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I head back to the toilet to get my make-up bag with my anti-sickness pills, toothbrush, and paste.
I allow myself a few extra seconds to breathe and hold myself together. My head is such a fucking mess with everything whirling around inside it.
“I want to keep you safe,” he tells me when I emerge from the bathroom.
His gaze darts down to my belly with a concern so deep that it borders on fear.
It’s not me he’s worried about. It’s not me he wants to protect. It’s the baby. He’ll make a wonderful dad, nothing like mine. That will be the difference between me and our child. They’ll have a dad when all I’ve ever had is a father. A figure in the background. Casper could never be a simple background character.
“Is that all you want? To keep me safe because your baby is inside me?”
He watches as I throw my stuff into the bag and then yanks the zip closed like he’s pissed. “A man worth his salt always protects what’s his.”
The only thing that’s his here is the baby in my belly. And that baby isn’t staying in there forever.
He walks out picking up a pair of my trainers as I stick my Uggs on and then follow him downstairs.
“What happens when the baby is here?”
Casper opens the front door for me, heading straight to the car.
“Are you going to let them have me?”
Slamming the door shut behind me, I miss whatever he’s saying. But if there’s one thing he can be certain of, it’s that I won’t go down without a fight. I know what it’s like not to have a mum, and I won’t do that to our child.
“Get in.” Casper opens the passenger door, and I follow his instruction.
There’s no way I’m going to leave you. I hold my belly with both hands. When he gets behind the wheel, I search his face for any sign that I’m wrong.
“I won’t let you take my baby away from me. You know that, don’t you?”
His hands fist tightly around the steering wheel. “That baby is ours, an—”
And nothing! I’m not an idiot.
“You’ll have to kill me yourself.” I level him with my best glare. “That’s what they want to do to me?”
&n
bsp; I fasten the seatbelt, trying to push down the fear that with my blind trust, I’ve given him all he needs to finish me.
His hand grazes my thigh as he starts the car. I’m not sure whether it’s intentional or not, but either way, it doesn’t put me at ease.
“No one will lay a finger on you.” The assurance in his voice sounds like a promise. “Not me, not Christopher…none of them. You understand?”
It doesn’t matter what he says—at the end of it all, it’s not up to him. My future was sealed when my father became the bad guy.
Chapter 1
CASPER
Present Day
My eyes snap open at the first flash of light that fills the bedroom. It flickers once across the windows, permeating through the net curtains. We could be at the edge of the world—there’s no reason for anyone to be here, unless…
I reach silently behind the bedside table, trying not to wake Fleur as she stirs beside me. Now that the constant sickness is gone, she’s managing to sleep better. But she’s jumpy enough that every little noise or movement wakes her.
Grasping my weapon in my hand, I pad to the window. As I peer out into the dark night, I find nothing. No movement. No light. There are only the shadows of the trees that surround our hideaway.
