"The doctor said it has been a month," said Clara affectionately, looking down and stroking her belly.
The baby had been in her body for a month. Why hadn't she noticed it before?
"A month?" Horace did a mental math with a harsher look on his face. A month had been how long since the kidnapping. Then he may not be the baby's father.
"Yes." Clara nodded, oblivious to the changes of his look. "Based on the math, I should have had it the night before I was kidnapped."
Then it occurred to Clara that they did have sex the night before the abduction, but what were the odds of that?
They had always wanted a baby, but Clara had never got pregnant until after that night. Coincidence?
Horace didn't believe in that kind of coincidence. So the baby wasn't his, and it had been conceived during that violation.
As he thought of it, the picture of the four men ripping off Clara's clothes floated up in his head again, driving him crazy.
Clenching his firsts tightly, Horace was furiously vowing inside, "One of these days, you'll be paying for this, Sean Kirkland!"
Sensing his anger, Clara was at a loss. Why hadn't she seen any tinge of delight in his face since she had told him about her pregnancy?
"Horace, what's the matter with you?" Clara questioned him a little angrily, "Hasn't you always wanted a baby? Why are you not happy at all?"
"No, Clara, I..." Horace didn't know how to explain to Clara. When he thought of her being pregnant with a baby of someone else, he wished he could have found that quartet and slaughtered them right there.
And it was so painful for him as if his heart had been stung by needles seeing how excited she looked as she told him the news.
Horace didn't want to face her, because the way she smiled when she mentioned the baby was like a sharp blade, lacerating his soul.
But he knew it better than anyone else that it wasn't her fault, because she was the biggest victim of the incident. If anyone was to blame, it should be himself. It was his failure to protect Clara that had led to the situation.
After pondering for a while, Horace turned to her with a stern face, and said in a extremely tender voice, "Clara, what do you say-- about an abortion." There was no way that he would let her give birth to a baby of another man.
Horace would never be able to face it if the baby came to the world, let alone treat it as his own child. What's worse, he would even hate the child.
"What are you talking about?!" Clara sprang up from the sofa, looking at Horace in shock. "How could you have said? This is our child!"
"Clara, listen to me," Horace got up, with his arms around her shoulders, and said earnestly, "We can't have this baby."
"Why not?" Clara asked emotionally, looking into Horace's eyes, unable to accept what he had said.
"Clara, calm down first," Horace tried to comfort her, "The baby comes at a very bad time. You can't have it. If you want a baby that much, we'll have another one after some time, OK?"
But if not so, what could he do to persuade her? Horace was at a loss.
After she was back to the bedroom, Clara buried her face in the bed, crying. She had been full of joy at the thought sharing the news with Horace, and had never expected him to not want the baby.
She began to think about how Horace had been cold in bed. Was it because he was afraid that she would get pregnant? But why? Clara just couldn't figure out why all of a sudden, Horace didn't want a baby.
Clara tried to remember when Horace started to change. The more Clara thought about it, the sadder she felt. Horace seemed to have changed how he treated her since Laura had come along.
Horace would never get cross with her so often or doubted her words, nor would he, in no way, ask her to abort their baby.
Did he still have feelings for Laura? And wanted to divorce her? And that's why he wanted to abort the child so that he wouldn't have to get stuck with her because of the baby?
Clara felt her heart aching at the thought of that. Had Horace made up his mind to leave her? But he had just said that he would never leave her...Was that a lie? Or he was just humoring her?
She shook her head forcibly, unwilling to believe in her guess, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Clara had made up her mind to give birth to the baby whether Horace wanted it or not.
It was her baby and she set her heart on protecting it from any harm.
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