My hand stilled along the hore's mane. Nathan was standing behind me. The heat from his body penetrated right through my clothes.
"Horses aren't like other animals. You need to work to gain their trust."
I heard the double meaning in his words and...
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The monitor next to my beeped incessantly, the buzzing from the fluorescent light overhead mingled with its sound, like a swarm of angry honey bees.
My chest felt like it was being ripped apart with barbed wire every time I took a breath. Courtesy of Cole for insulting him. His anger never made sense to me and yet I could always pick up on his ques. This time was different. I didn't expect the onslaught of his rage, nor did I expect him to push me down the stairs.
A nurse shuffled into my room, carrying a clipboard, before making her way to the monitors. She scribbled a few things down before placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Is there anything I can get you, Mrs. James? Are you feeling any pain?"
Today, I was Madalyn James. Or at least according to the fake ID stashed inside my overnight bag. I wanted to laugh in her face. The pain was a relative term these days. The physical pain I felt, was something I was used to.
It was the brutal ache in my heart and the growing hatred inside my chest, that I felt far worse. Cole Brenden had taken the last shred of my being and I had let him.
"No," I answered and the nurse dipped her head in sorrow before walking off.
My eyes pooled with tears and I placed a hand over my stomach. Once there was a baby growing there. The only part of me that I had ever wanted to live for, and he took that from me.
I failed and my baby paid the ultimate price.
"Oh, Charlotte. You shouldn't have made me angry. I never wanted to hurt you or our baby."
My head snapped up to the door where Cole loomed, casting a dark shadow over the floor. Fear gripped me in ice, a fear stronger than the pain. My broken ribs and shattered face were forgotten as Cole stepped into the room.
I wanted to scream, call the nurses, and tell them to remove this man. That he was the one who did this to me, but I couldn't.
He walked with a deadly calm to my bedside and sat down next to me on the bed. "Now you lost our baby." His hand cupped my cheek and I wanted to flinch away from his touch. "How could you lose our baby, Charlotte?"
