Page 7 of Venomous King
The most notable change, and the one that has me ready to release the contents of my stomach, is the round protrusion from her lower abdomen. The one that indicates she’s with child, a child that is not fucking mine. “Thank you for coming.” Her words are uttered in a confident tone, and as much as I want to look at her expression, I can’t pry my eyes away from her stomach.
Finally, I force myself to meet her intense gaze, and all I witness staring back at me is defiance. “I can see that you are in shock, and for that, I am sorry, Kai. I never meant to hurt you, and I can tell by your expression that I have.”
I snap out of the shock and fury that fill me, and take a tentative step towards her, and she holds her ground. That in itself stuns the hell out of me. This woman before me may be a stranger now, but she is also still my Isabella. She still called me for help, and no matter what, I will help her. “Isabella, are you safe, baby? Tell me who is hunting you, how did this all fucking happen?”
I reach forward and pull her into my arms, wrapping them tightly around her as I inhale her sweet scent, a subtle hint of roses and vanilla.My heart. My love. Home. That is what Isabella is, and always has been;my home. Mine.
She tries to push away from my grip, but my heart lurches in my chest, and I crush her to me, refusing to allow her to escape my hold. “KAI! Fuck, the hot tea!” She shouts, and finally I allow her to take a step away from me, as she clutches the cup away from her torso, and I immediately notice a wet spot on her shirt. “Fuck, baby! I am so sorry! Shit, are you burnt?”
The doctor in me immediately takes over, and I pull the collar of her shirt away from her chest, so that I can examine the red mark already marring the perfection of her soft, golden skin.Jesus fuck, look at what I have done.Not even in her presence for more than a few minutes, and she’s hurt.
Her hand slaps at my grip on her shirt, and she steps back. “I’m fine.” She takes a deep breath and stares at me, as if she’s trying to come to some decision. “I’m safe for now, as long as you weren’t followed. Answering your other question will require more time, but the short answer is that Diego Cabano is hunting me. He’s the one who abducted me from my sister’shouse in Casbury, and he’s the asshole that kept me prisoner in the jungle.”
“To punish your grandmother, I already know that, Isabella. How could Stella have allowed that to happen?”
“No! You’re mistaken there. This was never about Stella. He didn’t kidnap me to ransom me to Stella, or even to punish her. He doesn’t give a shit about her. He took me because, in his psychotic, delusional mind, I belong to him. He believes himself in love with me. He took me to stop me from leaving him. I... I tried breaking up with him, but he didn’t take it… well.”
What. The. Fuck.Is she being fucking serious right now? This psychopath abducted her, and trapped her in the fucking jungle, because she tried to leave him, not because he had a vendetta against Stella Stratford. How pathetic this asshole must be, to have to trap a woman that wants to leave him in a jungle against her will. How could any man hurt a woman he loves? This fucking guy must be utterly insane. My glance goes back to her small protruding stomach, and my own stomach seems to be filled with lead. “Is... is that his child, Isabella? Did he force himself on you?”
Different emotions cross her face: fear, anger, and then, finally, resolve. “This child is mine.Only mine. If you can’t accept that, Kai, then please turn around and pretend that you never heard from me, and that I’m still dead.”
“Only mine,“ her words play out in my mind as I stare at her. I can see her belief in the truth of her words. Is that her motherly instinct already making an appearance? Just the thought has a pang of regret flowing through me. She’s going to be the mother to that psychopath’s child.
“What am I doing here, Isabella? The reports of your death came months ago; your sister, Mia, confirmed to me that you were dead. Why contact me now? You have obviously been doinga decent job of hiding from everyone, so why risk being found by contacting me?”
Each word that spews from my mouth feels like poison.It doesn’t matter her reasons,my heart begs, but I have to know why she reached out after all this time. She breaks our connection and turns back to the ocean. “I was going to do this alone. A fresh start for me... and my baby. I wanted to let Isabella Stratford, and her world, die in that jungle. I still do, but now I need help, Kai. I can’t do this alone, not if my baby is going to get a chance at a normal life.”
