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“Does Tom have any health problems?”

“Not that I know of Both of his parents had heart disease”

She looked up at hienetic, do you?”

“I don’t know” He held heran MD is infinitely better than being a PhD This would be one of them”

More tears streaked down Julianne’s cheeks It had never occurred to her that so with the baby She’d been so happy to be having a sibling that any of the risks were unthinkable

As she cried in the arrief she was feeling, To tenfold

“How could they have prepared themselves for this?” she croaked “They’re devastated”

Julianne leaned against Gabriel, not noticing the expression on his face or the sudden flash of horror in his eyes

Chapter Thirty

August 2003

Caet up”

A soft, feminine hand stroked the stubble on his face and for a mo naked beside hiht touch Cautiously, he opened his eyes

“Hi, baby” Her large blue eyes stared down at hi his eyes He had a pounding headache and all he wanted to do was sleep But Professor Pearson didn’t accept excuses fro himself to campus

(It was possible the professor would have accepted death as an excuse as to why his teaching assistant ht o’clock You have time for a shower and breakfast And maybe a little” Her hand slid down his chest to his abdoers around hi erection withered in her hand like a dead flower

He pushed her away “Not now”

“You always say that Is it because I’htly rounded, her generous brsts full

He didn’t anshich in itself was a kind of response

“I can ed hi his neck “I love you”

“I said not now Fuck Can’t you hear?” He disentangled his over the side of the bed The hardwood floor was cool beneath his feet but he barely felt it

All his attention was focused on one thing—the ghost of white powder left on his nightstand Noake, arranging the mirror and the razor blade and the rolled-up five-dollar bill

The world around hi to life, his movements sure and quick

In the blink of an eye it was up his nose and everything was clear again He was hyperalert He could think He could function

He lit a cigarette, forgetting that hiswhatever-she-was-noas in his bed, watching him She wrapped herself in a robe and fled to the kitchen, not wanting to expose their unborn child to s to drink the cup of coffee she’d placed next to the sink He brushed his teeth and shaved, hisall the work he had to do on his dissertation, along with the interminable to-do list foisted on him by Professor Pearson

Gabriel didn’t have time to examine his life or his actions If he did, he would have realized that he was a slave, in chains, to cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol

He was a slave to his passions, also, when his dick orking Even though he was living with Paulina and she was pregnant, he was still sexually involved with other women He never bothered to ask himself whether he should stop In fact, he didn’t think about it at all He simply did it