Chapter 4

"Stop her!" Ethan roared.

Nurses and guards flooded the room. They wrestled the shard from my hand, but not before I'd drawn a deep, bleeding gash across my neck. They pinned me to the bed, strapping my arms and legs to the frame.

Ethan stood over me, his face a thunderous mask of fury. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Trying to kill yourself? After everything I've done to keep you alive?"

I just stared at him, my eyes empty.

Suddenly, Nicole let out a piercing scream. "My face! It burns! Oh god, it burns!"

She tore at her bandages. Underneath, her skin was not healing. It was worse. Angry red welts were erupting, the flesh looking infected, poisoned. The stolen elixir wasn't curing her; it was destroying her.

Ethan's head whipped around to look at me, his eyes filled with accusation. "You did this," he hissed. "You somehow sabotaged it."

He believed I was powerful enough to poison his lover from my deathbed, yet too weak to be believed about anything else. The irony was suffocating.

From that day on, my prison became hell.

Ethan confined me to the room, a guard posted outside my door 24/7. He ordered the staff to treat me with contempt. My meals, when they came, were spoiled leftovers. The nurses handled me roughly, their faces pinched with scorn. They called me the "psycho girlfriend" who tried to murder the governor's "real" love.

I endured it all. I ate the spoiled food, forcing it down for the small amount of sustenance it offered my baby. I accepted the rough treatment, saving every bit of my energy. My body wasted away, the muscles in my arms and legs atrophied. I grew weaker and weaker, but the small life inside me held on, a tiny, stubborn anchor in a sea of despair.

One morning, a new doctor was on rotation. He was young, his eyes still holding a spark of compassion that hadn't been extinguished by hospital bureaucracy. He was checking my vitals when he frowned, placing his stethoscope on my abdomen.

He listened for a long time, his expression shifting from confusion to shock.

He left the room without a word and returned a few minutes later with Ethan, who looked annoyed at being summoned.

"What is it now?" Ethan demanded, not even looking at me. "Is she faking another illness for attention?"

The young doctor swallowed hard, his gaze fixed on the governor.

"Governor Lester," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "It's... it's not an illness. Ms. Fuller... she's pregnant."