“Where were you?” Jared asked, his voice trembling.

“I almost lost my mind—I thought something terrible had happened to you.”

His fear looked completely genuine, and that was the cruelest part of the whole deception.

He carried a glass of dark medicine over to my bed and held it gently to my lips.

“Drink this, love,” Jared whispered.

“It’ll help you recover, and then we can try again for a family.”