CHAPTER 9
Chapter 9
NORA.
Slowly, my eyes opened to a vast and blank whiteness. I looked around but could not see anything; my sight was blurry. I shut my eyes and opened them again, and slowly, my sight became clearer. I realized where I was in a hospital. I groaned.
My head hurt, but my abdomen felt like someone had stuck pliers inside of me and twisted all of my internal organs at the same time. I squirmed on the bed and metal creaked in protest.
“Glad to see you’re awake,” a voice beside me said.
I turned my head and saw Dimitri sitting, legs crossed, a look of smug disapproval on his face.
“How did I get here?” I said, my voice so croaky it surprised me.
“How did you get here?” He asked, eyes widened theatrically.
“Well, for one, you tried to take the life of an innocent child, and in so doing, you almost killed yourself. That’s how. Sounds familiar?”
I sighed.
I could hear the judgment in his voice and I did not need it. I turned my head away from him and remembered the pills I had swallowed to help get rid of the fetus growing inside of me. I groaned again as a sharp pain shot through my solit -plexus. All that planning and execution were for nothing because I could still feel the baby inside of me,
“Why don’t you leave me alone, Dimitri?” I asked him. “This is my call to make. It’s my body; and I get to decide whether or not I want to keep the fucking baby. You of all people should not tell me what to do.” Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
My anger surged as I spoke, and even in my weakness, my voice rose to a considerably high volume.
Dimitri just sat still, legs still crossed, eyes still blank as he looked on at me.
“Me of all people?” He said, leaning forward. “What the fuck does that even mean, Nora? You know how I found you? You were unconscious, dying, bleeding through your fucking body. Had I entered the room a few minutes later, you wouldn’t be here talking this bullshit. And all for what? Because you hate Derek so much that you’re willing to murder an innocent child just because he got you pregnant?”
“Ohh, please, Dimitri,” I said. “Spare me the fucking lecture.”
He got on his feet. I could hear him breathing anyway. He was getting worked up. It was obvious he felt very strongly about this. But I looked past the fact that he was caring for me, and chose to focus on how obtrusive he was being.
“Look, Nora, we’re legally married,” he continued. “You are my mate and it is my duty to protect you, my responsibility to make sure you don’t make bad decisions, just like this one. You’re making it really difficult, Nora. I don’t like this.”
I was getting pissed to the core.
Does he know how disgusted I am with myself?
How unclean I feel?
Of course he won’t know all these because he isn’t the one carrying my cross.
“Well, you of all people should know better.” I said. “We’re married, yes. But it’s only contractual, remember. And like I said, you don’t get to tell me what the fuck I should do with my body. This bastard of a child is growing inside of me, not yours. I get to decide, okay? You should have let me go on with my plan.
18:05
Mon, Jun 24
A scornful laugh came out of him..
“Let you get on with your plan?” He said, hands on his hips. “Let you get on with that poorly thought out plan? You could have fucking died! That doesn’t seem like mush of a plan to me, Nora.” He pointed out strongly.
My eyebrows furred.
“Then you could have let me die,” I fired, struggling to sit..
My whole body ached and the last thing that I needed was an argument. Instinctively, I rubbed my abdomen. I wished I could stick my hand into my uterus and yank the foetus out.
“You’re being selfish and stupid, Nora,” Dimitri snapped. “You should be better than that. But look at you.”
“Ohh, please, Dimitri, like you’re any better,” I clicked my teeth with rolling eyes.
Dimitri sighed loudly.
At first, he appeared confused and began to pace back and forth, my eyes not leaving him.
“I know just what to do,” he said and halted, looking at me.
His tone fiercer this time. “When we go back home, I will put you on watch, at least until I am sure you have gotten rid of this sick idea that getting rid of this baby will somehow make your life better. You will be on watch every minute of every fucking day.”
You can’t do that,” I countered. “I’m not one of your subordinates. You can’t treat me like that.”
“Ohh, yeah, I can,” he said, nodding triumphantly.
I felt a wave of anger rise inside of me.
+4
“Why are you bothered anyway, Dmitri?” I told him, my voice high and enraged. “I’m married to you, and so what? The baby isn’t even yours.
I turned to him just as I said the last sentence, and I saw the look of first disbelief that I had said such a thing, and then fury, and then just sadness. For a second, it made me feel bad.
“You’re not even worth it, Nora,” he said and made his way to the door..
“You’re not fucking worth it.”
“Wait-“I called, but he had already barged out of the ward, his steps hurried and impatient,
I buried my head in my hands, feeling some shame that I had something so vile at someone who was simply looking out for
- me.
“Hey,” I heard a voice and raised my head to Collins‘ face. From the look on his face, it was obvious he had been listening.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him. “I didn’t mean to say that to him.”
Nora, look, Dimitri… he’s very soft,” he said. “It’s good sometimes that he’s that way, but that also means he gets hurt often. His ex–mate, Cassandra, she took advantage of him. And now you, you’re about to do the same thing.”
“I’m not-
“No, no,” he said, raising a hand up and silencing me. “Dimitri is my brother and I will do whatever it takes to protect him. But I’m begging you, Nora, don’t hurt him. You’ll hate me if you do so. Good day.