Giles walked in, saw the blood soaking the sheets, and didn't so much as frown.
He just undid the handcuffs, calm as ever, a thread of impatience in his voice.
"You heard?"
"My hands were tied. I promised Lucinda there'd only ever be one child—hers and mine. Taking your uterus out solves that for good. Cleaner for everyone."
I stared at him, shaking from head to toe, unable to force out a single word.
Tears spilled down without stopping.
He reached out to wipe them away.
"What's the big deal? It's one organ. You never wanted to have children anyway."
I used every ounce of strength I had left to turn my face away.
"Don't touch me!"
"Giles Gilbert, you animal!"
I swung with everything in me and slapped him hard across the face.
That single slap drained almost everything I had.
My palm went numb, and the pain in my chest felt like it was splitting open.
His head snapped to the side, five red finger marks rising sharp against his skin.
He hadn't dodged. The flush spread fast.
He didn't lose his temper. He just caught my hand. "If hitting me helps, go ahead. Hit me all you want. But once you're done, that's enough."
I opened my mouth, about to speak.
A small figure burst through the doorway with a shriek.
A crack rang out, and a harder slap landed across my face.
I fell back onto the bed, ears ringing, vision going black.
Lucinda Lambert planted herself in front of Giles, tears spilling down her face in that perfect, practiced way.
"How could you hit him!"
"Do you have any idea he's been at your bedside for seven days and seven nights, waiting for you to wake up?"
"He's the father of my child. My man. What right do you have to hit him? What right do you have to treat him like something you can take your anger out on!"
Something soft and aching flickered in Giles's eyes, and he pulled her into his arms.
That look. I knew it too well.
He used to look at me like that.
When I nearly died of alcohol poisoning trying to ransom him back from his enemies.
When I knelt on the ground and smashed my forehead bloody to keep the debt collectors from taking him.
So the tenderness I'd traded my life for could be replaced, just like that, by a single tear from someone else.
I pushed myself upright, looked at the two of them wrapped around each other, and laughed at myself.
"So I'm supposed to thank him?"