Chapter 11
Pain spread in sharp, tingling waves through Callie’s body. She clenched her jaw tight and tried to wrench herself free, but the harder she struggled, the tighter Damien’s grip was. The pain turned her face ghostly pale, and sweat started gathering on her forehead.
In the suffocating silence, the monitor by her bed suddenly shrieked with a piercing alarm.
Callie suddenly grinned brightly. “If you wanna know, why don’t you find out for yourself?”
She tilted her head and brushed her fingertips lightly over Damien’s face, softly murmuring, ” If you love me that much, why can’t you even step up and raise another man’s kid for me?”
“…Raise another man’s kid?”
As the words sank in, Damien’s fingers clamped down harder, and the bed rail beneath his hand creaked under the strain.
“Say that again?” He could hardly believe his ears.
Callie’s smile widened. Her soft, gentle smile from before vanished and was replaced by a vicious sneer. As she ran her manicured fingers across the slight swell of her belly, she sighed softly and said, “Do you still not believe me? Or is it that you can’t stand to hear the truth?”
Her voice was as sweet as always, but to Damien, each word felt like a knife dipped in honey.
“After spending a decade following me around like a devoted fool, can’t you step up to be a dad, Mr. Kane?”
Outside, rain poured and pounded against the windows like countless tiny bullets. The small boutonnière from the wedding clipped to Damien’s suit sleeve trembled violently as his body
shuddered.
“Callie, Damien, are you two alright?”
The door slammed open. Damien didn’t turn around, so he spotted the brief flicker of panic that flashed across Callie’s face the moment she heard that voice. In an instant, all the little details that had never quite added up snapped into place.
Damien had never really known Kieran Slate, either personally or in business. It was Callie who introduced them, and Kieran would always be present at every gathering she attended.
Letting go of her jaw, her pale skin flushed red and left a blaring print in the shape of his fingers.
“So, it’s him…”
Kieran stepped in as though he hadn’t felt the tension in the air. He instinctively approached
Callie to check on her, but halfway through raising his hand, realization hit him. Then, he swung it around and rested it on Damien’s shoulder instead.
“Come on, why’d you wear a corset when you’re pregnant? Look at you, scaring poor Damien half to death. You can’t do that even if you want to look good in a gown.” He grinned widely and gave Damien a friendly, brotherly slap, but his words fell flat in the silent ward.
Callie hadn’t looked up since Kieran entered. Her messy curls fell forward and shielded her eyes from view.
Kieran’s fingers twitched subtly, and as he turned to look at Damien, he met the latter’s deep gaze head-on.
“What’s with that look?” he asked, leaning back slightly. The weight of Damien’s stare was so oppressive that Kieran began sweating.
“So, the child’s yours…”
In the split second that followed, Kieran jerked backward and narrowly dodged Damien’s fist. He seemed to genuinely have no idea what was happening and continued asking, “What are you saying, Damien? Yours? Mine?”
The sharp scent of disinfectant filled the ward. As Callie dug her fingers deep into her palm, the pain cleared her mind. She stared into Damien’s bloodshot eyes and suddenly let out a high, shrill laugh.
Suddenly, she ripped out her IV. Blood splattered through the air and dotted the sheets like drops of red tears. “Damien, quit this nonsense now!”
The fighting men froze and turned to look at her sitting on the bed.
She threw back the blanket and bared her slightly rounded belly for all to see. “You’re right; this baby’s Kieran’s. He promised that if I could coax you into marrying me.and carry this child to term, he’d marry me himself!”
Damien’s fist finally landed on Kieran’s face. It was a fatal, full-force blow, causing his knuckles to immediately swell from the impact.
“So, have you been using me all this time? The letters and photographs…” Damien snapped back to Kieran’, his eyes red with rage and disbelief. “And you… I saw you as my brother, yet you did this to me!”
Kieran touched his bleeding lips and leaned back against the door. After a pause, he gave the exasperated Damien an amused, mocking smile and shrugged his shoulders.
“You can’t have everything, Damien. You wanted to string Juliet along yet marry the woman you really love. Did you think life would let you have it both ways? So, I did you a favor and took a bit of the burden off
your hands.”
Callie hurled a glass of water at Damien and added, “How could that stupid Juliet have loved an idiot like you for eight damn years?”
The glass hit Damien on the forehead, nicking it. Blood mixed with droplets of water slid down his temples.
She mockingly continued, “Oh, go on and run to her, then. Let’s see if she’ll even bother to look back at you!”
