Page 94 of The Don

I close my eyes for a moment as a movie reel plays in my head of everything that happened. “Where is he?”

“Adrian?”

I open my eyes to find Rose’s locked on mine. Her brows are drawn in together and she’s chewing on her nail. “Is he dead?”

“Look, before I tell you where he is, you need to know something.”

“What?”

She walks over to the vanity and starts rustling around. Rose returns to me holding a sanitary pad that could pass for a small surfboard. “Here.” She glances at my bloody sweatpants.

“What’s this? Give me a tampon.”

“You can’t use them for this.”

I lift my shoulders as I slowly reach out to take the pad. “I don’t understand.”

“Adrian kicked you in the stomach, didn’t he?”

“Several times,” I whisper, hating having that memory so prevalent.

“Eliza.” Rose gulps as she lowers her chin. “Do you want a shower first then we can talk?” I shake my head while staring at her. “There’s no easy way for me to tell you this, but the doctor was here and he took some blood. He thinks you had a miscarriage.”

I look at the pad between my legs and crinkle my forehead. “I was pregnant?”

“Josiah is running the blood work now, but, yeah, he thinks you may have been.”

I stare at the floor, refusing to lift my head. Being pregnant wasn’t something I ever considered, not while Adrian had control of me. Beside the fact he threatened to perform an abortion himself because he said I was a dirty whore who fucked everything within a five-mile radius. Even though he was the one who gave me out to his men to do with whatever they wanted.

But Ruben...

“I’m such an idiot,” I whisper to myself.

“Why?”

“It was only a matter of time before I’d be pregnant.”

“Yes. That’ll happen if you’re not on birth control.”

“I knew the consequences, Rose, but I never asked to go on birth control, or even for Ruben to wear a condom. Maybe, subconsciously, I wanted to be pregnant. To have a family where I can love someone and they’ll love me back unconditionally.” I take a long breath. “I don’t know what I’m saying.” I sound like a fool.

“You’ve been to hell and back. Okay, you and Ruben were having unprotected sex, it’s not the end of the world. Yeah, you may have been pregnant too, but look at all the shit you’ve survived.”

“I should’ve been more careful.”

“Fuck me, Eliza,” Rose groans as she paces in the bathroom. “You have to stop being so damn hard on yourself. You’ve been through so much.”

“How did Ruben take it?”

“He’s pissed, but not at you. At Adrian.”

“Where’s Adrian now?” Rose’s pursed lips and wide blue eyes give nothing away. “Where is he?”

“Ruben has him.”

“Where?” I ask again.

Rose folds her arms around her body and turns to look out the bathroom. “He has him down in the shed.”

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