I slide it to the right, looking at him while quickly going through his recent messages. I pray I don’t see they have been talking, but a part of me needs to know.
I see her name, and my heart stops. Opening it up, I let out a long breath. She’s been texting him, but he hasn’t been responding. Her messages all read the same.
I need to see you.
Please call me
I’m sorry, Ryder. Please talk to me.
Then the last one she was back to I need to see you.
I responded to it with a time and place.
I hold his phone to my chest as I wait for her response. This is gonna screw me in the long run, but I can’t think that far ahead right now.
His phone dings, and I bite my lower lip nervously as I look over at him. Still no movement. Very slowly, I pull his phone away from my chest and open her message.
Vicki: Can’t wait to see you :)
I hate how enthusiastic she is to see him. But then again, that’s what I was hoping for.
**
Ryder spent two days at home with me, and although it was nice that he cared about me, it also put me on edge. His phone went off nonstop yesterday, and every time, I wondered if it was Vicki. Is she reminding him of their lunch date? Thankfully, she never text him back.
I could tell this morning when he left that he didn’t want to. He thought about calling in again, and I had to assure him I was fine. But I really just wanted to run to the bathroom and puke. Morning sickness is a bitch.
Now I sit in a little coffee shop on the Upper West Side waiting for Vicki to show up. Ryder has been blowing up my phone all day to check on me, and although it’s sweet, it’s also annoying. I’ve needed silence to think about what I’m going to say, and with him messaging me, I’m not getting it.
I stand when I see her get out of the back of a black Town Car. She is dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, black silk blouse, and black pumps to match. It makes me sick how pretty she is. Too bad she’s an evil person. Not wanting to make a scene inside the coffee shop, I meet her outside. She comes to a stop when she looks up and sees me.
“What are you …” She trails off and then crosses her arms over her chest. “I should have known.”
“I need to talk to you,” I say sternly.
“I’m not doing this.” She spins around and starts to walk back to her car.
“I’m pregnant,” I call out.
She comes to a stop and turns back to face me, and a smile slowly spreads across her face in satisfaction. “You sound surprised.”
“I am,” I say honestly. “But you do not.”
She flips her brown hair over her shoulder. “I expected as much.”
It doesn’t make sense. Why would she think I am pregnant? “And what would make you think that?” I ask with an arch of my brow.
She takes a step toward me. “Have you told Ryder yet?”
I say nothing.
She laughs. “Yeah. I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to tell him. Since he’s going to leave you the moment he finds out.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Ryder isn’t that type of guy.”
“Oh, honey, you think he’s gonna raise another man’s child?” she asks still laughing happily.
I take a step closer to her. “Who said it isn’t his?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
RYDER
I’m sitting behind my desk, my phone in my hands texting Ashlyn when she walks right in my door.
“Babe?” I stand, noticing that her cheeks are wet and her blue eyes red. “What’s wrong?” I ask coming around my desk.
She sniffs. “I just spoke to Vicki …” Her chest heaves.
“What?” I ask, coming up to her.
“She said she knew …” She covers her mouth with her hand.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, placing my hands on her upper arms. I can feel her body physically shaking. “Are you hurt?” She seemed fine yesterday from the accident. “Talk to me,” I say, patting her down, looking for bruises and blood.
“She knew all along,” she growls, removing her hands from her mouth. “She knew about the pregnancy.”
“Vicki’s pregnant?” I ask. Fuck, when was the last time I slept with her?
Shaking her head quickly, she then rambles on. “Vicki said Bradley did it.”
“Bradley? What does he have to do with this?” She’s not making any sense.
Her shoulders hunch forward as she lets out another sob, and then she slaps her hand over her mouth. I step to her, and she lifts her free hand, shoving me away before running to my adjoining bathroom.
I enter behind her as she kneels, vomiting into the toilet. “Jesus!” I hiss coming up behind her. I grab her hair and pull it back the best I can. Her body jerks as she does it again and again. I softly rub her back. “It’s okay,” I say although I’m freaking out. She was in a wreck just two days ago, and now, she’s vomiting. Maybe she has a concussion. “We need to go to the hospital,” I tell her, but she just shakes her head before getting sick again.
Five minutes later, she gets up from her knees, and I turn the sink on for her. She splashes her face with cold water before taking some little sips to rinse out her mouth.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice is hoarse.
“Don’t be sorry,” I tell her, pressing my hand to her forehead. She doesn’t really feel hot, but she is clammy. “Come sit down.” I guide her back into my office and have her sit on the couch then run to get her a cold rag. “Here, hold this on your head.”
She complies as she leans her head back against the couch and closes her eyes. “Now tell me again what is going on.”
She opens her eyes to look at me, and they fill with tears again. “I got on your phone the other night and sent Vicki a message to come see you. It was the only way I knew she would show up.”
Show up where? “I don’t understand.”
“I needed her to explain a few things she said to me at the wedding.” I watch her swallow. “She told me that Bradley had been replacing my birth control pills with sugar pills. And I’m pregnant.”
