The pregnancy had been hard enough to come by. I needed to stay calm.
I unclasped the necklace in silence and set it on the table.
Noreen picked it up. "It's decent enough, I suppose."
"But something worn by trash? Disgusting."
She hurled it at the floor.
The necklace I had treasured like a piece of my soul shattered on the tile.
Zoey rushed over. "Noreen, sweetie, just tell us what style you like. Dale can take you shopping for a new one."
"Exactly," Mrs. Fleming chimed in. "Whatever catches your eye, Dale will get it for you."
My necklace lay in pieces on the ground, and all they cared about was what Noreen wanted next.
Six years of devotion, and every bit of it had been wasted. I crouched down, carefully gathering the broken fragments, when a heel came down on my hand.
Noreen stared down at me. "What I throw away isn't something a worthless tramp like you gets to touch."
Dale kicked the shattered pieces aside. "Get out. Stop embarrassing yourself."
My chest seized. I couldn't help thinking back to the moment I first fell for him.
A group of punks had cornered me on the street, catcalling, running their mouths, trying to put their hands on me.
Dale happened to walk by. He took on all six of them alone and ended up in the hospital.
Sitting at his bedside, I heard him say: "Anyone who disrespects you, I'll fight them with everything I've got."
Now Noreen was grinding me into the floor, and he told me to get out.
I swallowed the fury rising in my throat, stood, and turned toward the door. Behind me, Noreen pulled off the shoe she'd used to crush my hand and flung it at my back.
"Stepped on garbage with it. Don't want it anymore."
The heel struck between my shoulder blades, and the pain drilled straight through to my ribs.
I lowered my head, one hand resting lightly on my stomach. Just get out first. Everything else could wait.
"Hold on." Noreen's voice stopped me again. "There's one more thing you need to leave behind."
I turned. Every ounce of restraint I had left went into keeping my voice level. "What thing?"
She pointed at my belly. "A friend of mine at the hospital told me you're pregnant. That's Dale's."
"To make sure you don't use the baby as leverage to fight for assets later, I brought these." She held up a small packet. "Abortion pills. You're going to take them. Right now."
"Renata, this is really for everyone's benefit. Just drink it." Zoey's voice was soft, coaxing, as if she were offering me tea.
She took the pills from Noreen and walked over to me. "I've already arranged a private doctor. It's just a termination. It won't do you any harm."
Six years. For six years I had done everything in my power to get pregnant.
I had choked down herbal remedies so bitter they made my eyes water, cup after cup, without complaint.
Zoey knew that.
Dale knew that.
And now they wanted me to kill this child.
"Dale, the baby I'm carrying isn't just mine. It's yours too."
Dale glanced at me. The disgust on his face was too raw to be faked.
For the first time, I wondered whether the last six years of tenderness had all been an act.
Then he opened his mouth, and I barely recognized the words coming out of it.
"Only Noreen is worthy of bearing my children."
The man standing in front of me was a stranger. How many nights had he clasped his hands together, praying for a child that was ours?
"I'll sign an agreement," I said. "The child will never make a single claim on the family's assets."
"God, you're pathetic." Noreen looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of her shoe. "Dale doesn't want you anymore, and you're still begging to have his baby."
"Absolutely shameless."
Zoey held the pills out to me. "Take them yourself, and we can all walk away with a little dignity."
The moment the words left her mouth, the household bodyguards closed in around me.
The message was clear. If I wouldn't swallow the pills on my own, they would make me.
I had given ground again and again, and every inch I yielded they took a mile.
The fire inside me was getting harder to contain. I locked my eyes on Dale. I needed an answer before this went any further.
"Dale, I'm curious. What exactly does Noreen have that I don't, for you to be this heartless?"
