The Marriage Built on Lies

echoed in my

u need to

car

atched the way he carefully laid out my pills every morning and every night. I watched th

wing need. What was it I couldn't re

for the merger of his family's tech company. The house was quiet. The

to his office, a room that was usually off-limits to me. The door was locked, but I' d seen where

gany desk sat in the center. I didn't know what I was looking for. I

his desk. I pressed on it, and a section of the wall clicked open, reveali

No luck. Then, an idea sparked. The date of our

mbers. 1-1-0-8. The

nge prescription bottles. The labels were turned away fro

ting on pure, unthinking impulse. Ben's words, see things more clearly, mixed with a des

ew of the small, white pills into

. something. A wave of dizziness? A sudden calm? Nothing happ

e doorkn

om my face to the open safe, then to the pill bottle in my ha

screamed, rush

p so tight I thought he would crush it. "Wh

thing else. He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes wild.

" I said, my voice small.

ice echoing through the

took in the scene in an instant-the open safe,

asked, his voice ca

d, Ben, I don't know how many she took!" Ethan

lse, checked my pupils, asked me a series of q

, confused. "A little ti

ompletely normal. There's no sign of a

s impossible. That dosage... it should have

hen what Ben had done. The pills in the safe weren't the powerful sedatives Ethan thought they w

is hands. "The baby," he whispered, his voice cr

g about?" I asked, a

This pregnancy... it's too risky now. With your... instability..

. "Ethan, don't. Th

, his eyes locked on mine. "We need to termin

sical blow. Terminate. End

g as I clutched my stomach. "

nd I'm making the decision that is best for all of us.

I was staring at Ethan, and for the first time, the loving, caring man I thought I knew was gone. In his