Read Echo of Redemption for Free Online Page B

choose. If you came to me and told me you were pregnant and wanted an abortion, I would have found you the best doctor.” He strokes my cheek, and I wonder what he sees in my facial expression. Whatever it is, he softens his tone. “I would do anything for you.”
    “I’m sorry I went to Thomas first.”
    “Because he’s forcing you to have a child you don’t want?”
    “No,” I whisper, wondering, Maybe . I’ve had weeks to think about this. Plenty of time to worry over every single scenario. How our relationship will be forced to change if I keep the baby. How I am afraid we will all be changed if I abort the baby. The one thing I never considered was that I would be completely wrong about their reactions. Thomas’s adamancy I not abort. Garrett’s insistence he will support me in any decision. I’d assumed the opposite. How could I be so wrong about them both? And how could I ever think I might be able to give up Lord Fyre…even if Garrett married me.
    Nothing makes sense in my head. Nothing.
    Beside me, Garrett is already drifting into sleep. I can tell by his shifting breathing pattern. How can he sleep? My mind is racing, worry gripping my guts, and he sleeps. Unfuckingbelievable. Angry and desperate, I close my eyes, trying to find some peace, some comfort. God? Please hear this prayer. Let Thomas be safe. Let him come home to us soon. Amen. I don’t know if God still hears my prayers, but I continue to pray. What else can I do? I know I should pray for his brother as well, but what would I pray? Heal him? Keep him alive? It seems cold but I can’t bring myself to. I fear him too much. I fear the danger he might bring into our lives.
    This is why I wish Master was awake. I want to talk about this.
    He is curled into himself, snoring softly. The fact that he is sleeping, not pacing the floors, irritates me even more. Standing, I pace for both of us. I feel so helpless.
    I end up standing in front of a bureau looking at two jewelry boxes, one embroidered silk, one a roughly carved wood. I open the wooden box and look at Lord Fyre’s collar I wore before the branding. With a shuddered breath and shaking hand, I reach for it. Lifting it to my lips, I kiss it and find that I feel stronger just holding it.
    I look at my reflection in the mirror over the bureau and with some difficulty attach the collar. I am his. No matter what. No matter the sacrifice or the danger. A sob jerks from my chest as I realize I would have never been able to go through with marrying Garrett even if he’d accepted the proposal.
    It doesn’t matter how smart walking away from Thomas would be. I can’t do it.
    Reaching for the embroidered box, I take out the golden circlet Garrett placed around my neck in the storeroom the night of the auction. The ruby glitters and winks at me. I am Master’s. I close the metal around my neck, the jewel dangling between my collar bones.
    With both collars securely around my neck, I feel better.
    The baby chooses this instant to announce its presence. I feel it, tiny flutters low in my belly. The softest, most surreal tap I’ve ever felt. Tap, tap. I’m here, M ommy. I’m here.
    “Oh God.” The flutter happens again, and I press my hands over the place where I felt the movement. Oh God. I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I even considered abortion. Forgive me.
    “What’s wrong?” Garrett sits up in the bed, concern tightening his face.
    “The baby moved .”
    “You aren’t far enough along.”
    His doubt and quick dismissal strikes me hard because when I was four months pregnant, Lionell and my father insisted I abort the baby. I tried to change their minds. I tried to convince them I was feeling it move. My father argued it was gas; Lionell argued that it was my imagination. I wish I hadn’t been so young, so weak. God damn them both! I close my eyes, hoping to feel the baby move again.
    “Kitten, come to bed.”
    Tap, tap.
    “I felt it!” I shriek, turning on him, angry he