The Substitute Wife's Silent Scream

after two days. I was weak,

mes felt a cool hand on my forehead, a voice murmuring my name. I tho

strong enough to get out of bed. I

ghter drew me to

her head on his shoulder. He was gently stroking her hair, the same way he h

ts. He'd been tracing the line of my jaw, his touch feather-

slinn, so openly, so tenderly

stand-in, a warm body to fill her space until she decided to retu

doorway. "Kiara! Come, join us," sh

I wanted to hide in my r

's voice was a co

sat on the armchair across from them, fe

he coffee table. "You haven't eaten. H

knew I hated. The smell of it made my stom

I said, my voice

." His eyes were

a small bite into my mouth. The cloying swe

and ran for the nearest bathro

psed. The last thing I saw was Fletcher's face, his

e smell of a hospital.

the other side of a curtain. "The tests

ord echoed in t

very poor. Malnourished, anemic... she needs complete bed rest. Another

e a mask of stone. Aislinn was beside him, her perfect fea

tor, his voice devoid of a

dvise against it. Given your wife's fragile conditio

is voice cold as ice. "And I have made my d

nctively went to my stomach. A baby. Our baby.

snuff it out witho

a vessel, and my contents were an in

tcher commanded the doctor, his

lying on the bed, helpless, a tear trac

t, I saw that flicker of something a

sper for my ears only. "This is for the

was a figment of my desperate imaginat

wung open, I looked back at him one last time. He stood t

ke, the anesthesia not fully taking. Pai

wrong. I heard a nu

hemorrhaging! W