Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

I jolted awake, my breathing irregular and shallow.

The room had faded into a dusky gloom, and outside, the sky was a heavy blanket of twilight.

I couldn’t believe it. I had slept away the entire afternoon, and night was creeping in.

Colin had been sitting by the bed the whole time, just staring at me. It gave me a start, making my chest ache with sudden fear.

Waking up to your prime suspect watching you is enough to terrify anyone.

Rubbing my temples, I tried to organize my muddled thoughts. “Could you stop staring at me? It’s kinda creepy.”

Colin lowered his gaze, but it wasn’t long before he was looking at me again, those eyes shimmering in the soft glow of the nightlight, as if he was trying to read my soul.

A guilty twinge hit me, and I averted my eyes, worried that Colin might see through the charade–that I was not the real Foebe.

“Dinner’s here,” Colin nodded towards the food on the table, suggesting I finish my meal.

The thought of eating was the last thing on my mind, especially when I didn’t know what kind of drug might be mixed in.

“I’m not hungry.” I muttered.

Colin seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking up. “You need to eat. It’s not good for your health otherwise.”

“Eating will be the least of my worries.” I mumbled under my breath.

His gaze was serious as he spoke again. “We’re husband and wife. I can help you.‘

I felt a twitch at the corner of my mouth. Help? From him?

“You want a child to secure the Larson family legacy, and I can help you with that too. Just don’t lie to me… if you do,” his voice was gentle but carried an undercurrent of threat.

I didn’t know what he was getting at, but it made me feel uneasy.

Lie to him about what?

About not being the real Foebe?

“I don’t want a child. I want to get out of here. The Larson family…” I started to say they had nothing to do with me, but I was the one occupying their daughter’s place. “Never mind.”

I couldn’t fight it. I had to compromise.

“No child, no way out,” he coaxed me as if trying to soothe a child. “Phoebe, we’re married.”

1-17

“Just stop repeating that…” I watched Colin warily.

Being married to a suspected murderer was something ver anticipated, let alone having to play along to lower his guard. Surely, I wouldn’t have to sacrifice myself, would I?

“I can help you conceive,” Colin said earnestly, launching into a biological lecture. “After ovulation, the egg survives only about twenty–four hours. So, the sperm need to be waiting in the womb ahead of time. It’s best to try every other day.”

I stared at him in shock. Did he realize what he was seriously suggesting?

“You’re a… a fool a drifter. Did they teach you this at the orphanage?” I was beginning to see that he was more enigmatic than I thought.

He seemed eager for me to be pregnant, oblivious to the fact that, with his current status in the Langley household, having an heir would make the Langleys dispose of him without a second thought.

“Now is the eighth hour post–ovulation, so we still have a chance,” Colin went on. “Fertilization takes one to two days, and it takes about a week to implant. Then, at least seven days before HCG can be detected in urine with a pregnancy test… So Phoebe, if you want to get out, the earliest would be in fourteen days, after the Langley family gets the results they want.”

I slumped back against the bed, looking at Colin as if he were a walking encyclopedia, then at the predicament I was in.

Trapped in the Langley mansion, locked in this room that felt like a cage, treated as nothing more than a breeding vessel…

My situation didn’t seem all that different from death.

Life is but a dream, and this dream was turning into a nightmare.

I stared at the ceiling, my mind haunted with the faces of murderers and Melody and Dexter.

I longed to see justice served, to recover my lost memories, to uncover the truth behind my parents‘ demise. But trapped in this room, was pregnancy truly my only way out?