“No, I said no!” Leilani objects.
Waylen stares at her. He refuses to accept that she’s not pregnant. As soon as his grandfather got the news, Waylen raced home without a single delay. He’s been overjoyed ever since hearing the news and has been distracted by the thought of her carrying his child. Suddenly he picks her up and walks to the bathroom.
“What are you doing?” Leilani asks.
“You’re taking a urine test,” Waylen replies.
He kicks the toilet lid up and placed her on the toilet seat. He opens the medicine cabinet and pulls out a box of pregnancy tests. Leilani gasps and wonders when he prepared the tests.
“Pee!” he commands, “Now!”
Leilani is forced to sit there awkwardly.
“I can’t pee now,” she objects.
“Try,” he insists, “Just a little urine is fine.”
“Sorry, I can’t,” she sighs.
Waylen lifts her arms gently and carries her back to the bed.
“If you don’t want me to take you to the hospital, you’d better take a urine test,” he warns.
It takes an hour or two to drive to the hospital, and the results from the blood test takes time. A urine test is faster and Waylen can’t bear to wait. He calls for a servant and soon a young maid brings a tray with several glasses of water. He takes a glass of water and passes it to her.
“Drink it,” he commands.
Leilani drinks several glasses of water. She feels as though her stomach might burst. On the fourth glass, she reaches out to stop him.
“I don’t want to drink it,” she complains.
Waylen puts the glass in front of her lips and forces her to drink it.
“Enough!” she m.o.a.ns, “I can’t drink anymore!”
Though the next glass of water is ready, Waylen puts it down.
“Do you want to pee now?” he asks gently.
“No!” she insists.
Waylen looks at his watch. After drinking so much water, she’ll be dying to pee in half an hour. Leilani wants to cooperate with him—he seems anxious to know the result. She reasons that early disappointment is better than allowing him to continue building hopes.
“You may be disappointed,” Leilani cautions, “Sometimes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.”
“Disappointment is better than hopelessness,” Waylen says.
He reaches his hands into her dress and rubs her abdomen.
“You want to pee now?” he asks.
“Still no,” she answers.
Waylen orders the maids to bring her a glass of orange juice. Leilani really wants to pee, but she stubbornly resists when she sees such a big glass of orange juice.
“Why are you forcing me?” she asks, “Is it really so urgent?”
“Is he so eager to know because he’s happy to be having a child with me?” Leilani wonders, “Or is he just excited for Diana to come back? Either way, I’m going to disappoint him.”
She sighs and decides to go to the bathroom. She knows it’s impossible for her to get pregnant and she doesn’t want to give any more false hope. Before she gets up, he takes a large sip and feeds her the orange juice with his mouth. Leilani has no choice but to swallow it.
“Enough!” she says, “I’m going to the bathroom!”
The more he looks forward to having a baby, the more frightened she feels. If she somehow really was pregnant, she has no idea how she would explain that there’s a toxin in her body that could kill her. Charles told her that even if she survived the birth, her body would be too weak to continue fighting off the toxin and she’d die. Leilani wonders if Waylen would even care.
“Maybe he’d be happier if I died,” she thinks, “Diana could return as soon as I give birth, and he wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with me anymore.”
The thought causes Leilani to frown and wrinkled her forehead. Before Waylen can see her expression she hides her face in her palm.
“Can you just turn around?” she asks, “I can’t pee while someone is watching me.”
Instead, of turning around he stares at her hand. Leilani remembers that she’s still wearing the pink diamond ring Luck brought her. She subconsciously covers her left hand with her right.
“Lucky brought me—” she tries to explain.
“It really suits you,” Waylen interrupts.
“Really?” she asks.
“Yes, I bought it just for you,” Waylen replies.
“What about Leonie’s ring?” Leilani asks, confused.
“Someone else must have given it to her,” Waylen says, “I’ll get you a new one. You deserve something as unique as you are.”
With a deep sigh, he gently takes the ring off her finger. Leilani looks at him curiously.
“How am I unique?” she asks.
“Do you want to hear it here?” he asks, gesturing at the bathroom.
He desperately wants to tell her everything he feels, but he doesn’t want to do it in the bathroom—the setting will spoil the romance.
“I can’t hold it anymore,” Leilani says abruptly, “I’m going to pee.”
Waylen sighs.
“When she wants to ruin the mood, she’s quite good at it,” he thinks.
Leilani exhales with relief after she finishes. Waylen picks her up and carefully carries her back to the bed. He immediately calls a servant to take a sample from the small basin inserted into the toilet for the test. Waylen stares deeply into Leilani’s eyes, sensing her desperation and fear.
“You’re scared,” he says, “Are you scared that you really are pregnant? Or are you scared of not being pregnant at all?”
Leilani closes her eyes and presses her lips together. She doesn’t know what to say. If she was being honest, she’d say it’s her own hope that terrifies her: she knows she shouldn’t, but a part of her desperately wants to be carrying Waylen’s child.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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