**
I pace back and forth in my office to the point I think I may fall through from putting a hole in the floor. Several minutes have gone by since she told me she was expecting. But it feels like hours. My girlfriend is pregnant, and I wish it to be mine, but it’s her ex fuck-buddy.
“Say something.” I can hear the fear in her voice, but I can’t speak yet.
So I stay silent. Just continue to pace. Sugar pills? He tricked her. I knew the bastard was in love with her, but this? What kind of man is he? How could he do this to her?
“You have to believe me,” she pleads. “I had no idea …”
“I do,” I respond without hesitation.
“Then talk to me. Please,” she begs.
I come to a stop and look over at her. Tears still stream down her face as she stares at me wide in fear matching her voice.
It breaks my heart to see her like this. Going over to her, I fall to my knees at her feet and grab her hips, pulling her ass to the edge of the couch. Then I rest my head on her lap and say the one thing I want her to know. “I don’t care that it’s his. I’ll take care of you both.” That’s all there is to it. I love this woman, and I will love her child as if it’s mine!
A sob wracks her body, and I look up to see her placing her hands over her mouth. She looks down at me and shakes her head quickly. “It’s yours.”
“What?” I ask, pulling away from her.
“The baby is yours.” She manages to get out through another sob.
“But I thought …?”
“I’m only eight weeks.” She reaches up and wipes the tears from her face. “The doctor checked me in the hospital, and I’m eight weeks. I had been sleeping with Bradley before I met you, yes, but it had been three weeks prior to meeting you in Panama.”
My heart rate picks up with excitement. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying
I got pregnant with your baby while on your balcony in the pouring rain. On your birthday.”
I watch her speechless. It’s my baby! We’re having a baby!
“I’m so sorry …” she cries.
The door to my office decides to open at that time, but I don’t even look to see who it is. “Get out!”
“But, sir …” comes Kelly’s voice.
“I said get out!” I snap. The door closes instantly.
I stand and sit down next to her. I take her face in my hands and turn her head to face me. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not sorry, Ashlyn.”
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what to do.”
I place my hand on her belly, and I can’t help but smile. She looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. This isn’t how I planned on starting a family, but as long as it’s with Ashlyn, I don’t care. “We have a baby,” I say simply.
She lets out a noise that sounds like a growl and stands. She turns to face me, her red eyes now narrowed at me. “How can you be so calm about this?” she demands. “How can you agree with what he did?”
I stand. “I don’t condone what he did for one second. But I do know that it doesn’t matter how it happened; we are going to have a baby.”
She runs a hand through her hair, and I can see the emotion change all over her body. Her shoulders pull back, and her nostrils flare. “How could he do this to me?”
“I’m not taking his side, but Vicki is a manipulator. You can’t trust everything she says.” Her eyes shoot daggers at me. “And how would she find that out? She doesn’t even know Bradley.”
She places her arms over her chest and starts to pace like I was doing only moments ago. “She had this look of satisfaction on her face when she told me that you would leave me when you found out I was pregnant.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“And then I said Ryder’s not that type of guy,” she interrupts me, and I smile at how much this woman believes in us. “Then she said why would he raise another man’s baby? I told her the baby was yours. And she got pissed.” She shakes her head at herself as if she’s replaying the moment in her head. “She just started vomiting at the mouth. Telling me how she was standing inside the lobby of Q’s when I chased you out.”
I frown. “I never saw her.”
“She said she overheard the entire thing and guessed there must be another man. She said she had a choice to follow you and make her move or wait. She chose to wait. That it wasn’t hard to pick out the man who was pissed off, and she stopped him in the lobby. They went and had some drinks, and he confessed to her how much he loved me and how he had been switching my pills for months. Fucking. Months,” she shouts. “And that they both saw that as their way to get what they wanted. Vicki gets you, and Bradley gets me …”
I step in front of her and place my hands on her shoulders, bringing her pacing to a stop. “Calm down. Take a breath.”
She doesn’t. “Ryder, I—”
“Need to rest,” I interrupt her again. I gently guide her backwards and when her knees hit the couch she falls onto it. I kneel in front of her again.
She shakes her head. “It all makes sense now. The fact he won’t go away. The fact he just won’t accept I love you.” Her eyes meet mine. “I told him I loved you. That I wanted you.” I smile. “But he just kept lingering around.” She swallows. “Vicki told me she suspected I was pregnant. So he must have been hanging around thinking I was but thought it was his.”
I run a hand down my face and let out a sigh. Fucking bastard.
“That’s why she looked at me funny when she saw I was drinking wine at the wedding …” Her words trail off, and her eyes widen. “I’ve been drinking.”
“Baby?” I say, and her wild eyes meet mine. I gently rub her knee. “You said they checked you out at the hospital.”
She nods. “Right before you walked in. They said everything looked fine.”
“That’s why you were so nervous,” I state, and she nods as if I asked a question. “What were you so afraid of?”
She lowers her eyes to the floor. “I didn’t want you to think I was trying to trap you.”
I wrap my arms around her. “I would have never thought that.”
She falls into my chest and whispers, “What are we going to do?”
“I already told you,” I say, running my hand through her hair. “We’re gonna have a baby.”
