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Richard hadn’t found that nearly as funny when he learned I’d been there.

I pushed Samantha from my mind and looked toward the bathroom again.

I needed a pregnancy test.

Just thinking about the words made my pulse race.

I pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a sweater from the chair near the window. My hands shook slightly while I buttoned my jeans, but I told myself I was being ridiculous.

I wasn’t pregnant.

I was just late.

Women were late all the time, and I’d probably buy a test, take it, watch a negative result appear, then spend the rest of the afternoon feeling stupid for getting myself worked up over nothing.

But what if?

Sunlight poured through the enormous windows overlooking the ocean, turning the water outside into a glittering sheet of blue. On any other day, the view would’ve been beautiful enough to stop me for a moment.

Sometimes I hated it.

Everything was beautiful.

None of it was mine.

Even the car parked in the garage belonged to Richard, and I couldn’t simply grab the keys whenever I wanted to leave. If I needed to go somewhere, I called the driver he’d assigned to me and waited until someone came to take me.

I picked up the phone in the kitchen and called the number Richard had given me. His driver answered after the second ring.

“I need to go to the store.”

“What time would you like me there, Miss Jameson?”

“As soon as possible.”

“I can be there in approximately twenty minutes.”

“Fine. Thank you.”

I hung up and looked through the windows again. I could see miles of open water from this house, yet I couldn’t even drive five miles down the road without asking someone Richard employed to take me.

It was a beautiful fucking prison.

I spent the next twenty minutes pacing between the kitchen and living room, mentally counting the days again and reaching the same answer every time.

By the time the black sedan pulled into the driveway, I’d managed to convince myself I wasn’t pregnant at least six different ways.

The driver opened the rear door when I walked outside.

“Where to?”

“The nearest drugstore.”

He nodded without asking why, and I climbed into the back seat.

I stared through the window as houses and storefronts passed by, one hand tapping nervously against my thigh while the possibility I’d been trying to dismiss became harder to ignore.

What if I really was pregnant?