Chapter 5: Pregnant

Cora's POV

As I wake up slowly, blinking clearly under the harsh hospital lighting, the first thing I see is my parents and Liam stepping towards me. 

I groan and sit up straight. My hip hurts where I must have landed and bruised it in my fall. I’m lying in a hospital bed, soft blankets piled around me, with an IV drip hooked up to my arm. 

I look into Liam’s eyes, and for just a second I’m relieved to have him here beside me, but then I remember everything that just transpired between us and I can feel my heart hardening all over again. 

“Are you feeling unwell?” Liam asks, brow furrowed. 

For a moment–just a moment, a single foolish chink in my armour–I wonder if deep down everyone cares about me after all. 

But a second later, Liam’s cold voice shatters that hope. 

“How could you not even know that you’re pregnant?” Liam spits, eyes flashing angrily. 

“From how on, you’re not doing anything on your own. You’re not going anywhere until you give birth to the child!” 

I’m still rather disoriented from my fainting episode, and Liam’s shouting certainly isn’t doing much to help with the clarity in my mind, but one word manages to cut through the hazy fog. 

Pregnant?

In that moment, I’m struck by a mix of joy and devastation. 

I’d once dreamed of carrying Liam’s heir. I’d thought that maybe, just maybe, it could be the key to bringing the two of us closer. 

But now it all just feels like a cruel joke. 

This man I thought I loved, this man whose baby I was so excited to have, who I wanted to raise a family with–he doesn’t care about me at all. He doesn’t want this child out of any sort of paternal instinct or goodness. None of this actually matters to him. 

All he cares about is Iris. 

Fighting back tears and ignoring his cruel words, I meet Liam’s steely gaze. 

“Have you ever loved me?” I ask him bitterly. “Or was everything you did just for Iris?” 

Liam frowns. He doesn’t even have the decency to look guilty or ashamed about any of it. 

“Iris and I have been together for five years,” he says. “If it hadn’t been for her illness, we would’ve been married a long time ago.” 

Liam hesitates before continuing, a chilling indifference haunting his words. “I know you love me. As repayment for saving Iris, I made you my Luna. I’ve held up my end of the deal. Now it’s your turn–now you need to have my child.” 

It’s almost funny, in a way. Over and over again, I keep thinking my heart has been broken completely, and then with every callous, uncaring word that passes Liam’s lips, it finds a way to break into even smaller shards. 

Rage and anguish surges through me, forming a red-hot ball of rage in the center of my chest. I grit my teeth and look between Liam and my parents–traitors, every last one of them. 

“Out!” I scream harshly, raising my arm and pointing furiously towards the hospital room door. “Everyone–everyone get out of here at once!” 

My mother, my father, and Liam all exchange cautious glances, but it doesn’t seem like any of them take issue with my demand. My parents are the first ones to leave, but Liam lingers in the doorway for just a moment, looking back at me. 

I hate him! 

I hate him because I thought I could love him freely, but now the thought of wanting him makes me feel weak-willed and terrified. Loving him doesn’t feel good anymore. It feels like stabbing myself over and over again. 

“Calm down,” he says impassively. “This doesn’t have to be difficult for either one of us. Aside from love, I’ll give you whatever you want. All you have to do is give birth to my heir.” 

With that, he turns and leaves the hospital room slamming the door behind him as he goes. 

I’m finally alone. 

As silence fills the hospital room, I look around slowly in shock, trying to process everything that’s going on. I place a trembling hand over my stomach as tears well up in my eyes. 

Nothing about this is right–I can’t stay trapped like this, married to a man who’s in love with his sister and forced to bring a whole life into this world just for them to be used as a cure. 

This can’t be my life. I won’t accept it. 

Things need to be better–not just for me, but for this baby I’m now carrying. 

I don’t want my child to be born as a tool. 

I have to leave the Snowcrest pack.