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Fuck no. And I couldn’t possibly raise a child with Brandon, the abusive ass.

There was no easy way to handle this. I couldn’t even tell Brandon about it because I was not sure how he’d react. I’m sure he would be angry. He’d call me careless and stupid.

Should I tell Malakar?

That scared me even more, because I feared he’d do something like hide me away forever again.

Suddenly, the door swung open. I tried to hide the test but it was too late. Brandon stood in the doorway. I lost track of time, or maybe he came home early. He wasn’t supposed to be here.

“What the fuck is that?”

I quickly pulled my pants up and hopped off the toilet. I threw the test in the trash beside the toilet. “Nothing! Just uh—just a woman thing.”

He frowned and moved past me. I tried to stop him but he pushed me against the wall. I watched in horror as he dug the test out of the trash. He took one look at it, his eyes widened, then he turned towards me. It all happened in slow motion, but also too fast.

“You’re pregnant?” He held the test up and shoved it in my face. “How the fuck did this happen?”

My hands were starting to shake, my eyes darted to the door and I wondered if I could make it out in time before something terrible happened. Could I outrun him though? Probably not.

“Um—I don’t know. I—I really have no clue. You must’ve gotten some cum inside of me. It can happen.” My voice stuttered and quivered. He could sense my nervousness, he could sense my fucking lies.

“Bullshit. If I wanted to cum inside of you, I would.” He looked at the test again and furrowed his eyebrows, lost in thought. I didn’t dare to say anything else.

He looked up at me and something changed in his expression. Something that fucking terrified me. There was nothing but an empty darkness floating in his eyes.

The world shrank to that darkness. Nothing else. Only the dead shine of his eyes, the endless bottomless void. I could feel my own blood humming in my tongue, pushing at my skin, screaming at me to run. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t even breathe.

He shoved the test in my face so hard the plastic pressed a dent into my cheek. “You’re lying,” he spat. “You slept with someone. Didn’t you? That’s why you were so fucking weird the last few weeks. All the hiding. All the sneaking. You’re a slut. You brought this on yourself.”

The words barely landed. My hands shook. I couldn’t unclench my fingers from the hem of my sleeves. My head buzzed with cold, cold fear.

“That’s not true,” I whispered. “You know it isn’t. You’re the only one who’s ever cum in me. You. Nobody else. Brandon, please.” My voice broke apart. I sounded like I was twelve years old, begging the man in the kitchen to leave me alone. Please, don’t hurt me, please, I’ll be good.

He ignored my words. He always did.

“You’re a cheating whore,” he sneered. “You didn’t even fucking wait. The second you get a chance, you spread your legs for whatever psycho comes along. Who was it? Tell me, you fucking bitch. Were you even planning to keep it from me? Huh?”

My stomach twisted. A thousand bugs writhing under my skin. I didn’t say anything, so he slammed the test down on the sink. It hit so hard the plastic snapped in half.

He grabbed my neck. He leaned so close I could count the flecks of hate in his eyes. “Wait…I think I know who the daddy is.” His face darkened. “It was the asshole who took you, wasn’t it? You let him impregnate you?”

“I didn’t!” I cried out. I was sobbing now. “It wasn’t my fault. I was raped, Brandon, do you not get that?”

He shook his head. “Don’t lie. I know you must have opened your legs willingly for him. You begged for it, didn’t you? Fucking bitch, cheating on me with a fucking psycho.”

He smacked the side of my face, open-palmed, so hard my vision burst white. Pain spiked down my jaw, into my teeth. I staggered back against the tiles, heel hitting the wall behind the toilet.

One hit wasn’t enough. Never enough.

He followed. Another slap. Louder this time. My mouth tasted metal. My ears sang.

“You’re not even going to deny it?” he shouted. “That’s what you are. Broken. Garbage. I picked you up when you were nothing. I fixed you. I let you back in my house, and you spit in my face.”

He punched me in the gut. I doubled over, noise leaking out of me, crumpling down. My knees hit the hard floor. I couldn’t even clench enough to block the pain. I just felt it, blooming wide open.

He yanked me up by the hair, dragged me out of the bathroom. My toes barely scraped on the floor. My body tried to fold up and disappear, but he was relentless. Every word smashed through me.

“You’ll never get away from me, you know that?” he shouted. “Nobody else will fucking want you.”