Page 246 of The Grand Duel

“Tell me,” I plead, grasping my stomach as it churns.

He scrubs at his face, only making my heart pound even more fanatically.

“What have you done?” I ask, my face screwing up. “Charles, please just tell me.”

He lifts his head towards the front of the car, towards his friends, his eyes lost and glassy.

He eventually looks over at me, and my heart sinks.

“Bronwyn called me this morning to tell me that one of the girls from the club is pregnant. She was with two men the week she would’ve conceived the child.”

My breath is taken from me.

I close my eyes, knowing what’s coming and not trusting myself to be looking at him when he says it.

“I was one of them.”

I sit back, my hand covering my mouth.

“Lis—”

“Stop.” I hold my hand up as he reaches for me.

My heart is beating so hard there’s a shooting pain bursting out through every rib.

One of the girls from the club is pregnant.

I open my eyes and look at him. “Who?”

Tears threaten in my eyes, but I lock my jaw and stare at him, stopping them. Becausewhoit is doesn’t matter. It did, and then I opened my eyes and saw the tear dripping down his cheek, and it didn’t. It doesn’t matter who she is, only that she is.

She exists.

And so does an unborn child.

I don’t know what kind of person it makes me, but I’m devastated. I feel sad and angry and at a complete loss because isn’t that meant to be me? Was I not meant to be that woman to him?

I was meant to grow up, find a man, have a baby and get happiness.

It was supposed to be me.

“Lissie.”

I blink, focusing on him.

“Cass. I said it’s Cass.”

Cass.

How did this happen?

The club’s rules are ironclad.

How…

“Baby, I’m so sorry.” Tears line his face, and it breaks my heart in two. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose you.” He dips his head. “I can’t lose you, Lis. I only just found you. I love you.”

I stare at the top of his head, my tears on the brink of spilling over. The pain in my chest crippling me.