Free New Title 7 by Emma Clark Page A

not. Hold it in."
    I floated weightlessly as we drifted toward the bedroom. My cheeks puffed out with revolting puke. I withheld it, tasting putrid nastiness which made me sicker.
    Brandon flung me on the bed and my body ricocheted. Vomit hurled past my lips, splattering the bedspread. I brought my trembling knees to my chin as chunks dribbled and inundated my senses with sourness.
    Springing forward, I puked a second time—all over the black comforter. My shoulders heaved as I endlessly hurled and pressure mounted in my head. Pasty fluid crossed my thighs and footage of Linda Blair from The Exorcist flashed in my vision.
    I'd made a gigantic hideous mess of the bedroom and myself.
    But my stomach was better.
    "Are you finished?" Brandon riveted a fiery glare on me. He was shirtless and his baggy pajama bottoms settled below his hips, revealing some pubic hair. He yanked up his pants after he saw where I was looking.
    "I think so." I moaned, held my pulsating head while observing the liquid mess which deluged the bedroom. "My head hurts. God, do I have any hair left?"
    "You're fine," he said. "I'm very disappointed in you, Mia." He strode to the foot of the bed, steadily eyeing me. "Really disappointed."
    "I told you—I wanted to leave for the baby's sake. I can't stay in this basement if I'm pregnant. I can't give birth here. I definitely can't take care of a baby here. Don't you get that?"
    He stayed silent for myriad seconds, expression hard as stone.
    "It's my baby," he hissed. "My baby's inside you, Mia, and if you leave you'll be taking my baby with you. Or don't you— get that ?"
    I just stared not knowing what to say. Afraid to say anything at all.
    "I think—what you don't seem to get— is that I have rights as the father." He paced. "I have every legal right to see my child."
    "I never said you didn't."
    Abruptly he leaped on the bed and then leaped to the other side, tracking vomit across the carpet. He switched on the sconce which bathed his scary features in muted light.
    He resumed his bizarre lecture.
    "You were going to get an abortion, weren't you, Mia?" His eyes penetrated mine. " Weren't you ?"
    "No."
    "Don't. Don't fucking lie to me." His face went a deeper shade of scarlet. "Tell me the truth."
    "Sure, I've thought about abortion because I'm not ready for a baby and neither are you." I paused to catch my breath. "You can't seriously think you're ready for this. Are you? Are you really ready for a baby? Even if you think you are, I'm not. Don't I get a choice? I never planned this and— I never wanted to get pregnant ."
    "And the truth comes out," he said with a smirk, slanting toward me with his hands on the mattress. "I knew it. I knew you wanted to kill my baby. Thank god I stopped you."
    "No, that's not what I said."
    He stuck his hand in the air. "I don't wanna hear your bullshit, Mia. You've already proven to me that you're nothing, nothing but a fucking liar."
    My throat constricted as he coldly glowered.
    "So you wanna leave me, is that it?" His mouth twisted to a half-smile. "Alright. You can leave." He backed up as if allowing me enough room to escape.
    He was merely toying with me, so I didn't bother leaving.
    "Go ahead. Leave." Strangely grinning, Brandon gestured dismissively at the doorway. "Go on. You're welcome to go."
    "I don't want to—"
    His grin collapsed. "Fucking leave, bitch. Leave! Get the fuck out before I kill you ."
    I didn't move.
    Raising his arm, Brandon's fingers spread as he casually swiped my snowglobe off the bureau. Thump . A jagged line marked the glass as glittery water gathered and music chimed eerily out of tune.
    I launched from the mattress, spine taut as a stretched wire. He kept motioning to the door.
    " Why did you break it?" I yelled.
    "Apparently the globe meant nothing since you were in such a rush to leave. So if it means nothing to you, it means dick to me."
    "Brandon—"
    "You planned to run off, kill our baby. You broke my heart. Now I'm going to