After I Jumped, He Finally Believed Me

My husband, Silas James, had been trafficked into the Syndicate Compound three months ago, tortured until he was barely recognizable.

To keep him alive long enough to get out, I sold my body working as a hostess at the Rose Lounge, scraping together every dollar of his ransom.

After I finally saved up the $500,000, a client smashed me into a hospital bed for refusing to sleep with him.

And while I lay there, too afraid to spend money on my own medical bills, I looked up and saw him. Silas. The man who was supposed to be beaten half to death in the Syndicate Compound, standing right there in the hospital lobby, tenderly accompanying my best friend to her prenatal checkup.

He smiled, casual as anything. "The whole compound thing was a lie. Truth is, Penny and I got drunk and she ended up pregnant. She needed someone to take care of her."

The client who'd put me in the hospital had followed me there, screaming in my face, ready to hit me again. "Hilda Henson, you're nothing but a used-up bar girl. Where do you get off turning down customers?"

Hospital security dragged him away.

But when Silas looked at me, his expression was full of contempt.

"Weren't you always the one on your high horse, throwing princess tantrums, looking down on your best friend for once working as a waitress at a bar?"

"Where's all that pride now, Hilda?"

I managed a weak, self-deprecating smile.

My pride had been ground to dust by that $500,000 ransom a long time ago.

Along with the baby that never got the chance to form.

——

I lifted my gaze and watched Penelope Fox rush into his arms, her pregnant belly leading the way. Something sharp twisted behind my eyes.

Silas's attention drifted to her belly without him even realizing it. He wrapped a broad hand around her waist and murmured a gentle warning:

"Be careful. Just because you're past the dangerous first trimester doesn't mean you can run around like that. The baby's going to hold it against you."

"The baby won't be as petty as you make it sound," Penelope laughed.

Then, as if she'd only just noticed me standing there, she peeled herself away from Silas.

She walked over and took my hand. Her lips curved into a smile, but her tone carried a teasing edge:

"Hildie, three months and you've wasted away. I barely recognized you."

"But you still don't have it as bad as me. You know I never once planned on having a kid. Then I had one drink at your birthday party and ended up pregnant with Silas's baby."

"Now it's all morning sickness and stretch marks. I look terrible. Silas is basically just force-feeding me five meals a day for the sake of the baby. God forbid I shortchange his precious child."

"You know, if you really can't have kids, I'd be fine putting this one under your name. You could raise it."

Listening to her, I felt nothing. Not a single ripple.

After all, during those months of scrounging together Silas's ransom, I hadn't dared eat a bite more than necessary. I had to keep my figure. More clients meant more money, and more money meant Silas might live.

Bitterness filled my chest until it ached, and finally a quiet laugh slipped out before I could stop it.

"If you don't want it, you can terminate the pregnancy. Nobody's forcing you to have this baby."

Penelope flinched and hid behind Silas, as though I were the one about to murder her child.

Silas's face darkened, his voice cold and mocking:

"You've never even been pregnant. What right do you have to decide whether someone else's child lives or dies?"

"I have been pregnant."

During those three months when I believed he'd been taken, I tried again and again to bribe my way into a phone call with him. I wanted to tell him I was carrying his baby. I wanted to give him one more reason to hold on.

To save him, I'd taken a connection's referral and started working at the lounge.

At first it was just pouring drinks, sitting with clients. But three days in, a man's hand crept up my thigh.

On the fourth day, a client used the liquor as an excuse to drag me into a private room.

No matter how hard I fought, I couldn't overpower a grown man pinning me down.

That night, blood soaked the sheets. My first child was gone, just like that.

"What did you say?" Silas hadn't heard me clearly. His tone only grew more dismissive. "Actually, I'd rather you'd never been pregnant at all. Carrying my child into a place like that? Disgusting."