Page 16 of Rescued By Midnight

I don’t take his hand, but I follow him upstairs to our bedroom. Obedient. Calm. I put the shams on the chest at the foot of the bed before turning down the comforter and sheets. Old, mechanical habits from Before. I brush my teeth while Brayden settles into his side of the bed, his lamp on and a book in his hands.

My heart pounds a rhythm of trepidation. I’m not afraid, not exactly. I’m full of dread. None of this feels right. Several days ago, it was Jericha in my place, completing the same routine I’m doing now.

Are we that interchangeable?

I switch off my lamp and climb into bed, turning on my side to face away from my husband. I’m too tense to close my eyes, to relax. I might remain awake all night, afraid. The last man I slept next to was Abe.

Brayden turns off his lamp. The room is plunged into darkness. He sighs in that way he has, where he wants me to ask him what’s wrong, what’s troubling him, whether there’s anything I can do to ease his worries.

If I had a dollar for every sigh he sighed, I could join our country’s billionaires and never pay taxes again.

Is something wrong? is at the tip of my tongue. Force of habit. I bite the words down, holding them between my teeth.

“Alice, I need you. I’ve missed you.” He drapes his arm over my waist, his hand creeping up.

“No.” I wiggle forward, toward the edge of the bed. “You said you understood.”

“I’m not asking a lot, Alice.” There’s a new edge to his voice. “It’s nothing you haven’t done before. Don’t you still want a baby?”

An infant is the last thing on my mind. If he possessed even a single iota of sympathy, he would guess this.

He tries to drag me back toward him. I squirm away. “Brayden, I said I’m not ready.”

“What the hell, Alice? Why are you being like this? I’ve given you so much time to ‘adjust’ and feel safe again.”

“So much time? It’s been…six days since I came back to your house!”

“Exactly. And you should be grateful to even be here, when Elder Wattle says?—”

I jerk myself out of his grasp and stand next to the bed. My legs shake and I try to hold myself still. “I hope you don’t say what I think you’re about to say.”

Brayden’s eyes glitter in the darkness. “He says you’re impure.”

No. No way.

I whirl out of the bedroom.

“So you’re just going to sleep on the couch again?” he calls after me. “Stop being so difficult!”

Am I going to sleep on the couch again?

No. I’m leaving.

LANDON - NOW

My phone rings at eleven p.m. Not unheard of, but for some reason my heart starts pounding fast. This feels important.

I pick up the phone and look at the Caller ID. Wonderland. Fuck, I nearly drop the device. I slide my thumb over the screen to answer. “Hello?”

“Landon.” There’s something about her voice when she says my name, wobbling and strained, like she’s barely holding it together.

“Where are you?”

“I’m…not sure? Somewhere outside the Community?”

The Seven Blessed Days has its own gated community, not far from the church campus.

“Are you safe?”