002

002

Brianna Pounds

"You're pregnant, honey?" Nico's voice beamed with a creepy kind of care, eyes shining with happiness as he neared me.

I hadn't had papers or anything to prove my pregnancy, suddenly making me grateful for the bleeding, even though my chest was tightening with the fact that my baby could be in danger from Nico's bitch pushing me that hard. I prayed my baby was okay.

My heart lightened a bit as Nico lowered to the height of my stomach, as if listening to the heartbeat, even though I doubted the baby had a heartbeat yet.

"You really are pregnant, Brianna." He rose to my height. "Since when? And you've been hiding this news from me? How could you?" He tapped my cheek lightly as if scolding a child. Even though I found his behavior strange, I was just happy he believed me.

"I... I was going to tell you tonight. It hasn't been long since I found out." I shook my head, my words fumbling. "We are pregnant again, Nicodemo." My eyes were bright, looking into his.

He looked over to Kariana, who was seething, and I was glad. I was winning back my Nico. Then, in an off-guard move, he slapped me hard against my cheek.

I stumbled back from the impact, holding the spot. "Jesus, why did you do that, Nico?"

"You're pregnant, and you didn't tell me?" He took very slow, creepy steps, and I began moving backward as I tried to explain. "Nico, stop. You're scaring me. I told you I found out not long ago."

"Did you, huh?" He kept nearing me.

"Babe," I cried. "Nico, stop. This isn't you."

Truthfully, that wasn't him. I'd never seen this side of the man I'd been married to for years.

"This isn't you, stop." He landed a blow to my mouth. I tasted copper immediately, and a flash of hot white momentarily took my vision and balance, sending me landing to the floor. Only it was the stairs, and I'd landed badly, rolling. Neither the pain nor gravity stopped until I slammed into the floor at the very end.

Blood shot from my nose, some rushing into my mouth, and from the way my head pounded I knew I was having a head bleed too. It started slipping into my eyes immediately when I tried to open them.

I managed to glimpse Kariana descending the stairs with an object I couldn't quite make out, and I began rolling myself backward with no sense of direction. With just one eye open, I saw Nicodemo following behind her.

"Nico, please. Nico, stop her. Don't do this to me, please." The bitch reached me at the same time and hit my head with an object that dropped me fully to the ground, darkness swallowing me.

It must've been hours or even minutes I was knocked out, I couldn't tell. All I knew was that I awoke to Nico, my own husband, tying me up tightly with a rope with the help of his bitch. Everything was pitch black and, by the lack of air, it took no brainer to know I was inside a sack.

They'd put me in a sack and were tying me up. My own husband. I managed a cry, but it only came out muffled, which made me taste the rag they'd used to gag me. My hands were bound together too, and my legs, I noticed as I tried to wiggle.

They caught on to my resistance as Kariana snied, "Is she dumb or something, thinking she could wiggle her way out of this? That woman is stupid."

Nico laughed, "I know." And suddenly it was like I was being lifted off the ground to an uncomfortable position that roared pain through my body and spine.

My baby. I remembered when the pain shot me in my lower belly, sharp. My baby.

"Nico, let me go," I muffled out, wiggling to make it uncomfortable for whoever was carrying me so they'd drop me.

They did, only in a hard slam, and the sound of a truck shutting made me know exactly where they had put me.

Oh no, they were going to kill me. Realization dawned on me. It'd been Nicodemo, my husband, who'd been against me conceiving. It'd been him and his bitch after me for years.

"Let me out!" I screamed, only the sound didn't leave my lips, only intensifying the heat in this stupid sack they had me in. I could barely breathe.

Hearing the ignition roar to life and their sharp laughter, I began fighting. I wasn't going to let them take me wherever they were headed, but my fight was met with exhaustion too quickly. I hadn't known if it was the stress and pain my body had been through that sent me into episodes of dizziness and fainting.

The next time I regained awareness, I could suddenly breathe air that didn't smell like a sack's, but the ground felt different.

Where was I?

Ignoring my pounding head, I pried my eyes open and met Nico and his bitch backing away from me, discussing with a man I didn't know. The two were blocking the view so much so I could only see his sandals.

"Yes, yes. Remove the baby," Nicodemo instructed.

My breath harshed. My own husband was giving orders to have my unborn child removed prematurely.

I didn't know what made me scream, maybe pure stupidity. I should've made a run instead even though my hands and legs were still bound, and my scream made them three turn at the same time.

"Oh, she's awake," Nico declared.

"Let's begin the procedure right away," the other man said.

Looking at Nico, tears and exhaustion clouding my eyes, I pleaded, "Please, I'm begging you Nico, don't do this to me. I'm your wife, remember?"

"I know, honey," he said in a coiling sweetness, "that's why I'm doing this. For us, okay?"

His words were to distract me, and before I knew it, the man I was now presuming was a whack doctor had injected something at the side of my stomach, and it was taking effect immediately.

My eyes were fluttering closed as I pinned them to Nico. "Please," I pleaded softly.

"Goodbye, Brianna." He waved to me before darkness claimed me once more.