Chapter 59: Jealous
"When I was fifteen," Anna started carefully, still trying to figure out how and how much she could really tell about that incident. "I was assaulted and soon after I got pregnant."
"What?!" Gabriel exploded, his voice so loud that even the puppy jolted up, startled.
Anna leaned forward, her hands darting to his mouth as she covered it, her expression mortified. "Please, don’t scream. And let me tell this story first, okay? I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish if you keep interrupting me like that."
She gave him a challenging look, waiting for his submission. Gabriel kept looking back at her, his eyes unwavering, until he finally gave in, slowly nodding to agree to Anna’s terms.
She slowly removed her hands from his lips and continued. "It doesn’t matter who was the one who... touched me, but when Robert found out, he was furious with me. Back then, I understood his anger. We were already dating and my getting pregnant from someone else was not only horrifying on its own, but if word of that got out, our families would have been ruined."
"So he told me not to tell anyone, and as foolish as I was, I listened. I kept silent. But I needed help, so I turned to Marienne—she was still my friend back then. I didn’t know how to get an abortion without my father finding out, and I was desperate."
Anna swallowed, her fingers twisting together as she forced herself to continue.
"Marienne came up with an idea that, in my shock and panic, somehow seemed reasonable. She told me she had once read a news story about a man whose wife had cheated on him and gotten pregnant. To punish her and the unborn child, he took her to a lake in the dead of winter and forced her to stand in the freezing water for hours. She nearly froze to death. Needless to say, she miscarried."
Anna exhaled slowly, steadying herself before going on. "It was winter then too... So Marienne took me to the river, and I did what she told me to do. I stepped into the water and stood there. For God knows how long. Until the cold seeped so deep into my bones that I couldn’t feel anything anymore. Until my body finally gave out."
Her voice grew quieter. "I woke up in the hospital."
She fell silent, drawing a slow, shaky breath, fighting the burning pressure behind her eyes. Gabriel didn’t say a word, but the tight clench of his fists and the rigid set of his jaw betrayed the storm raging inside him. He was holding himself back. Barely.