Six months slipped by. Then one night, Sebastian came home.

He was drunk—completely wrecked. The moment he walked through the door, his mouth crashed into mine.

I kicked. I clawed. I fought. But he was a man unhinged, deaf to everything, and he took what he wanted.

The next morning, I woke to a bucket of ice water.

Sebastian stood at the bedside, revulsion pouring off him.

"You're disgusting."

"Crawling into my bed while I was drunk—is that how you used to seduce men?"

He called in a professional cleaning crew to sanitize the entire master bedroom. Halfway through, he decided it wasn't enough and had the whole room gutted and rebuilt.

I watched in silence. I didn't bother explaining anymore.

Sebastian would never believe me anyway.

It wasn't until my follow-up appointment that I discovered, completely by accident, that I was pregnant.

When the faint, steady rhythm of my baby's heartbeat filled the ultrasound room, tears I thought had long since dried up spilled down my cheeks again, beyond my control.

I had no one left in this world. Not a single family member. Not a single person who loved me.

But this child—this child made me greedy.

I wanted to keep it.