Or to understand him.
All I wanted was to see my son.
After a brief silence, Quinn relented.
"Get up. I'll take you to the boy tomorrow morning."
I pushed myself up off the floor.
My knees were numb and stiff.
Inside, I felt nothing at all.
I turned without a word and went back to my room.
The moment I pushed the door open, something struck me.
It grazed my shoulder and dropped to the floor.
It was the wedding photo of Quinn and me.
On our wedding night, I had confessed every secret to him.
I told him I wasn't from this world.
That I'd only approached him in the beginning to complete the System's tasks, to bank enough points to go home.
Back then, his eyes had been full of nothing but love.
He held me tight, his voice certain.
"I don't care who you are or why you came. The one I love has always been you."
"I only want you to stay by my side forever."
That was the moment my heart turned.
I went and bargained with the System.
I gave up going home.
Even when the System warned me that staying in this world by choice would cost me twenty years of my life, I accepted it gladly.
I thought I'd bet right.
But in the end, it all came to nothing.
The glass over the photo had shattered.
Just like the love between us, rotted through long ago.
That night, I lay awake until dawn.
Early the next morning, I washed and dressed and waited downstairs.
But when Quinn came down, he took Virginia's hand and walked straight past, his face calm as he spoke.
"I'm accompanying Ginny to a gala today. Seeing the boy will have to wait for another day."
He didn't wait for me to answer. He turned and left with Virginia.
I stood frozen where I was, cold all the way through.
Unease swept over me.
Just then, my phone rang.
It was Stacy Lambert, the nanny who used to look after my son.
"Ma'am, it's bad!"
"The young master's been taken ill! It came on suddenly, they've rushed him into the emergency room!"
My mind went blank. I flagged down a cab and raced to the hospital, heedless of everything.
The doctor's face was grave.
"The child has been diagnosed with acute kidney failure. His condition is critical. He needs a kidney transplant immediately, and immediate family are first in line for a match."
When he finished, it felt like the sky had caved in.
Every ounce of strength drained out of me.
I sank to the floor, unable even to cry.
The next instant I came to myself and, with shaking hands, called Quinn.
"Quinn, something's happened to our son. The doctor says he needs a kidney transplant."
"I'm begging you, save him. He's your son too!"
My voice broke and choked, lowered to the very depths.
But the next moment, Quinn's voice came down the line, cold to the bone.
"I won't donate."
That sentence broke every defense I had.
I collapsed into sobs, every word wrung out of me like blood.
"Quinn! He's your own flesh and blood too!"
Quinn let out a cold laugh, then a sharp snarl.
"Narelle, how much longer are you going to keep lying to me?"
My whole body went weak. I didn't even have the strength to argue back.
Years ago, Virginia had set out to harm me and slipped a drug into me in secret.
She arranged to have me taken to a strange man's room.
Then deliberately led Quinn there to catch me in the act.
To protect my innocence, I took a blade and cut my own wrist to force myself sober.
By the time Quinn arrived, I was drenched in blood, barely conscious.
The next month, I found out I was pregnant.
Quinn's eyes were ice, and his first words were to tell me to abort the child.
I was torn.
The doctor had told me plainly that my uterine wall was too thin by nature.
If I ever miscarried, I would never be able to bear a child again.
I fought with everything I had to keep the baby in my womb, and explained to him countless times.
That night I was innocent. Nothing had happened.
