped down on the couch, something I don’t do often enough and turned the tube on, going from channel to channel for something good to watch. I caught one of those gossip shows that followed celebrities around and stopped there for a few minutes of mindless drivel before finding a good show to get lost in.
The on air reporter was on location at some gala or the other for the governor who was honoring the top students who’d taken part in some program that I missed the name of.
I was about to change the channel when I saw two familiar faces flash across the screen. My hand stopped midway to my mouth and I sat frozen until the ice cream melted onto my lap.
The picture on the screen grew fuzzy and I realized it was because I was crying. I jumped up from the couch when the need to throw up forced me to move and barely made it to the bathroom in time to lose the meal I’d just enjoyed.
I didn’t let myself think, didn’t try to convince myself of anything other than what I’d just seen with my own two eyes. I grabbed a few things, overlooking all the clothes he’d bought me and sticking to my own and shoved them into two suitcases.
I rushed around the room gathering anything I might need that he hadn’t bought, which wasn’t much. I wiped my face and shoved my feet into the closest thing I could find which happened to be my house slippers, but I didn’t care, I wanted out of there.
I thought of leaving a scathing goodbye note but the need to be gone was stronger, so I ran out to the garage and threw the luggage into the backseat. I had a moment’s pause about taking the car. It was his after all, but I had no other means of getting away. I’ll just find a way to get it back to him once I get out of here.
I had no idea where I was going. I had no one to turn to. No friends I could call on to put me up for the night. The tears refused to stop coming and I had to wipe my eyes too many times to count as I drove aimlessly for the first half hour.
Think Thalia, think. Our town wasn’t the smallest but it wasn’t a metropolis either. But I didn’t want to stay here. Come morning I wanted to be as far away from that snake as possible.
What had the last few days been about? What had they meant to him? Surely not what they meant to me. Not if he could have another woman on his arm at such a public event. Did that mean he was going to marry her? Was this his way of announcing to the public that she was his choice?