Guilty Passion

Chapter One

Note: This is merely a Prologue. The chapters are longer hereinafter.


Haruno Sakura stood back, holding herself motionless, quite still. She stared, unblinking at the reflection staring back at her in the long mirror of her bathroom. The woman in the mirror looked out at her with the same stricken expression upon her ashen face.

Her silk nightgown that had once fitted loosely now clung uncomfortably to her middle. Her bloodshot eyes narrowed at the disheveled mess of pink hair which flowed a little past her shoulders. Her skin had broken out into a cold sweat and taken on a horrendous clamminess.

A cry came from somewhere very deep within her. Very deep. Like a buried place. A grave.

The grave of the person she once had been.

Would never be again.

She had barely made it to the bathroom before her stomach heaved and ejected its contents.

Heaviness lay like deadweight in her stomach, wound around by revulsion at what she could see in the mirror. She gargled with mouthwash, praying it wouldn't send her back to the toilet to throw up again.

She leaned against the sink, her hands braced on the countertop. Having seen enough of the ghost that stared back at her, she shook her head and wiped at her mouth with a towel.

This was getting out of control.

A sick headache pressed around her temples, and her stomach churned in reminder of the reason for her lack of sleep at nights. She tried desperately to cling to the numbness surrounding her heart, hoping it would be enough to see her through the next four months.

But that numbness had been blasted away as if by nuclear detonation, in one hideous, appalling moment. One moment of ghastly realization. The swell of her abdomen was becoming very evident.

Her hands went to her belly. She looked down, tears blurring her eyes before she could stop them, misery swamping her.