Chapter 3

The clinic was sterile and impersonal. I sat in the waiting room, twisting the frayed strap of my purse. Jessica had found a place on the other side of town, away from any neighborhood Liam or his family might frequent. She' d wanted to come with me, but I told her I needed to do this alone.

A doctor with a kind, tired face called my name. She led me into a small room and performed an ultrasound. I braced myself, turning my head away from the screen, not wanting to see the tiny life I was about to end.

After a few minutes of silence, the doctor clicked off the machine. I held my breath, waiting for her to tell me what to do next.

"Well, Chloe," she said, her voice gentle. "There's no need for a procedure."

I frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

"You're not pregnant."

The words didn't register at first. "But the test... it was positive."

"It was a false positive," she explained. "It happens sometimes. Your hormone levels are irregular, which likely caused the positive result and the other symptoms you've been experiencing. It's likely due to stress. You've just started your period, correct?"

I nodded numbly. The cramps had started this morning, a dull ache I'd mistaken for something else.

Not pregnant. A wave of relief so powerful it almost knocked me over washed through me. It was a miracle. A second chance. I was free. I wasn't tied to him.

I thanked the doctor, my voice trembling, and walked out of the clinic into the bright afternoon sun. The world seemed sharper, more real. I felt like I had narrowly escaped a terrible fate.

I called Jessica as soon as I was on the bus.

"I'm not pregnant, Jess. It was a false alarm."

"Oh, thank god!" she breathed. "That bastard doesn't deserve you or a kid. Did you hear what he said? 'A fun distraction'?"

Her anger on my behalf was a strange comfort.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I heard."

"So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to leave him?"

"I..." I didn't know. The relief of not being pregnant was so overwhelming, I hadn't thought that far ahead.

Just then, my phone buzzed with another call. Liam' s name flashed on the screen. My heart did a stupid little jump.

"It's him," I told Jessica.

"Don't answer it, Chloe."

But I did. My finger hit the green button before I could stop myself. Maybe he was calling to apologize. Maybe he' d realized he' d made a terrible mistake.

"Where are you?" His voice was cold, clipped. No apology. No warmth.

"I'm out," I said, my own voice small.

"I'm at the apartment. Get back here. Now."

He hung up. It wasn't a request. It was an order. The tiny flicker of hope died instantly. Still, a part of me, the weak part that still loved him, obeyed. I told Jessica I' d call her later and got off the bus, hailing a cab to his apartment.

The moment I walked through the door, he had me pressed against it. His mouth was on mine, hard and demanding. It wasn' t a kiss of passion or apology; it was a kiss of ownership. He was marking his territory.

He pushed me toward the bedroom, his hands rough on my body. I didn't resist. I was numb, my mind a million miles away.

Afterward, I lay in the bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling an emptiness that had nothing to do with him leaving the room. He had taken what he wanted without a single word about the other night. I wasn't a person to him. I was just a body, a thing he could use whenever he wanted. He hadn' t even asked where I had been. He just assumed I would come running when he called. And I had.