"Be good. Don't you want a baby that's ours? Your body's delicate. You have to keep taking the medicine so the baby stays safe."
Jocelyn closed her eyes. Every organ inside her felt like it was being crushed in a fist, sinking inch by inch.
She pulled away from his embrace, lowering her gaze to hide everything roiling beneath the surface. "Okay. Go ahead and finish up. I'll go rest."
Ivor kissed the top of her head, then instructed the staff repeatedly to stay by her side and attend to her every need before finally letting her return to the bedroom.
The instant the door closed behind her, every trace of color drained from Jocelyn's face. She slid down the cold wood of the door until she was sitting on the floor, and the tears she'd been holding back finally broke free.
With trembling hands, she pulled out her phone and scrolled to a number she'd blocked three years ago. She dialed.
"Dad. I know I was wrong. Please help me file for divorce."
In the days that followed, Jocelyn was listless. She spent hours curled up in the rocking chair without a word, refusing to touch even the sweet soups she'd always loved.
Ivor assumed it was nothing more than pregnancy hormones wreaking havoc on her mood. He cleared his entire schedule on the spot and planted himself in the villa, never leaving her side.
Worried she couldn't keep anything down, the man who had never so much as boiled water in his life stationed himself in the kitchen every day, simmering broths and soups from scratch. Hot oil spattered his fingertips and raised angry red blisters, but he didn't flinch. He simply carried a bowl of bird's nest porridge to her bedside and coaxed her to eat in the gentlest voice he could manage.
But that tenderness evaporated the instant he found the box of prenatal medication sitting untouched.
Ivor summoned the doctor to monitor the baby, then strode over and pinned Jocelyn down, ignoring every ounce of her struggle.
"Be good. Just bear with it for a second. I know you're uncomfortable, but I can't risk our child."
Her lower back slammed against the edge of the counter. Pain whited out her vision.
The needle pierced her skin. Her whole body seized, and tears fell before she could stop them.
In that moment, Jocelyn's mind hurled her back three years, to the Henson family's ancestral hall.