Genesis by Kaitlyn O'Connor

Author:Kaitlyn O'Connor [O'Connor, Kaitlyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy
ISBN: 9781586088927
Publisher: New Concepts Publishing
Published: 2007-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Bri wept. She couldn’t seem to stop crying. She cried until she couldn’t see, until she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t seem to swallow, until Cory gave up crying and lay snuffling beside her.

Abruptly surfacing from her own misery, Bri picked him up and began rocking back and forth, holding him to her chest. He rubbed his wet face all over the shoulder and neck of her gown and then lifted his head to look at her. The moment she burst into tears again, he began wailing.

After a while, realizing that it was her distress that was upsetting Cory, Bri fought for self-control, drying her own face on the gown.

“Stupid!” she muttered under her breath as she struggled to rise with the baby and discovered she’d been sitting on the floor so long she could hardly creep. “I am so stupid!”

She hadn’t even known she was pregnant. She hadn’t wanted the baby. She’d just wanted to do whatever it took to get Cory back.

She didn’t know why it hurt so badly to suddenly realize that that was what had happened to her. For that matter, she didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to her before.

She’d been so ill, though, and then worried about Cory.

They’d given Kole another woman to breed. The thought alone was nearly enough to make her lose control all over again.

And she didn’t know why that was either.

It took all she could do to pull herself together long enough to calm the baby down and get him to sleep. Once she’d settled him, though, she went into the bathroom and indulged her urge to fall apart until she was too exhausted to cry anymore, too exhausted to feel anything anymore.

She moved through the next several days like a robot, mechanically going about her life and tending to Cory. She wasn’t certain when she would have awakened from her trancelike state if not for the baby, but one day as she sat just outside the habitat with him he pushed himself upright and smiled up at her. She stared at his hopeful little face for a long moment before she felt warmth begin to seep into the coldness inside of her and dispel it. “Look at you!” she said, smiling back at him and grabbing for him when he began to lose his balance. “When did you learn how to do that, you smart boy!”

His tentative smile broadened into a grin when Bri lifted him up until they were face to face and smiled back at him. Her heart seemed to stammer.

Frowning, she studied his face more carefully. Did he really resemble Kole, she wondered? Or was it nothing but her imagination?

He frowned back at her, looking uncertain, and Bri dismissed the thought, kissing him until he began smiling again. “We should show Consuelo what you can do. I’ll bet Manuel can’t sit up yet!”

The moment she said it, she felt sick to her stomach. Going to see Consuelo meant going close to Kole’s habitat, and she wasn’t certain she could stroll by and act as if it didn’t bother her that he had a new breeding partner.

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