Chapter Eight.
1300 Words
What the hell was this doing here?
An abortion consent form?
Declan stared down at the paper in his hand, his brows pulling together.
His mind immediately flashed back to earlier that evening.
Elysia standing at the top of the staircase.
The piece of paper that had slipped from her bag and rolled down the steps.
He remembered asking about it.
He remembered Elysia quietly picking it up and telling him it was nothing.
At the time, he hadn't thought much about it. In fact, he hadn't thought about it at all.
There had been no curiosity. No concern. No reason to question her further.
He had simply moved on.
Now, staring at the abortion consent form in his hand, Declan found himself wondering if that had been the very same paper as realization slowly began to settle over him.
His eyes widened slightly.
Suddenly, the white object protruding from beneath the debris near the cabinet didn't seem so insignificant anymore.
Still holding the consent form, Declan crossed the bathroom and bent down. He brushed aside a few pieces of debris before picking it up.
The moment he saw what it was, his entire body went still.
It was a pregnancy test.
Declan stared at it for several seconds before his gaze dropped to the result window.
Two lines.
Even through his confusion, he knew exactly what that meant.
He didn't know much about pregnancy tests or any of the things that came with pregnancy, but he remembered Victoria showing him hers months ago. He remembered her excitement as she explained what the result meant and what the two lines represented.
Looking at the test now, there was no room for misunderstanding.
It was positive.
His eyes shifted between the pregnancy test and the abortion consent form in his hand.
The two items suddenly seemed connected in a way that made his stomach tighten.
Elysia had been pregnant.
Was the baby his?
The thought crossed his mind for only a second before he immediately dismissed it.
It was ridiculous.
Declan might not have paid much attention to Elysia throughout their marriage, but he knew enough to know there had never been another man.
Elysia wasn't Victoria.
She didn't have secret lunches with friends. She didn't disappear for hours without explanation. She rarely even left the house unless it was for work or family obligations.
No.
If she had been pregnant, then the child could only have been his.
His grip tightened unconsciously around the pregnancy test.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced.
"What would you do if I was pregnant?"
The question Elysia had asked him at the dining table the day before.
At the time, it had annoyed him.
He had thought it was another one of her attempts to force a conversation he wasn't interested in having.
Now, standing in the ruins of her bathroom with a pregnancy test in one hand and an abortion consent form in the other, the question finally made sense.
Elysia had already known.
She had been pregnant when she asked him that.
The realization settled heavily in his chest.
His gaze dropped back to the consent form.
So she had wanted an abortion.
Why?
The answer came almost immediately.
Because of him.
Declan looked away.
The memory of that conversation suddenly felt a lot less insignificant than it had twenty-four hours ago.
He remembered the disgust he had felt at the mere idea of having a child with her.
He remembered the harshness of his own words.
Back then, the thought of Elysia carrying his child had made him uncomfortable.
A baby would have tied him to her in a way he had never wanted.
At least, that was what he had told himself.
Now, for the first time, he found himself wondering what expression had been on her face when she heard those words.
He looked down at the hospital address printed at the top of the consent form.
He was going to find out what all of this meant. Not that he needed much explaining.
The pregnancy test.
The consent form.
Elysia's question at the dining table.
The pieces fit together a little too neatly.
Even so, a part of him wanted to be wrong.
His chest tightened slightly.
He folded the document and slipped it into his pocket alongside the diary.
Then he stepped out of the bathroom.
Bene was still standing in the bedroom doorway waiting for him.
"Find someone to run that footage from 8:59," Declan said. "I want to know who was in my house."
Bene straightened immediately.
"The person in the hoodie?"
Declan nodded.
"I want everything. Whether it was a man or a woman. What they were carrying. Where they came from. Where they went. If they touched anything. I don't care how much it costs."
Bene's expression turned serious.
"I'll get somebody on it immediately."
Declan gave a short nod.
He needed answers.
Who had been inside his house?
How had the fire started?
And why had Victoria been lurking outside Elysia's bedroom just minutes before the fire broke out?
What had she slipped under the floor and who the second person was.
His phone rang again.
The sound cut through the silence.
Declan pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen.
His father's name flashed across it once more.
He stared at it for a few seconds.
He knew it wasn't really his father calling.
It was his mother.
She was probably still waiting for answers about Elysia.
Answers he didn't have.
Right now, he couldn't deal with explaining any of this.
He declined the call.
Almost immediately, the phone began ringing again.
Declan glanced at the screen.
This time it wasn't his father.
It was Mrs. Whitmore.
He stared at the caller ID for a few seconds before answering.
Earlier, he'd asked her to keep a close eye on Victoria.
At the time, it had been out of concern.
Now, after everything he'd seen tonight, he found himself strangely grateful he'd done it.
"Young Master, you need to come to the hospital soon," Mrs. Whitmore said the moment he answered.
Declan frowned.
"Is something wrong?"
There was a brief pause.
"Mrs. Ashford has been causing quite a panic and keeps asking for you," Mrs. Whitmore replied in her usual calm tone. "The staff have asked if you could come."
Declan pinched the bridge of his nose.
Before he could respond, a familiar voice rose in the background.
"I want to see my husband!"
Victoria.
Even through the phone, her voice was loud enough to make him pull the device slightly away from his ear.
"No, I won't lie down!" she shouted.
"I need to see Declan. Get me out of here and get me Declan!"
The line crackled for a moment as nurses tried to calm her down.
Declan listened in silence.
Then, unexpectedly, a thought crossed his mind.
Had Victoria always been this demanding?
The question caught him off guard.
Not because of the answer. But because he'd never bothered asking it before.
Over the years, he'd become so accustomed to giving Victoria whatever she wanted that he'd stopped noticing things.
Stopped questioning things.
The comparison that surfaced next was equally unexpected.
Elysia.
Elysia never caused scenes.
Even when she was upset. Even when she had every reason to be.
She simply withdrew into herself.
The thought lingered uncomfortably.
"I'll be there soon," Declan said.
Then he ended the call. Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he headed for the door.
Tomorrow would be complicated. There was a lot to deal with
The footage.
The fire.
The pregnancy test.
The consent form.
The diary.
Questions were piling up faster than answers.
But above all of them was one that refused to leave his mind.
He needed to find Elysia.
- Writer
