Weeks passed. The morning sun filtered through the sheer curtains of the master bedroom.
Haleigh stood beside the bed, mechanically massaging Fabian's right arm. The hormone injections made her constantly nauseous. Her face was pale, but her eyes were focused on the task.
She moved to his chest, pressing a warm, damp towel against his skin. Her fingertips accidentally brushed against the hard ridges of his abdominal muscles.
Suddenly, the muscle beneath her palm twitched violently.
Haleigh pulled her hand back. She reached for the call button, thinking it was another reflex.
A hand clamped around her wrist like a steel trap.
Haleigh gasped. The towel dropped to the floor. She looked down.
Fabian's eyes were wide open.
At first, his gaze was cloudy, darting around the ceiling as if trying to piece together where he was. Then, slowly, the fog cleared. The dead, empty stare from that night was gone. His black eyes focused on her, sharp, alert, and burning with the violent rage of a territorial predator waking up to a threat.
His jaw worked, muscles twitching as he struggled to command his own body. His lips cracked as they parted. He forced out a few garbled, breathless syllables before his vocal cords finally obeyed. A low, gravelly voice, weak but laced with venom, scraped out of his throat. "Who... are... you?"
Haleigh's heart stopped. She couldn't breathe. Her vocal cords paralyzed. She just stared at him, her lips parting but no sound coming out.
Fabian's face twisted in pure disgust. He violently shoved her arm away, throwing her backward as if she were covered in disease.
He tried to sit up. His muscles, weak from the coma, caused his torso to sway. Haleigh instinctively reached out to catch his shoulder.
"Don't touch me!" Fabian roared. His eyes slashed at her like knives. "Get away!"
The sheer force of his voice made Haleigh stumble backward. Her hip slammed into the nightstand. The glass pitcher of water tipped over and shattered loudly against the hardwood floor.
The noise triggered the security alarms.
Within sixty seconds, the heavy doors flew open. Bodyguards, the medical team, and Berneice rushed into the room.
Berneice stopped dead in her tracks. Tears flooded her eyes. "Fabian," she sobbed, running toward the bed with her arms open.
Fabian turned his head sharply, avoiding his mother's touch. His eyes scanned the room like a radar, taking in the guards, the doctors, and the medical equipment.
The doctors swarmed him, checking his pulse and shining lights into his pupils, muttering in shock about his miraculous neurological recovery.
Fabian ignored them. He reached over and ripped the IV needle out of the back of his hand. Blood dripped onto the white sheets. He pointed a shaking, furious finger at Haleigh, who was pressed against the wall.
"Why is this cheap woman in my bedroom?" Fabian demanded, his voice hoarse but dripping with absolute authority.
Berneice wiped her face. She looked nervous. "Fabian, please calm down. This is Haleigh. We arranged a marriage for you while you were asleep. To bring good luck. She is your legal wife."
The temperature in the room plummeted to zero.
Fabian's face darkened with a rage so pure it made the doctors step back. "Wife?" he spat. "Has this family fallen so low that we are resorting to human trafficking for luck?"
Haleigh stood by the broken glass. Her fingers gripped the fabric of her shirt. The humiliation cut into her skin.
Fabian turned his head to the lead bodyguard. He issued his first command since waking up from the dead.
"Throw this stranger out of my house," Fabian ordered. His voice lacked any trace of human warmth.
The bodyguard hesitated. He looked at Berneice. The room was dead silent.
"Fabian, please," Berneice tried to intervene. "She has taken care of you every day. She-"
Fabian grabbed the heart monitor off the bedside table and hurled it at the wall. It smashed into pieces. "I said, get her out!"
Haleigh flinched. Her hands instinctively dropped to cover her lower stomach. The man she was pregnant with looked at her like he wanted her dead. Absolute despair washed over her.
