Deirdre pushed herself to get out of bed.

The phone in the living room was still shrieking incessantly—almost like an audio representation of suffering without end. She got out of bed with great difficulty and walked through the door. She then picked up the phone—

And Brendan’s annoyed snarl greeted her. “Took you long enough!”

Deirdre’s fingers tightened around the receiver. As if he had not played a part in this! It had been cold the day he had stripped her naked in his study and forcibly had sex with her. She had felt both chills and a heat rush after that and had unsurprisingly come down with a fever. Even now, she was working her way through a brain fog.

Not that he would care, anyway. All he cared about was spilling his seed and making himself feel good. To him, she had always been a subhuman at best.

“I have a headache. I just woke up,” she croaked.

Brendan snickered. “Would it kill you to cut back on your malingering? It’s almost late evening, for Christ’s sake.”

Deird