Page 142 of Freed
He opens his mouth and nothing comes out.
I nod once. “That’s what I thought.”
“Elizabeth,” he says, my name rough in his mouth.
I shake my head.
“No. Don’t.” Tears spill over before I can stop them, hot and humiliating. “You don’t get to look at me like that now. Not after everything you just accused me of.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Whose fault is that, huh? God, you should have assumed it was yours. You tampered with my birth control and then acted shocked when you found me pregnant!”
His breathing is uneven now. His. Not mine. A small, ugly satisfaction sparks inside me. Then dies just as quickly. Because none of this has fixed anything.
Lorenzo sets the keys down on the counter very carefully.
“Say it again.”
I blink. “What?”
His gaze doesn’t waver. “Say it again.”
He means the baby.
Something in me hardens.
“No.”
His jaw ticks. “Elizabeth?—”
“No.” I step back this time. “You wanted honesty? You got it. Now you can live with what you did to it.”
I turn and start for the hallway before he can stop me.
“Cara.”
The name hits me between the shoulders. I stop. Not because I want to. Because some pathetic part of me still responds to the tenderness in it.
Behind me, his voice drops to something raw and unsteady.
“I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”
That makes me face him.
“No, you don’t.” I exhale. “If you care for me, then you’ll call Dante and tell him to come and get me.”
Lorenzo’s cheeks darken. “There is no way in hell that’s going to happen?”
“And why not? You were happy to think I was his whore moments ago. So, just keep pretending and let me go.”
“No.”
I shake my head. “I’m not asking. This is the best way, Lorenzo, for all of us.”
“You’re suggesting I let another man raise my child. It’s not going to happen. And how do you think he’s going to feel when he finds out the truth?”
“He knows the truth, you asshole. That’s why we were getting married. He needed a wife and I needed somewhere safe to go.”
