The Dividing Line: VENGEANCE (Book 2)

| 02 | (BWWM) 📋

SUPPLY RUN - 10 DAYS AWAY

"Since you're insistent on preventing me from taking birth control, what does that mean for us?"

"What do you mean?" He turned the question back on Angel.

With a piercing glare, her eyes locked on his with a "Don't play with me" message written all over her face.

Cole glanced back at his lady casually as if he had no idea what that look was all about. He continued about his day nonchalantly asking her intentionally irritating questions while meandering about as if he wasn't aware of the direction in which the conversation was headed.

Once again, Angel attempted to corner him into answering her.

"Are you planning to make me an honest woman if you knock me up?"

And once again, Cole dismissed her inquiry to block her from securing an answer.

"I'm not the marrying type," he stated and quickly strolled away to prevent her from catching the grin that was stretched across his face.

Though Angel already suspected deep in her heart that she might be pregnant, their relationship was too new for her to gauge his feelings on such a pivotal matter. As much as she had come to love and care about what was growing between them, his inability to voice his commitment to her worried her to some degree. His undeniable efforts to shirk the mere idea of being more than just a warm body in her bed forced Angel to draw her own conclusions.

Regardless of whether Cole decided to be with her for the long haul or not, his fidelity to her was a necessity she refused to forego. Angel lived in a nightmarish existence as a child. Her suffering back then was the reason she would never allow a child of hers to pay for the ill-gotten gains of parents who never made the commitment to create a safe environment for their lineage. As harsh as the world was on single parents, it was unimaginably much worse for the children who were left defenseless.

As she briefly glimpsed back at the nightmares she had suffered through because of her parents' negligence, Angel promised herself that she would do better for her kids than what was done for her.

She had to.

Cole's broad shoulders rose and fell as he piddled around in the yard. Angel contemplated if she should pursue him to press harder for an answer to her questions but her sense of pride got the better of her. Regardless of the outcome, Angel was prepared to do whatever needed to be done. There would never come a time when she would entertain the idea of an abortion, nor would she stress over the possibility that she may awaken from the dream she was living with him to find herself alone raising her child all by herself.

With no animosity or fear in her heart, she accepted that caring for a baby would not be easy. But honestly, her heart longed for the pure love that came from someone who would only see the best in her. Even her dreams were inundated with visions of the most adorable little café au lait baby with curly blond hair and the most breathtaking sky-blue eyes like dad. Of course, Angel was a thousand percent sure that her child would definitely be blessed with overall good looks and brilliance like mom.

Those dreams secretly overwhelmed her with a flood of emotions as she considered that very soon she could be someone's mother. Such an idea was both appealing and preposterous leaving her mentally raw at times before she caught herself giving into moments of emotional weakness.

Angel understood better than most how tragedy experienced during childhood had far-reaching poisonous tentacles. She also had a good grasp on the ways psychological venom infected a person's behavior and judgment over the course of their life. Because Cole had a lifetime of toxins to process out of his system, she reckoned it would be irresponsible of her to expect that he could so quickly get over years of abuse, neglect, and being taught to hate anything that didn't look just like him.