THE SUSPICION

THE SUSPICION

The question hung in the air, stinging me like she'd just spat.

I couldn't move, neither could I breathe. 

How could they accuse me of such a thing when they were the one who had watched Savannah cheat with my husband. Because they believed I was fucking barren!

Lucas's eyes were still locked on Jace, studying every feature of my son's face. I grabbed his face and pressed it on my blossom.

"Don't blame us for insinuating it. You never told us who the child belonged to," Lucas said slowly, his voice strange. Hollow.

I finally found my voice. "You already know. He's my son. Now all of you need to leave."

"Your son," Lucas repeated. He wasn't moving or blinking. Just staring at Jace like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

"Savannah is right, isn't she?" my mother said, and there was something almost gleeful in her tone. Like she'd just discovered a delicious secret. 

She stepped forward and her hand stretched like she wanted to hold Jace, but I moved back immediately, creating a good distance between us.

“Don't you dare touch him!” I spat at her as I felt pure fury rising at my chest.  

“You spent years tearing me apart with your words and actions. How dare you think you can accuse me like that,” I seethed, my eyes glaring at her with deep resentment. “This is my son. The one I carried myself for nine months, took care of without any assistance from you bunches. So nothing…I repeat, nothing gives you the right to question my actions!”

I watched my mother's face twist into something ugly and scary. "You're so shameless! First you run away from the city, telling no one your whereabouts, and then you come back here carrying a child born out of wedlock. Your brother-in-law's child!"

“Enough, mother!” I shouted at her.

"Don't you dare play innocent!" Savannah shouted back, stepping forward to my mother's side. She looked excited, like she'd just won something. "I get it now. That's why Damian has been so protective of you! Taking your side and even taking care of your son when you were gone— pretending to play a stupid hero!"

My eyes widened in shock. How did she even conclude based on that? Savannah was never the brightest— but this? This was a new low for her. 

"That's not—"

"How could you?" my mother interrupted, her voice rising. "So you were sleeping with your husband s brother while you were married?” My mother chuckled bitterly.

"I never—" I tried to defend myself again, but they cut me off. Everything was happening way too fast, I could hardly get a grip.

"The timeline makes total sense," Savannah continued, talking over me. "You left five years ago. That child is what, four? Five? You must have been pregnant when you ran away."

Of course I was pregnant. But with Lucas' child! But they didn't know that. 

And God! I wanted to shout it over their head. Tell them how wrong they were about me being defective. But what good would it do? 

Will I expect them to suddenly respect me and take my son as their child? No…I could see it standing right here. They would never change. I would always never belong when it came to them. Not even if I was the perfect daughter they had always dreamed of.

Lucas hadn't said anything. He just kept staring at Jace with an expression I couldn't read.

He looked hurt? Angry? Or was it regret I saw swimming in his blue eyes. Or something else underneath that I didn't want to examine? U

Finally, he spoke.

"But how?" His gruff voice cracked. "You were – you were barren, Scarlet. The doctors said you couldn't conceive. So how were you able to conceive for him?"

The question should have hurt. It should have brought back all those painful years… those uncountable series of tests and treatments and damn disappointment!

Instead, I felt something cold settle in my chest.

"And that's where you were wrong, Lucas," I said quietly. "I was never barren,” I snarled.

The room suddenly went still.

"What?" Lucas breathed.

"I. Was. Never. Barren." I said each word clearly. Precisely. "You all insulted me. Called me names. Made me feel worthless for not conceiving a child in the timeline you wanted. But I was never the problem."

For a moment I saw my parents eyes dim with regret, my father's brow shot up with shock at the news.

“H-how could that be?” My mother's voice trembled slightly. “We saw the reports. We all saw it!” Her voice increased.

“ Why didn't you tell us? You know we would never treat you that way if we knew the truth,” my father said for the first time.

I chuckled under my breath and laughed at his absurd reasoning.

“Tell you? Would you believe, Father?,” I scoffed. “You…you rarely talked to me. Rarely looked at me. And on those days you did see me… your eyes filled with pure disappointment and hatred like I was the mistake you never wanted to recognize!” I cried.

“Scatlet__” my mother tried to touch me, but I moved back again, giving her my deadliest glare.

Was she feeling regretful now? 

She was too late.

“Mother, you can't possibly believe her. She's lying!” Savannah cried, seeing how the situation was beginning to turn against her favour. Then her eyes lit up with malicious understanding.

 "Oh my God. If you weren't barren, that only means one thing." She turned to look at Lucas, then at my parents, like she expected them to see the lies that I suspected she was planning to vomit again."She purposely blocked all means to get pregnant. She was so evil she didn't want to give her husband a child. You were taking birth control pills the whole time, weren't you?"