"I understand your concerns. But don't worry. I've already been slipping Daniela medication to make her infertile. When the time comes, I'll produce a premarital medical exam showing she can't conceive."
"Once I suggest adopting a child, she'll feel guilty enough to agree. And she'll take good care of Herbert."
A bomb went off inside my skull.
One deafening blast, and then nothing. I couldn't hear anything at all.
Never—not once—had I imagined that this man, who had made me so many precious promises, would turn his cruelest schemes on me.
I bit down on my lower lip until it nearly split, the only thing keeping the sob locked inside my throat.
The Barnes family had a sole male heir lineage spanning three generations. His parents had said more than once that they hoped for grandchildren—a boy and a girl at least, ideally more, to fill the house with laughter.
I loved children too. In all my years as a kindergarten teacher, I'd always dreamed of having my own.
Every time I showed Herman a photo of some adorable kid, he'd smile and say, We'll have our own someday. Even cuter than that one.