Page 44 of Forbidden Pregnancy
If I wasn’t a twenty-six year old virgin, maybe I wouldn’t be so insecure.
I work up the courage to saysomething, and I just say his name, “Michael?”
“Yes?”
A piercing shriek echoes around the orchard, and the entire Corsini property, interrupting any possible statement I could have come up with on short notice.
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!The first howl sounds like it’s from surprise. But the second one clearly sounds like a little girl in immense pain. Michael and I scramble for our clothes.
Cosima’s hurt.
Chapter Nineteen
Michael
Present Day (...after rescuing Myra)
Ican tell that Myra won’t listen to my command to drop the subject about her kidnapping. What matters is that we have a new safe house and this time,nobodywill find me. I don’t have much time to investigate who or what exactly breached my security system, but this time it will be much more difficult and I’ll shoot first, ask questions later.
My father put Renzo up to this. My father wants Myra dead and if I tell her that, she’ll find a way to leave just like she did the first time she caught a whiff of the truth about my life. I can’t have that. After all those years, after all this trouble I’ve gone to bring this woman back into my life – I can’t let her go again.
It’s not something I would admit freely, mostly to protect her, but I love this woman with so much intensity that I am completely horrified by the acts I would commit to keep her safe. She drives me insane in every sense of the word, and Myra might be poking a beast incapable of controlling himself around her.
“I’m not going to drop it, Michael.”
“Why should I tell you? I’m keeping you safe.”
I don’t look over at her directly – for safety, and not because I fear this black woman an entire head shorter than me – but I can feel her gaze piercing angrily through the side of my neck. She disagrees with everything about my lifestyle and in some ways, everything about who I am. She wants me to be the man I am in the bedroom with her, but I can’t be that softer, gentler version of myself in the outside world.
It’s just not safe.
“I don’t feel safe, Michael,” Myra responds with a tight, angry voice. If I have to tie her to the bed to make her feel safe and loved, to let her know how hard I’ll go to protect her, that’s exactly what I’ll do. Or something like that. My mind turns over brutal ideas to keep Myra’s body bound to mine. I can’t let her leave –ever.
“Would knowing who kidnapped you make you feel safer? It won’t happen again. I promise.”
“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
“Are you and the baby hurt?” I ask her.
“That’s not what we’re discussing right now,” Myra replies forcefully. She’s only become more stubborn and impossible over the past twelve years. And more beautiful. Unfortunately, the years of separation have turned me into a desperate man, willing to do desperate things to keep Myra in the position I want her in.
“We’re not discussing anything. You signed a contract.”
“This isn’t about the contract, Michael.”
It’s about us…
“You find the truth, all you’re going to do is run away, again. I won’t let that happen.”
“You’re the only one of us crazy enough to jump out of a moving car,” Myra says. “I’m the one trying to be an adult and have an adult conversation.”
“Is that why you disappeared twelve years ago? I tell you that I love you and then I never hear from you again.”
She’s cold. Icy. But for the first time, she’s quiet.
“That’s not what happened,” Myra says, her voice trembling with either sadness or outrage. I feel too smug that I finally got through to her to properly place her emotions. I’mright.She’s the one who left twelve years ago. She can blame it on my piggish ways, but it has nothing to do with that.
“It’s exactly what happened,” I tell her. “And now that you’ve crawled your way back into my life, I have decided this is fate. Our fate. I’m not letting you go anywhere.”
