OUR NEW BEGINNING?

The sterile air in the hospital room clung to me heavily with the weight of news I had just received. The quiet hum of the machines, the muted beeping of monitors, and the murmurs of voices in the hallway fell into the background, sitting on the edge of the bed, numb from the inside out. I couldn't wrap my brain around it: pregnant. with Noah's child. I felt my whole world had been turned upside down, spinning off its axis into some dark, unknowable void.

I saw the gleam in Noah's eyes, smug satisfaction twisting his features into some grotesque parody of joy, as he came in. He strode across the room as though he now owned it; this was his victory, the prize he'd won. My stomach churned, the sickening feeling settling into my belly, with nothing else but dread and revulsion.

Christie," he said, his voice thick and husky with an undercurrent of possession that did more to crawl down my skin than burrow itself deep within me. He leaned into the bed with all the slow deliberation of a con