My door opens, and she jerks away from me. My father was storming in, but comes to a stop when he sees Ashlyn wipe the tears from her face.
A silence follows as if no one really knows what to say. Finally, I stand and tell him. “Shut the door, please. We need to talk.”
She stayed seated while I filled my dad in on everything that has happened up to this point since the wedding last weekend, and he seemed as calm and relaxed as I am. Ashlyn, on the other hand, was still a little panicked.
He comes to stand in front of me while she sits on the couch. “I need to speak to you privately,” he whispers.
I go over to her and take her hand, asking her to stand, and walk her over to the door. “Kelly?” I snap, and she jumps from her desk, running over. “Will you get Ashlyn a water, please?” I ask her.
She nods quickly. “I need to talk to you …” Kelly spots my father behind me through my open door, and I watch him nod at her. She takes Ashlyn’s hand and nods back at him.
“What was that?” I ask turning to face him.
“First, let me congratulate you on becoming a dad.”
I want to smile at his words, but his tone tells me something very important is going on. “What is it?”
“I made a phone call to the sheriff’s office.”
I frown. “And?”
“I spoke to my friend, Detective Robert Mores, and he told me that the woman who hit Ashlyn didn’t make it. And he also told me that I knew her.”
“Who was she?”
“It was Jessica.”
My eyes widen. “Are you sure?”
He nods. “And she was in a rental car. That was in your mother’s name.”
**
After talking to my father, I was all kinds of wound up. People were trying to fuck with what’s mine, and I don’t take kindly to that. But I can only deal with one at this time, so I brought Ashlyn back into my office.
She sits back down on my couch, and I stand in front of her. “Give me Bradley’s number.”
Her head snaps up and her eyes widen. She starts shaking her head quickly. “No, Ryder. Let it go …”
“Fuck no!” I snap.
She stands. “Don’t do this. Please,” she begs. “This is what he wants. To break us apart.”
I cup her face in my hands and soften my voice. “Nothing is happening to us. I still love you. I still want you. And we’re having a baby together. But he doesn’t get to walk away after what he has done to you.”
She opens her mouth, but I don’t give her the chance to speak. “I’m calling him one way or the other. Either you give me his number or I call Vicki.”
She narrows her eyes at the mention of her name. “Why would you call her?”
“Because they sound like they’re best friends now. And I bet my ass that she has it.”
She takes a step back and hangs her head. “She told me he’s here in town.”
“He’s been here all this time?”
Shaking her head, she says, “I guess he has some business here and just comes and goes. But he’s here until Friday.”
I had called Milton and told him to come pick Ashlyn up. She protested the entire time, but she ended up going with him and back to our apartment while I took a cab ride to Brooklyn.
I should be nervous. I’m about to come face to face with a man who is also in love with her and has been her best friend for three years now. I mean, he does know her better than I do. He’s had more time with her. But all I feel is hatred toward him.
I knock on the door, and it op
ens seconds later. The same man I saw half-dressed in her apartment weeks ago now stands in front of me, once again only half-dressed. A pair of jeans hangs on his hips, the button undone, no shirt, and a glass of something clear in his hand.
“Hello again.”
He had been staring at me as if he recognized me but couldn’t figure out from where. At the sound of my voice, his eyes narrowed with recognition.
“What the fuck …?”
I walk in, knocking my shoulder into his. He slams the door behind me. “Let me guess. You’ve come to kick my ass?” he asks with a chuckle as if that’s impossible.
I spin around to face him. “No. I’m not gonna kick a dog when it’s down.”
He snorts. “Down? Listen, buddy, I don’t know what Ashlyn’s told you but …”
“She is pregnant,” I say interrupting him.
I watch as his face turns from surprise to satisfaction. He even fucking smiles, and I have to fist my hands down by my side. I was telling the truth when I said I wasn’t here to kick his ass. He’s not worth that.
“So you came to tell me you gave up?” he asks with a smirk on his face. “You walked away again?”
“Why would I walk away from my child?” I’m not gonna tell him that I would have stayed with her even if it was his.
He takes a step toward me. “You’re lying.”
“I have nothing to lose.” I place my hands out wide. “I have the girl after all.”
“You fucking bastard,” he snaps. “I’m not leaving her. I won’t stop until I have her.”“You think she wants you?” I ask with a laugh, and that just pisses him off more. “She knows that you switched her birth control pills.” His eyes widen. “She knows you tried to trap her.” I look him up and down with disgust. “You are a sorry excuse for a man.”
I start to walk toward the door when his words stop me. “You don’t know what it was like.” I turn to face him. “Man after man,” he growls. “To watch her come crawling back to me but not give me all of her.” I hate that he makes it sound as if she needed him. “She fucking used me …”“You sound like a fucking chick.”
“I love her!” he shouts. “When she told me over Christmas break that she was going to move to New York after school, I didn’t believe her. Thought she would change her mind, but as time went on, I realized I was gonna lose her. I needed a reason to make her stay. She just needed to believe we were meant to be together.”“You’re delusional.”
Selfless (Selfish Series Book 3) Page 22