Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

I don’t have my phone to set a timer, so I count to 60 in my head 3 times.
It’s a tedious task for my brain to focus on which is apparently exactly what I need while the time
passes.
I take a deep breath before I look. I tell myself everything will be fine and ignore the tightening
of anxiety in my chest.
I pick up the little stick that determines something radical about the rest of my life.
One strong red line sits on the right side of the window. I read the directions. They’re even
printed on the plastic stick I’m holding, so I know one line means negative.
Unfortunately, a second, paler line is visible on the other side.
My heart drops like there’s a lead weight attached to it. I grip the test harder and try to breathe
through the panic rising up inside of me.
I feel like I should speak, even if only to utter a denial, but my throat won’t work. My mouth
opens and closes several times. Tears well up in my eyes.
That can’t be true.
It can’t.
This thing with Calvin was only supposed to be a detour, not a complete reroute of my life.
But now…
There’s a little speck in my uterus that is going to grow into a human baby.
And it’s his.
Oh my god.
This cannot be happening.
A knot forms in my throat. There’s a heaviness in my chest, and a sadness that permeates the air
around me as I try to grapple with this awful reality.
If this is true, I’ll be tied to Calvin for the rest of my life. There will truly be no way of escaping
him, and with the resources he has…
My god, he can make my life an absolute hellscape. He’ll be able to control my every move. He
has already shown how ruthless he can be, so there’s every reason to suspect he would view a child
together as leverage he can use to bend me to his will.
And he’ll be right. I’ll be utterly defenseless. His prisoner in the truest sense.
His pet.
For as long as he wants me to be, which was already the case with the blackmail, but now he’ll