38 ??How did he know???

LEIA

"What?" he said, noticing my shocked look. "You think I wouldn't be able to tell when your body changed? Come on, Leia. I was wondering when you'd finally stop hiding it from me."

I didn't utter a word. I couldn't.

He was acting nice again. But I wasn't deceived by his attitude anymore.

I just . . . I could tell by the distraught look in his eyes that he would never let me go.

What would I do?

I was shaking all over. I needed to be away from him. Already the doctor had warned me that things could easily go south was I to lose more weight. The stress he gave me wasn't good for the baby.

He had to get away from me. Please. He had to.

A hand came to rest on my shoulder. "Relax," Ammar hushed. "You're acting like a skittish doe."

I drew in a deep breath. My voice was a wheeze when I finally spoke. "How long have you known?"

Mirth danced in his light irises. "Oh, ever since I came back. There are also . . . other things that you think you've kept hidden from me, Leia." His face neared mine as fear pounded through my entire system. "Just know that nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—about you is hidden from me." He smiled this sickly-sweet smile and leaned back, getting snug. "Now, you were saying?"

How was I so dumb? He was poison. Deranged. An absolute monster.

"We need to get separated," I repeated myself, scooting back.

He grinned impishly. "Uh-huh. And?"

I hated him. Absolutely despised him for making me sound like a little girl. I was serious. He was taking it all in jest. As if I was here playing games with him.

"Why did you blackmail me just now?" I asked instead. The smile fell from his face. "It's not like I have anything to hide from you."

"I see things, Leia. Don't force me to get angry." His chest rose and fell unstably. "Let us celebrate today. We should go surprise uncle and aunty. What do you say?"

I just sat there, hands falling lax behind me as I rested the file on the sofa. "Are you even listening to me? I don't want to be with you." I rose from the sofa, tapping a foot, panicking, panicking.

"All right," he said, staging his hands in front of him in a calming gesture. "Don't stress yourself out. Tch. Your nose is bleeding already."

I stomped over to the dressing table and swiped off the blood with a tissue paper. My vision was darkening so I had to grip the table tightly till the room wasn't swaying anymore.

After a while, I turned back, finding Ammar sitting in the same spot, brows knotted.

"If you know so much about me," I started, "Then you must know that I have support from influential people. I have a lawyer backing me up. And when my child comes into this world, know that I will leave you."

He stared at me for a whole minute and then got up. His height was meant to intimidate me but I was done with men who only lived to make me feel like crap. I stood taller, strutting my chin out farther.

He strode toward me until we weren't even an inch apart. Looking down at me, he scoffed. Just that one sound made me feel like I was somehow lower than him. Like I was the crazy one.

"I don't know who you think you are, Leia. The way I see it, I've given you way too much freedom while all I should've done was lock you up and get you homeschooled. Actually, if you didn't study, your mind wouldn't be high up in the skies like it is right now."

"Will you tie me up like a prisoner?" I gritted out. "Because that's the only level you haven't fallen to."

A blizzard brewed up in his eyes. "Keep suggesting it and I might."

My jaw locked. "You don't scare me, Ammar. I just want you to know that. I. Am. Not. Afraid of you."

He gripped me by the chin, pulling me forward, our noses an inch apart. I drew back and his grip tightened. "Don't force my anger. I am happy for the first time in so long. Nothing you do will change that."

I glared at him.

A moment later, I was released. I pretended not to feel the sting.

He forcefully grabbed my hand. And then . . . then he smiled. Like a lunatic. Like nothing had happened.

"Come on, let's go tell them."