Page 85 of Warlord’s Empire

She threw her hands up. “Where exactly am I supposed to go? I’m trapped here until you say otherwise.” She stormed around the sofa, putting it between them as she paced. “This need of yours to keep me here makes no sense either, since you haven’t spoken to me in days. Why keep me if you don’t like me anymore?”

His brows slashed down in a fierce frown. “Don’t be childish,” he growled. “This has nothing to do with my feelings for you.”

“You’re calling me childish!?” Her voice went up in volume with each word. “You’ve been giving me the silent treatment for days and all I’ve done wrong is accidentally get pregnant. Last I checked, it takes two for that! I didn’t will it to happen. I’m not trying to baby trap you into a relationship!”

His frown fell away and he sighed, his shoulders bowing. “I know you’re not. I’m the one trapping you in a relationship. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Her eyes burned, but she felt slightly better. “At least you can admit that much.” She crossed her arms. “I didn’t ask for this either. I’m not ready to be a parent, but I don’t have a choice.”

“You do have a choice.”

She stared at him for the moment, then it sank in what he meant. Abortion.

“Absolutely not.”

“It would solve our problem.”

Her heart felt like it was cracking but somehow, miraculously, she kept the tears at bay. “I don’t have a problem,” she said coldly, then covered her stomach protectively. “I’m carrying something I’ll grow to love.” She’d already started loving it. “Can’t you learn to love it too?”

He was silent for a long time, then shook his head. “I don’t know that I’m capable of it.”

“You’re capable of it with me. Why not something that’s a mix of you and me?”

A shudder rippled through him, and she knew his answer without him saying it. Despair washed over her. She couldn’t be with a man who refused to love their child. “Just send me home, Radik.”

His head snapped up. “This is your home.” He strode to her, taking her arms in a tight grip. “You belong here, with me.” He kissed her, ending it before she could think to push him away. “My name is Muhammed.” He tapped his finger to her lips before stepping away. “Don’t call me Radik.”

She covered her chest with a hand, trying to ease the pain. “Radik’s your name, isn’t it?” She didn’t want to call him Muhammed anymore. The special bond that led to her calling him by that name was disintegrating with each word he spoke.

“I’m not him,” he growled. “Not with you.”

They stared at each other. They hadn’t resolved anything and she felt worse than she had before.

He scrubbed a hand over his head. “I’m going out. Don’t wait up for me.”

She watched him leave the house, going to the window in time to see him disappear into Marifiya. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Two Months Later

Saskia was standing on the balcony outside her bedroom, facing away from him as the sun set. He didn’t know if she was looking at the town or the rainforest beyond as the dying light bathed everything in its glow. When she shifted, he could see her belly. She was five months pregnant, and it was noticeable. She was a small woman and her middle stuck out in a way that made her pregnancy obvious.

Her hand came up to rest on her stomach, gently caressing it. Instead of filling him with love, as it should, it filled him with dread.

“I hate the way you look at me,” she said, sensing his presence without turning. “Like I’m a ticking time-bomb about to go off and blow everything up.”

He didn’t defend himself. She knew anyway. And that thought sliced through him like a blade. She knew him. She was perhaps the only person on the planet who truly knew him. “I’m sorry.” He moved to stand next to her.

“Don’t be sorry,” she said, her tone biting. “Be better.”

“I can’t,” he rasped.

When she looked at him, her eyes glittered with unshed tears, but rather than making them look vulnerable, they looked diamond hard. “You won’t.” She turned away again, her arms wrapped around her body protectively. “You refuse to take joy in this child, to share this pregnancy with me.” Her voice cracked and she paused before adding, “Instead you mire yourself in fear.”

She was right.

Radik was terrified. Not of a mere child, but of everything surrounding the child. It could kill the one person he loved most in a heartbeat. He’d seen it before. Women dying from complications. He knew if this baby killed Saskia, he couldn’t love it. He would want it dead. It wasn’t even born yet and he was already contemplating his hatred of it. What kind of a father did that make him?