Page 46 of Merciless Promise
“Let me at least make sure that you are ready. I?—”
“I wasn’t asking for your permission. I came here via ambulance, but I know Eli’s here because I saw him pacing before you arrived. I’ll go home with him.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she was right. The hospital wasn’t the place. Throwing my hands up in surrender, I stepped out of the doorway. “Whatever. I’ll see you at the house.”
I spun around and stormed out of the emergency department. Nolan went to speak until he saw what had to be a murderous expression on my face, and wisely decided not to. He cleared his throat as I passed him, then followed behind me. Not many knew how important a child was to me right now, but my right-hand man did. And it had to be that godforsaken will that had me so upset.
Right?
Not even wanting to give credence to any thoughts flashing through my head, I went straight to the SUV, then waited for Nolan to take the wheel. Once the man stuck the key into the ignition, he looked over at me.
“To your grandfather’s? Or to your place?”
“My place. I can’t stomach another second with my Daideó today.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened in there, boss.”
“What happened?” I asked him.
“I wasn’t snooping, but I heard your exchange with the doctor. I truly am sorry, King.”
“Just drive,” I said to him as I turned my attention to the window on my right side.
A half hour later, I was home, and Ekaterina was not. I’d called Eli to see what the holdup was, and he advised that she had wanted to stop by the gym to grab her things from her locker. Since she was with him, I wouldn’t worry about her whereabouts any longer.
I did need to relax and settle these raging thoughts in my head. I’d lost a child I didn’t know existed, and might’ve even lost my puisín, too. The latter shouldn’t have bothered me somuch, but she had gotten under my skin, and possibly even into my heart. Hell, I knew that she had, and that pissed me off more than anything else she could’ve done.
Or so I thought. A short while later, I received a phone call from her hot yoga instructor, who had wanted to check on her. She must’ve already been gone before Ekaterina got to the gym. I told her that my wife would be okay soon, but I didn’t divulge any personalinformation to this stranger.
It was only when I got off the phone that I thought about what the doctor said she had. My cell phone was still in my hand, and I googled both ‘miscarriage’ and ‘hot yoga’ and saw that it was not recommended for pregnant women at all. Surely, my wife would’ve known that. Despite any tests, there was always the possibility. She was way too smart for her own damn good sometimes. I then thought about the drinking at Cillian’s party and being careless enough to get drugged, when again it should’ve been something she knew about. And earlier, she hadn’t seemed very upset about the miscarriage.
“Did you do this on purpose?” I asked aloud.
Unaware that Ekaterina had arrived home, the sound of the front door slamming broke me out of my thoughts, and I leveled my gaze at her. She was shaking her head in disbelief as she stood there. We stared at each other for several seconds before she closed her eyes and reopened them.
“Fuck you, Kingston!” She walked over to the wine fridge and pulled out a bottle of Irish whiskey.
“Hey, you shouldn’t drink that until...” I said, intending to warn her about drinking while pregnant, but her sarcastic laugh and my realization again of what happened stopped me midsentence.
“It’s a good thing that I’m absolutely not with child. At least not anymore.”
“We should talk about this,” I said to her as I got up off the couch. She ignored me completely as she poured some liquor into a glass, then tipped it back to swallow the amber liquid in one swallow. She quickly poured another. “Don’t you think you’re overdoing it now?”
This time, she turned around, and while I expected her to flay me with her quick tongue, she instead hurled the glass at my head, and I ducked just in time for it to shatter into pieces behind me.
“What the fuck, Ekaterina?”
“I hate you, and your entire family. I wish I had never laid eyes on you...your cousin...yourbrother...” she spat out and placed emphasis on the reference to Princeton.
“You need to calm the fuck down,” I said, especially as memories of what happened last time she had gotten pissed off at a Brannington while drinking came flooding back. Granted, I didn’t intend to let her out of here to drive, and I definitely wouldn’t allow her to run me down, but I still needed her to cool down.
“And you need to fuck off. I wish it had been...”
Whatever she had meant to say, she stopped before saying it. My gaze met hers, and there was nothing but pure hate in those normally chocolate depths of hers. She was not only angry as hell, like a wounded hellcat, but the color of them was pitch black.
Is this what Princeton saw before his life was viciously ripped away from him?
“You wish it had been what? And when? You wish it would’ve been me instead of Princeton that night at the party?”
