9. In A Chokehold

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“Are you for real?”

Joanne looked up from her book at Reagan’s agitated voice as he stormed into the living room.

She raised a brow, nonchalant. “What are you talking about?”

“You just left!” He growled out.

“So?”

“SO? I was there for you and you just left without me.” He was calming down, and it was obvious that he was putting a lot of effort into making it happen. “I was there as your plus one and you just ditched me there. Does that make any sense to you because it sure as hell does not to me.”

“I did not ask you to come.” Joanne picked up the bowl of almonds from the coffee table and popped one into her mouth. “You decided you wanted to attend. Don’t blame this on me.”

Reagan stared at her for a long moment before letting out an exasperated exhale. “I am not blaming you. I am just saying that if we went together, we should stay together and we should leave together. It is just proper etiquette.”

Joanne choked on her almond, grabbing her throat as she coughed.

“JOANNE!” Reagan lunged forward, dragging her off the couch and wrapping his arms around her abdomen and pushing his fist hard below her diaphragm, making her retch as she spat out the almond.

Reagan turned her to face her, “Are you alright?”

Joanne pushed him away so fast and so hard, with a kind of strength that even she did not know she was capable of.

“Are you trying to kill me? You have a little more time before you get to that, you piece of shit!” She yelled, feeling her lungs burn.

Reagan stood there, three feet away. “What are you talking about?”

Joanne looked up at him, her eyes red and his eyes wide.

Maybe he had not started to loathe her as much as yet. Maybe he had not started to plot her demise yet.

But it was just a matter of time, was it not? Now that Serena was back in the picture.

He had always hated her.

Maybe in this timeline, he had taken the baby news better because it was as per the initial plan and he had not met Serena yet, thanks to him missing his party as he ended up in the ER with a nosebleed. But now that Serena was back, everything was going to fall back into place.

The baby news BEFORE Serena's return was the only variant.

But that still did not explain his extreme happiness when the test came back positive.

And even if he was overjoyed that the very agenda of their marriage was finally completed, why did he kiss her?

Joanne fumed at the realization that she was still affected by the kiss.

Was she out of her mind?

The only effect her child’s murderer should have on her was disgust. And yet, here she was, second guessing his motive for their demise at this point in time.

Pathetic.

“Till the baby is born.” She cleared her throat. “You should wait till your heir is born before you try this shit. Or else, having had to deal with me for this long would have been all for nothing.”

Apparently that was not enough of an excuse.

“Why would I want you dead even then?”

Who knows? Because he hated her? Because he had made it clear a hundred times that he loathed her with every ounce of his being. Thinking back, Joanne really was the pathetic idiot who caused her own demise.

AGAIN, she DESERVED her end. Her daughter DIDN’T.

“Because you hate me.”

“I do not.”

“Are you trying to make me choke on air right now?” Joanne rolled her eyes.

“Joanne-”

“I liked it better when I was Ramsay.” Joanne picked up her things and turned to leave but he was right in front of her before she took two steps.

Joanne looked at him bored. “I am exhausted. Can you postpone this argument for the next convenient slot in your very hectic schedule?”

Reagan pursed his lips. He was mad at her. It was not the appropriate time to grin at his wife’s unexpected sharp humor, especially when it was at his own expense.

“You are forbidden from eating unsupervised.” He snatched the bowl from her hand. “If you want to eat, eat in front of me.”

Joanne gave him a look of absolute disbelief. What was this man playing at?

She huffed, “Are you trying to say I am incapable of taking care of myself?”

“No-”

“And hence I am also incapable of taking care of my child? Are you trying to imply that I am unfit to be a mother?”

A part of her told her that this kind of accusations could very well become the motive for her murder. Another part of her told her that he could easily lock her up in a mental asylum if she talked like a lunatic.

But it was proving impossible to speak sanely to a man who could have already decided which hit man in town will take her out.

But Reagan? Reagan, although looking dumbfounded for a moment, burst out laughing.

Joanne glared at him. She did not know about her murder but this man was very well digging his own grave by being an absolute asshole.

“You are being an absolutely irrational menace right now!”

Joanne stared at him.

The way he said it - it had no malice. And she had never heard him speak to her with anything less than a taunt.

Well, he had been awfully subtle lately but Joanne had attributed it to Reagan being a little scared of her after she slightly altered his sculpture-perfect face.

But now he was delighted by her? What kind of alternate reality was this?

Then again, wasn't this also possible? She could be in an alternate reality where her husband was less cruel? But Pauline was still a bitch to her. Well, it would be no surprise if Pauline was a bitch in every single universe.

“Earth to Joey!”

Reagan indeed had all plans to make Joanne choke on her own breath.

“What did you just call me?” As if Joanne was not enough, he had quite freely taken to calling her by her nickname.

Reagan did that half-smile half-smirk thing that he always did, his single dimple making an appearance. The one which had Joanne melting into a puddle before their marriage. “I thought you said you didn’t like being called by your whole name.”

“I said I preferred Ramsay.” She corrected him.

“That would not set a great example for our children, now would it?” Reagan placed the bowl down and snatched the book from her hand, raising a brow and nonchalantly reading the synopsis on the back cover as if he had not just dropped yet another bomb on her.

Children? Children? What children? The deal was one child. And his deal was to finish them off before the child was born. So where did children come from?

“This book seems depressing.” Reagan held the book up.

“It's an autobiography.” Joanne rolled her eyes, trying to get it back from him but he moved it further out of her reach.

“Stop that!” She hissed as she struggled to get it back.

“Or what?”

Joanne opened her mouth to retort but her words died in her throat when he wrapped his free arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest.

“Hmm?” Reagan had a flirtatious smile on his lips and a predatory glaze in his eyes. She heard a thud - he had dropped the book - and his other arm also wrapped around her like a snare, trapping her in his embrace.

“What do you think you are doing?” Joanne tried to push him away but her frail arms were no match for the muscle mass he judiciously built in their home gym.

“Romancing my wife.”

Joanne was lost for words. “R-ro-romancing what?”

“My wife. You. Joanne Knight.”

Joanne was about to try to choke him when he kissed her, and her muscles were all abruptly out of power. Her hands simply rested on his solid chest as she stayed frozen, giving him the clearance to make her melt with his hot tongue.

His arms snaked down and grabbed her backside firmly, lifting her up making her instinctively wrap her legs around his waist.

He was moving. He was moving towards the couch.

The logical voice in her head told her that she was making a really stupid mistake. She was about to sleep with her FUCKING MURDERER but her body seemed to have a mind of its own - a mind with no memory of her unfair death.

“Oomph.” The breath knocked out of her lungs when she hit the soft cushions of the huge living room couch, his long fingers hooking under her waistband and pulling it down.

“We shouldn't…” Joanne pulled away to protest only to pulled right back in.

One hand pulling her shorts down while other hand pulling at his, Reagan had almost exposed both of them when they heard a shriek.

“OH MY GOD!”

The two whipped their head to the side, Joanne's teeth nicking Reagan's lower lip in the process.

At the foyer stood Paulene, looking horrified.

And next to her, Serena Cole, looking mortified.

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