ack, save for the faint, rhyth

tore through her empty uterus. Her forehead was slick with

g hand and pressed the red call

utes passed. Ten min

. She gripped the metal IV pole with both hands, using it as a crutch to

room, dragging the pole behind

e night shift nurse conveniently missing from her post. The only light came

d the water dispens

a familiar, hushed voice drift

tes," Chesnee's voice drifted from the office, c

reckless

ee Cantu, he

ly, pressing her body flat against the wall behin

of people, we wouldn't have to clean up this mes

h panic. "If I didn't kill that baby, Donavan would eve

yes widened in sheer horror. Harper didn't push

Dr. Blackwood enough to keep his mouth shut. That dead fetus

h and blood. Burned like garbage. Her knees buckled. She slid down the wal

asked. "She knows I pushed he

rry about her. I've already made a call to my ol

blood ra

hly. "They will put her on a cargo ship with a fake passport. She'll be s

voice filled with cruel e

ried along with his past. So the rumors were true; Chesnee hadn't married him for money, but for a vendetta. Her father's hidden past, the secret he died protecting, was being dragged into the light.

am's name ignited a fire in her veins. It wasn't just greed. Ches

rs curled into tight fists. Her fingernails

n office chair and footst

the agonizing pain in her abdomen, she moved as fast

, climbed into the bed, and pu

door to her room

She forced her chest to rise a

cast a long, sinister shadow across Carlota's bed. Chesnee

asleep, Chesnee quietly closed the

ere no longer the eyes of a victim. They were c

ut of the back of her hand. Blood welled up, dripping

with one's soul. She had spent years trying to be 'normal' for Graham, choosing the humiliation of a contract marriage and crushing debt just to keep him away from that world. Bu

umber she hadn't called in years-a number that wou

before a raspy voic

er, her voice trembling with cold rage. "I