The shove sent me stumbling. My lower back slammed into the corner of the table, and the pain was so sharp that tears blurred my vision.
I stared at him, my voice raw and shaking.
"Why should I apologize? Isn't that exactly what she is?"
Patrick looked at my ashen face and something in him flinched. The words on his tongue died before they left his mouth.
Carl rushed forward, pulling June to her feet, and turned on me.
"Just because you can't have children, you want to destroy June and her baby? How can you be this vicious?"
I lifted my chin and laughed, cold and hollow.
Patrick saw that I refused to bend. He looked at June's red, swollen eyes, and his face went dark, fury filling every line.
"Since you won't repent, you can go sit in the storage room and think about what you've done. No one lets you out without my permission. No food. No water."
He waved the bodyguards over. They seized my arms and dragged me toward the storage room.
The door slammed shut. The lock clicked into place.
Darkness and cold swallowed me whole.
I leaned against the frozen wall.
Once, he would panic over a scraped knee. Now, weeks after a miscarriage with my body still wrecked, he locked me in a room cold enough to see my own breath.
They didn't let me out until the following evening.
Every muscle had seized. My thoughts drifted in and out of focus.
I dragged myself down the hallway toward my room. As I passed the master bedroom, the door sat slightly ajar. The sounds that spilled out were unmistakable, breathless moans and gasps, each one drilling into my eardrums like a needle.
I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes, let out a bitter laugh, and stumbled into my room. I collapsed onto the bed and sank into a black, dreamless sleep.
I didn't know how much time had passed before fingers closed around my throat and jolted me awake.
Patrick loomed over me, his eyes bloodshot, screaming.
"Where's the baby? What did you do with the baby?"
His hand closed around my throat so tight I could barely breathe. I forced the words out through the crushing pressure.
"I didn't..."
June came in crying, dropping to her knees in front of me.
"Please, Serena, you can be angry at me all you want, but the baby is innocent."
"Still lying!"
Patrick's fury spiked. His palm cracked across my face.
My cheek erupted in a searing burn, and the taste of copper flooded my mouth.
"I'll ask you one more time. Where is the child?"