Page 37 of Mine to Keep

“Like you listened to me?” he said sarcastically.

Her stomach started to cramp, and bile was climbing up her throat. She had very little time before she was going to vomit, and she didn’t want him to see that. She rushed past him, shut the bathroom door, and raced to the toilet. She grabbed and held most of her hair out of the way as what little she had for lunch came up. She tried hard to be as quiet as she could, so he didn’t hear.

Laila was lying on the cool tile floor next to the toilet. She was afraid she was going to vomit again, and she had no more strength left. Her body jerked when he knocked at the door.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She swallowed it a few times. “Yes. I just need to be alone.”

She heard him curse softly. “Well, now you can have all the time you want. I’ll stay out of your way.”

Bile was rushing up her throat again, so she only lifted herself off the floor and bent over the toilet again. Tears ran down her face when she heard his footsteps walk away, and then the door to the bedroom closed sharply.

It took another few minutes for her to stop vomiting, and now it was just dry heaves that were hurting her stomach.

“God, can this hurt the baby?”

She’d already made a bad choice and just about killed it. She needed to make better choices now.

Laila flushed the toilet and pulled herself up in front of the sink. She rinsed her mouth out and then looked at herself. Her face was pale, and her eyes looked bruised. Her hair was tangled around her shoulders, and specks of vomit were in it.

She undressed and walked into the shower. She washedas quickly as she could and then dried off. Another towel was used to try to dry her hair, but she started feeling dizzy. She walked into the bedroom and shut off the light before moving to the bed. She dropped the towel and climbed in.

Sleep was the only thing she needed now. There was no way she could function or do anything else. She knew the pillow would be wet from her hair, but she didn’t care. It would be wet from her tears anyway.

Laila just needed some time to forget and rest. There would be time later to deal with everything else.

Chapter Eighteen

Roland walked out of the office feeling defeated. There was nothing he could do to make her see the truth, so he needed to stop trying. If she wanted to be away from him, he’d help by moving her into another bedroom. As much as it hurt, he was hoping it would shock her enough. When she went past him and into the bathroom and closed the door, he didn’t like how pale she looked.

When he asked, she said she wanted to be alone, but he knew what he did wasn’t going to work and that she wanted to be away from him. It hurt worse than anything ever had, and he pressed on his chest to ease the pain.

After leaving her room, Roland went downstairs and into his office, closing the door behind him. Work was the only thing he could think of to keep his mind off her.

A few hours later, he walked upstairs. He saw the light was off in her room and opened the door. The light from the hallway and from the moon outside let him see her clearly. He saw her eyes swollen like she’d been crying again, but her cheeks were concave.

They’d been home from the hospital for two weeks, and he hadn’t seen her eat. He would ask Betsy, his cook, in the morning.

A few days passed, and he realized he rarely saw her in the house. One morning, he stopped in the kitchen. He asked about Laila, and Betsy said she spent a lot of time outside and in her room. The cook told him Laila ate but not enough.

Roland sighed. “I’ll take care of it.”

“I hope so because she’s eating for two now,” Betsy said.

Roland nodded. He went looking for her again and found her in her room, asleep on the bed. He didn’t like the way she looked. She was losing weight, and it wasn’t healthy for her orthe baby. He’d catch her the next day because he wanted some answers.

The next morning, he had a few men in his office when he heard a timid knock on the door. He looked up to see Laila.

He’d never seen anyone look so defeated besides himself. “What?” It came out harsher than he wanted, and he saw her flinch and could have kicked himself.

“I … I wanted to…”

“Can this wait? I’m in a meeting?”

Laila went even more pale and nodded. She turned and walked out.

Roland ignored the surprised and irate looks on the men’s faces. He went back to what they were discussing. After the men left, he went to find her. He looked all over and then asked Betsy if she knew.

---