Chapter 446: "Why did you keep it from me?"
When Rav stopped at the door of her room, he wanted to knock on it with his elbow but froze when he heard a strange sound coming from behind it. It sounded like someone was coughing. The first thing that came to his mind was that Evenly was coughing out blood, just like he had been doing weeks ago. His heart leapt to his throat and he kicked the door open without bothering to knock, almost letting go of the food he had worked so hard to cook.
"Evenly!" he called out in panic when he didn’t see her on the bed but heard her coughing and retching from behind the wooden divider.
Without wasting a second, he set the tray on the bed and shot toward the divider like an arrow, calling her name.
Evenly, who didn’t want him to see her in this state, couldn’t stop vomiting in time to tell him she was fine. Her head was bent over the chamber pot as she threw up nothing but the blood coffee she had taken that morning, which had irritated her stomach and made her nauseous.
Rav dropped to his knees beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "What’s wrong with you? Oh God, you’re throwing up blood! Since when did it start? Why didn’t you tell me?!" His voice shook as she stopped heaving, falling weakly against him. But Rav couldn’t calm his racing mind at the sight of the blood in the pot, unaware that it was from what she had consumed, not from herself.
Meanwhile, Evenly, who was trying to catch her breath and settle her stomach, misunderstood his words. She tensed, believing he already knew the reason she was having morning sickness. She hadn’t wanted to tell him until she was sure this pregnancy wouldn’t end like all the others, but it seemed he already suspected.
"Since when did it start? Talk to me, Evenly," Rav said as he moved back and gripped her shoulders, looking into her pale face and red eyes that set his mind in fear again. God in heaven, he had thought he was the only one suffering, but she was sick too! How had he not noticed?
Evenly dipped her head guiltily and muttered, "A month ago. I found out a month ago... I’m sorry I didn’t tell you." She hadn’t wanted him finding out like this, but she had no choice now, just as Belle had often urged her to tell him as he had the right to know.
Rav, still believing she meant the corruption had started a month ago, groaned in misery, thinking he was about to lose her just when he was recovering from his own. He released her shoulders and fell back on the floor, eyes trembling.
Evenly saw his reaction and quickly interpreted it wrongly. Normally, men got excited at this sort of news, but he looked sickened. Didn’t he like the idea of having a child?
She had started to have a little hope that this child might live, as she was now approaching her fourth month and nothing had gone wrong. She could already see a visible small bump in her stomach. Even though she didn’t want to get her hopes up, she couldn’t help it with the sighs of the growing life inside her. But Rav’s reaction wasn’t what she expected.
"Why did you keep it from me?" he muttered, clasping his palm over his mouth as he stared at her. He couldn’t blame her for hiding that her heart was getting corrupted, because he had done the same thing in order not to cause her worries and pain, and in order to avoid being killed by his master.
Corruption of the heart wasn’t something taken lightly in the vampire world, and he had seen before how Rohan ripped out a vampire’s heart when he sensed corruption. Why his hadn’t been sensed was because he had been turned by Rohan himself, and it wouldn’t be easily detected. Saying anything to anyone would bring him a faster death than his plans to go away.
He didn’t want to die in the same way he had watched many die in his master’s hands, their hearts ripped out, and Rohan might not hesitate to do that to him in order to protect his family...
"I didn’t tell you because I was afraid I might lose it and disappoint you, not to mention you’ve been behaving strangely and distancing yourself from me. But I’ll understand if you don’t want the child, I’ll—"
"What did you just say? What child?" Rav, sickened by the thought of her heart going through corruption, interrupted when he caught her words. What was she talking about?
Evenly blinked in confusion, realizing slowly that they hadn’t been on the same page at all. What did he mean, what child?
She slowly brought her hand to her abdomen and pressed it gently. "Our child, of course. What did you think I was talking about this whole time?" she frowned, watching him as realization dawned on his face.
He looked from the chamber pot to her face, then to her belly where her hand rested. She was wearing a thin nightdress that didn’t hide the small bump.
Rav was taken aback, too much in disbelief to react. Not once had it crossed his mind that her paleness and vomiting could be because of pregnancy.
"Didn’t you tell me... you can’t have kids?" he asked, still not believing it.
"I thought so too. But it happened," she replied quietly, meeting his eyes to see how he would take the news. His expression remained blank and unreadable.
Rav had never thought he could be a father again, and a part of him had been glad when she said she wouldn’t be able to have kids. He feared failing another child and was ready to live his life with Evenly without ever having one. But hearing it, seeing the signs right before him, he didn’t know how to react. A part of him felt a spark of excitement, while another carried deep fears.
However, no matter what he felt, Rav pushed everything aside and stood up. Then he bent down, hooked one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, and lifted her gently from the floor.
"You shouldn’t be sitting on the cold floor in a thin attire," he muttered as he carried her back into the room and walked toward the bed.
Evenly couldn’t tell what his feelings were about her pregnancy, but before she could dwell on it, the sweet aroma of something she had been craving since yesterday hit her, and her mouth watered. "Did you bring me venison?!" she exclaimed, her eyes going to the tray of delicious meat.
She wiggled out of his arms, and he let her go. Immediately, Evenly sat in front of the tray, cut a piece, and brought it to her mouth.
Rav, who had even forgotten why he had come to the room in the first place, watched as she closed her eyes while taking a bite. She moaned softly as she chewed, her eyes rolling at the delicious flavor of the venison.
She didn’t speak until she was almost done eating and then said, "This is by far one of the best venisons I’ve ever had! Who made this? How did you know I was craving it?" She took another bite while Rav scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed by her reaction to what he had made.
"I made it. I’m glad you like it," he said awkwardly.
"You made this? I didn’t know you could cook this well," she smiled, eating more of it. "I haven’t been able to eat anything because everything makes me feel sick, but this tastes so good, and just the way I imagined it yesterday!"
Evenly cleaned the plate of everything, and Rav watched, never realizing one could feel so good just seeing someone appreciate what they made.
In the past, when his late wife couldn’t cook during her pregnancy and craved certain foods, Rav would cook before going to work so she wouldn’t stress herself. But when he came back, he would find she hadn’t eaten it. Instead, she had sent for the exact same dish from her father’s house through their neighbors son, saying Rav didn’t know how to make the high-class version she wanted and craved.
Many things he did were never appreciated by Alison, and seeing Evenly enjoy his cooking like she had never eaten something so good even though she had also come from a rich background made warmth swell inside him.
When she finished eating, he helped her mix the medicine she said the doctor had given her to take after every meals. When she was done and he was about to leave to take the plate back to the kitchen and to think and digest the fact that he was going to be a father again, she pulled his hand back.