EXodus CEO Tony Jones put on probation after clinical trials of Noxofentamine result in fatalities.
A hospital study reveals exactly what experts fear: expecting parents are more likely to abort omega-probable pregnancies.
Rowan took back what he had thought about his broken hip being the worst pain in his life. This, right now, the agony clawing him apart from the inside out was worse than any torture he had endured in the past and would be worse than anything he endured in the future. And it was not just the pain. He felt like his world was fracturing, but he was almost a hundred percent sure that he was seeing things in the room that were not there at all. It was not anything specific, just a mix of shadows and faces he did not recognize all pulling on him to make his pain worse and laughing at everything. At least they had faded somewhat since the last adrenaline shot his father had ordered. Sweat rolled down into his eyes and it burned for a moment before his gut contracted and made him scream.
His father's voice came through the painful haze as the scream stopped for a few merciful minutes. "You said this would be over in three hours because he got induced. It's been five hours. What the hell are you doing?"
"It's a touch-and-go situation, Mr. Ellis," one of the doctors Rowan did not know explained fearfully. "I did warn you that it's early for induction. We should have waited for him to hit full term at the very least."
The baby. Would the baby be okay if it was born this early? Pain rolled his head on the thin pillow.
"I need him soon," his father snarled. "I need him to be in good condition in less than a month."
Another job. Would he even be allowed to hold his baby before his father shoved him back out into the unforgiving world? No, his father would not be kind just because of a baby.
"I'm not questioning that, Mr. Ellis. I'm simply saying that, given your son's current condition, labor could take several more hours and that will, obviously, take its toll on his body. There's not much else I can do."
So he would suffer. What else was new? Pain shredded through his muscles. That was sooner than the last time. That was good, according to medical standards. Bad, according to Rowan's. He did not want to have this baby. Not now. Not when it would be taken from him immediately and held over his head as a hostage to bind him to his father's will. He sobbed instead of screaming. He wanted Darius beside him instead of these doctors and nurses who trembled in his father's presence. He wanted Darius, who would throw everyone out and maybe punch his father in the process. He wanted to open his eyes and be met with love instead of this horrifying clinical apathy.
He felt himself slip as the hours passed. Or minutes. He could not tell anymore. He could only tell something was happening when the agony morphed into something twistedly exquisite. Forcing his exhausted, unfocused eyes to work, he felt his breath catch on his diaphragm when he saw his baby. His and Darius' baby boy. He extended hands instinctively, but his wrists jerked against the restraints holding him to the bed. "No," he sobbed out. "Please. Please let me hold him. Please, Dad." It was the only time he had ever called his father by that title.
The shock of it was in his father's voice as he replied, "You're not well, Rowan. You might hurt the baby."
"No!" Rowan screamed, desperate now. "I wouldn't hurt him! He's mine! I can't hurt my baby! Please!"
His father accepted the blanket-wrapped baby from the nurse. "I'll keep him somewhere safe until you're well enough to see him." He turned away so Rowan could not even see his baby.
"No, no, no!" Rowan yanked against the restraints, pain barely registering.
His father ignored him and said over his shoulder to the doctor, "I want him to look like he's never had a baby." Then he walked out.
Rowan collapsed back onto the sweat- and blood-soaked sheets and let his head loll away from the door. He felt the doctor's hands on his stomach, and stopped fighting the waves of pain. He let himself drown into darkness.