Chapter 5

For a moment, Naomi was stunned. Did Dan know what he was doing?

Seeing Naomi's surprised expression, Brendan's eyelashes fluttered, and he quickly regained his composure. He released her and asked, "Don't you always say you want to get pregnant? Now what? Are you waiting for me to serve you?"

Naomi collected her thoughts and raised her hands to unbutton his hospital pajamas. She asked casually, "Can you have an erection under these circumstances?"

Brendan wanted to silence Naomi. He swatted her hands away, saying, "It's not that difficult for you to take my shirt off."

He then changed the subject. "We can talk about you drugging me when your parents come tomorrow."

Naomi had fallen into the bedside chair when Brendan swatted her. Her face fell. "That's not funny, Brendan."

He could mess with anyone he liked, but he couldn't mess with her parents. Her parents were her life, her bottom line.

Brendan looked at her indifferently and asked, "Why weren't you scared when you drugged me?" He grabbed a bottle of medicine from under the pillow and tossed it to Naomi. "Either you eat the whole bottle, or ask your parents to judge right from wrong."

Naomi picked up the bottle and saw it was a laxative. Anger surged, but she suppressed it, saying through gritted teeth, "Fine, Brendan. You win." She would rather be hospitalized than see her mother crying and scolding her.

She poured the medicine into her palm and was about to swallow it. When Brendan saw this, he grabbed a pillow and threw it at her, not too hard, not too softly. The medicine scattered on the floor. Looking up at Brendan, she saw him say apathetically, "I'm not as vindictive as you are."

Naomi smiled. "You can just say it if you can't bear to see me eat it."

Brendan glared at her. Naomi quickly made a gesture to shut herself up and said nothing more. The ward fell silent.

Soon, the oatmeal Heather had ordered arrived. Naomi, holding a bowl and spoon, sat by the bedside and carefully fed him. Each spoonful of oatmeal included some fruit.

Everything seemed to have returned to normal, to before their quarrel. They hadn't been together like this for so long.

Later that night, Brendan woke to find only the bedside lamp lit. The light was dim. Naomi was asleep on the edge of the bed.

It had been two years! Two years since he'd been able to look at her like this. Brendan raised his right hand, about to touch her face, then hesitated, his hand suspended in the air. He remembered her words from that day, the fire, the evidence. His mind flashed back to the past. Finally, his hand rested on Naomi's head. He whispered, "Do you hate me so much that you want to kill me?"

But after the incident and the fire, they could never go back. He couldn't let her have a child. Staying together would only cause them pain.

Brendan didn't tell anyone about Naomi drugging him until his hospital discharge. Naomi cared for him during his stay and returned to her law firm afterward.