Only After I Lost Her

Chapter 7 Bitter Pills

It was not until she finally left the hotel that Nina managed to fully absorb the truth about what had happened to Xavier's parents.

Though she walked through sunlight, Nina felt a chill that pierced her to the core, spreading through her limbs like creeping numbness. The secret festered in her heart like an infected wound, making every encounter with Xavier pure torment from that moment forward.

The week they had agreed upon passed in a blur of pain and desperation. On their final night together, Xavier stood prepared to leave, his voice cutting through the air like ice. "Delete those photos you took. Then stay the hell out of my sight forever."

After a long inner turmoil, the words finally tore from Nina's lips. She told him everything about Kelsey's role in his parents' deaths, watching his face for any sign of belief.

But instead of the fury she expected, his face twisted with bitter, knowing disappointment. "Just like Kelsey warned me you would do," he sneered down at her. "You are still that same lying schemer, chasing profit with every breath you take."

Her entire body locked up as his words hit her. 'Exactly as Kelsey had predicted. He did not believe her at all.'

Xavier's eyes burned with undisguised disgust. "Did you think I would not notice? No protection at all this entire week. Were you trying to trap me with a baby?"

Her fingers turned to ice, her nails biting crescents into her palms until they stung. 'How did he know what she had been hoping for?' Before she could react or form any response, he yanked out a box of contraceptive pills from his pocket. "Using a child as leverage against me? After five years, you are still selling yourself for status and money."

He thought this whole week had been an elaborate ploy. That she would use a pregnancy to chain him to her forever. She did want his child, yes, but not for wealth or the title of Mrs. Sullivan.

"I am not trying to."

He popped two small pills loose from the packet and clamped her jaw shut with bruising fingers. "No, I cannot take these." She thrashed against him, her voice breaking apart. "Xavier, please listen to me. I would never use a child against you like that."

"Why would I believe a single word that comes out of your mouth?" He forced the bitter pills past her lips. She gagged against the taste. He tilted her chin up, and she swallowed them down. Then.

Pain ripped through her without warning. Her stomach twisted violently as the coppery taste of blood flooded her tongue, and crimson streaked across her palm when she coughed.

Xavier stiffened above her. "What kind of stunt are you trying to pull now?" For a split second, his icy composure cracked wide open. 'Was that genuine fear flickering behind his eyes?'

He recovered quickly. "You think I will fall for this little act? Do not try manipulating me with self-harm. It will not work."

Nina's mouth filled with blood, leaving her unable to speak or explain. The doctors had warned her clearly. Her stomach cancer had reached its final stages, and without treatment, death was absolutely certain. But she had to bear Xavier's child first. It was the only way to save the person she loved most in this world, her precious Seth.

Xavier frowned at her deathly pale face, but remembering Kelsey's warnings, he swallowed any concern that tried to surface. "If you are hurt, go to the hospital yourself. I have things to do today."

The moment the door slammed shut behind him, Nina stumbled to the bathroom and collapsed against the sink. She retched violently, ignoring the searing pain tearing through her stomach. She forced her fingers down her throat until two tiny contraceptive pills splattered into the sink along with streaks of blood. Only then did she collapse against the tile in relief.

She had endured this entire week of torment for a reason. She could not let those pills ruin everything she had worked for now. If she had to try this again with him, Xavier would never fall for her schemes a second time.

Wiping the blood from her lips with shaking hands, she stared at her ghostly pale reflection in the mirror and let out a bitter, hollow laugh.

Her trembling hand pressed against her abdomen as she prayed silently that a new life had already taken root inside her. A child meant salvation for someone else. It was Seth's only remaining hope.