I reach out, grasp her shoulder, and gently turn her toward me, using two fingers to force her chin up, and her to meet my eyes. Eyes that belong to a stranger and yet, also the woman I love. “What changed, my little rose?” I force my voice to a soothing tone, even though every part of me wants to shake her at the moment.Months, I spent months mourning this woman.
“My baby, my daughter... they found something in one of the tests. Kai, there is an abnormality.” Tears fill her eyes, and slide down her cheeks, until the cold wind carries them away.
The reality of her words hits me, as if she had taken a bat to me, hard, brutal, and without warning. She didn’t contact me because she missed, or couldn’t live without me, because she wanted me to help keep her safe from this Diego fucker who is obsessed with her, or because she loves me. “You contacted me because I’m a doctor.”
“Yes.”
One simple word, and it’s like a bomb has gone off in my bruised and aching heart. If she didn’t need a doctor, she would have continued to allow me to believe she was dead, and gone on with her new life. Isabella Stratford never loved me, and I am a fool.
Chapter six
Issy
“Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.”
Alfred A. Montapert
His light blue eyes meet mine, and I witness utter devastation in their depths. With one word, I’ve destroyed whatever he thought was happening here. He came to protect me as a white knight does a frail and fragile princess, the one I once was, but she’s gone now. In her place is this version, this woman who will do anything and everything to protect her daughter.
I release my hold on the cup, the sound of it hitting the sand drowned out by the low howling of the wind. I force my hands into fists to avoid reaching up and touching his face, not to soothe the lines that have appeared, and mar his forehead, or the dissatisfied tilt of his lush mouth. I no longer have that right. He’s beautiful, even now, with sadness filling his every cell. I have once again hurt him, and I wish there had been another option. I wish I had let him forget me and move on, but I can’t... she must come first now. She is my beginning and my end, my legacy and my future. With or without him, she will always have to be my priority. If I must hurt him to save her, then so be it.
He steps away from me, his hands rising to his thick, sunlight-filled blond hair as he attempts to work through my confession. I can almost see the war playing itself out inside of him. There is a part of him that wants to walk away from me. To turn his back on the woman who continuously hurts him, but the honorable part, the part I fell deeply in love with from the moment I met him, can’t bring himself to abandon me, not now in my condition. My white knight, always ready to sacrifice his own heart. It’s a pity he didn’t fall for someone worthy of him.
It’s a cruel trick of fate to have brought us together, over and over, so that I can hurt and destroy him, for I have no doubt that is what I am doing here. I am taking an honorable man, one who loved me and tried to help me overcome my issues, and making him an accomplice to my deceit.
“Tell me what they found with your... daughter,” his voice chokes off on the last word, and my heart tightens in my chest.My eyes soak up all his features. He looks haggard, as if the world’s weight is on his drooped shoulders. He’s lost weight; his clothes hang off his tall, athletic frame, and his hair is longer than I have ever seen it. Deep purple streaks reside underneath his eyes, providing me with further guilt of the damage my actions have caused. I wreck everything around me, whether I mean to or not. I wonder if that will always be my fate.
I almost beg him to walk away from me, to turn his back on me, and pretend he never heard from me. I’m being selfish once again, the old Issy Stratford reappearing, but I know my situation is no longer just about me. I must harden my heart, and consign myself to do what is best for my child. He is one of her best chances at surviving, unless I go to my grandmother for assistance. If I do that, though, she and I will be locked behind the Stratford gates for the rest of our lives, as Stella keeps us under lock and key, and Diego tries to get us back.
A shudder runs through my body, at the vision of Stella’s anger at being deceived all these months, and then realizing that Diego’s bloodline will be mixed with hers, and a future heir will be his offspring. No, she can never know. I don’t want that life for my child or myself anymore. Freedom is a siren song that I cannot abstain from.