Page 55 of Wicked and Bound

“Twenty-two weeks along, I was in a car accident.” Her voice cracked, leaving behind an anguished whisper that twisted his heart. “They rushed me to the ER, but it…it was too late. Placental abruption. I miscarried.” She sobbed so hard, she stopped breathing except to gasp out, “I. Lost. Our baby.”

Pain hit like she’d shoved a blade through his chest. He couldn’t breathe.

His baby.Theirbaby. Gone.

“They tried so hard. Ten fingers. Ten toes. He was…beautiful.” Her voice squeaked between sobs. “But they couldn’t save him. I held him, alone in my hospital room, as he took his last breath.”

Nash’s heart felt like it was being ripped in two. His crushing grief cut deep, threatening to undo him. His eyes burned as he pictured Haisley pregnant with his child, their son growing inside her. The devastating loss she’d endured alone. He didn’t know how to process the fact that he’d almost been a father…and he might never have known.

And now his son was gone.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered and curled onto her side, into a ball, away from him. “So sorry. I… God, you have no idea.”

Her heartfelt tears wrenched everything inside him. She’d hurt him. Stolen from them. But she’d suffered so much, carrying his child and grieving its loss, broken and lost and completely alone.

He caressed her taut back and tried to roll her close, into his arms. Some part of him still wanted to rail at her, but whatwould that do? She needed his comfort, and he needed to give it to her. “God, Hais. You should have told me.”

“I know.” Her voice sounded small and pitiful, like she was kicking herself black-and-blue.

Fuck, she probably thought he was blaming her, too.

He lifted her stiff, resistant body onto his lap and curled her against his chest. “Baby, I would never have abandoned you. I would have been there every step of the way.”

He could picture it now—the life he’d never had a chance to fight for. Haisley with a swell beneath her dress, his hand resting there, feeling the first tiny kicks. Their baby’s first breath. The baby’s first cries. And then… nothing. Just an empty space where something precious should have been.

The loss fucking decimated him

He fought for breath. “You should never have gone through that pregnancy, much less losing the baby, without me.”

She sucked in stuttering breaths between her sobs. “I was scared and so stupidly in love with you. I couldn’t risk you turning your back on me. It would have broken me completely. But then the accident… It felt like fate’s way of punishing me for wanting to keep even part of you forever. It’s so hard for me to even look at babies. I’m happy for Matt and Madison. I love them to death but?—”

“You wanted our son.”

“More than you’ll ever know. Leaving you broke my heart. But losing that baby destroyed me. I…I tried to pretend I was fine,” she whispered. “That I could move on. But then I’d pass baby stuff in a store window and feel like I couldn’t breathe. Every time I saw a mother holding her child, it was a fresh wound. I’d even bought a onesie,” she admitted brokenly. “I hid it in a drawer, never told anyone. After the accident, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. I still have it.”

And now she’d fallen into the hands of people who had intended to sell her to a callous bastard eager to breed her, then potentially sell her babies… Fuck, how had she managed to keep herself together here?

He’d first been attracted to Haisley for her sass. He’d always known she had backbone. He wasn’t less furious with her choice to run and take their child with her, but her absolute steel to handle these last few weeks impressed the hell out of him.

“I know you probably hate me,” she wailed. “Once we get out of here, you don’t have to?—”

“Stop. Don’t make any more decisions for me. I’m angry that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. Fucking furious,” he scratched out hoarsely. “I should have been there. I would have been there. Baby, I could never hate you. Even after you’d gone, even when I tried, I couldn’t. I’m heartbroken that you went through all that alone. That we lost our son.” He cupped her face, thumbing away her tears. “And I need you to know something. I made a mistake, too. I wasn’t just having fun with you. I told you that the night before…you were brought here.” He let out a desolate sigh. “If I’d grown a pair back then and proposed, you would have known how I felt. You wouldn’t have had any reason to run.”

“You couldn’t have known that?—”

“You were pregnant, no. But I knew what I wanted. I was in love with you. Still am.” He swallowed hard. “I want it all with you, Hais. Marriage, babies, growing old together. I’ve never stopped wanting that.”

“Even after…everything?”

“Especially after everything.” He kissed her forehead and wiped away her tears. “We’re going to make it out of here. And then we’re going to build the life we should have had.”

She cupped his cheek, her gaze so open and honest. “I love you so much. I’m sorry I was such a coward.”

“You were protecting your heart and our baby the best way you knew how.” He exhaled, pressing his cheek to her wet one. His heart still ached. Maybe it always would for what they’d lost.

“No more secrets between us,” he said, voice raw with the weight of emotion.No more walls. No more blame.He cupped her face, brushed his thumb over her tear-streaked cheek. “We face everything together from now on.”

Haisley nodded. “Together.”

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