“I’m not going to let you get away with this,” she snarled, lifting her finger and pointing it directly at my face. I wanted to swat it away, but I knew I had to listen to her for now. The only way she was going to go was if she felt as though she’d been listened to, as though I’d heard every word of what I had to say. I knew that was what she wanted.
“You’re the one who cheated,” I repeated again, already tired by this bullshit encounter.
“And I’m the one who’s the mother of that baby, whether you like it or not,” she shot back, her voice hard. “And I’m going to make sure that you don’t get away with keeping it to yourself.”
“This isn’t what this is about,” I reminded her. “I just don’t want to be with you. I’m not going to try and keep you from that kid.”
“Have you seen her?” She demanded. My mind flashed back briefly to the night before, to Jen on top of me, her head tipped back and her nails digging into my chest as she came. I shook my head.
“No, I haven’t seen her,” I replied. “We can talk to her together, figure out what we’re going to do, make sure she’s all caught up-”
But any logic that might have been there once was gone, and she had been overtaken by vindictive rage; she saw me shooting her down, and wanted to make me pay for it. It was so typically, utterly, obviously her.
“You’re not going to get away with cutting me out of that baby’s life,” she snarled. “I’m going to take control of this, you watch me.”
“You need to get out of here and stop threatening me,” I spoke firmly, taking her arm and directing her towards the door. “Get out. We can talk through our lawyers in there’s anything else you want to say to me.”
“Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance,” She warned me, before she stepped out the door and slammed it in my face. I stood there for a moment in the silence, and I felt something dark begin to take root in my stomach. But I ignored it. I was just being paranoid. There was nothing to be afraid of – she wouldn’t dare make a scene regarding me in case it got out and the people around us cottoned on to what had gone down between us. But Jen…Jen was different. She might take out the anger she felt at me on her. On the other hand, it wasn’t like Sophia knew where Jen lived, so she’d be safe as long as I could keep an eye on her. I pushed those dark thoughts from my head, and pulled up Jen’s number on my phone again, grinning as I thought of what to say to her next. This was the beginning of something good, I could feel it. I knew it.
Chapter Eleven
Jen
I knew something was going to happen that day. I wasn’t sure what it was – in fact, I put it down to nothing more than pregnancy hormones, but I knew it was something more than that. I had done such a good job, these last few weeks, of pretending that everything was fine and normal and that nothing had changed. Even though, beneath the surface, my entire world was bubbling with newness.
First, there was Nathan; he was probably the biggest, best change so far. We had been seeing each other for about a month now, and things were going better than I could have hoped. Any doubts I’d had when I left his apartment early that morning were all but forgotten. He had been so gentle with me, so careful, like I was this perfect, delicate thing that he didn’t want to injure in any way. When he took me to bed, when he pulled me into his arms, it was always with such care and such love that sometimes my heart swelled with the fullness of it, with the kindness, with how much I adored him. I was falling for him, head over heels, hard and fast, all the clichés that I had assumed before were nothing more than platitudes. But now they meant something. They meant something when I thought of him, when I felt like the ground was moving out around me and underneath me every time we were together. I was carrying his baby, and we were together, and things felt as though they were always meant to be this way.
And yet, on that day, I knew something was wrong. I hadn’t heard from him all day, and he usually messaged me first thing in the morning to wish me a good day. Most days I even got a phone call as I got ready to head to class. My little bump was getting bigger and I was having to go with baggier and baggier clothes just to cover it up and to avoid the questions that the people around me were beginning to have; luckily, since it was still winter, I could bury myself in big jackets and sweaters and avoid most of the suspicion pointed in my direction. I could come up with a good reason once I was out of the fug of morning sickness and hormones and tiredness. For now, I just needed to get through the days, to ignore everything else and make sure that I was keeping both this baby and myself as healthy as I possible could.
I pulled my jacket tight around me; it was still freezing out, even though it was midway through February, like the world was trying to remind me that we weren’t quite out of Winter yet. It was so cold that there was barely anyone just walking around on campus; in summer, this place would be swarmed with people hanging out and having a good time, but now it was just me and the one or two other people I’d passed on the long walk down to the library. Honestly, I was glad for some peace and quiet; usually, I hated being all by myself, but so much had happened the last few months that I was enjoying the chance to dwell on things by myself.
I heard footsteps behind me, and glanced over my shoulder; there was no-one there, and I dismissed it. The wind brushing through the trees had probably brought a couple of branches down or something, that was it. Nothing to get caught up on.
I continued my way towards the library; I was still at least ten minutes away, especially now that I had been moving slower thanks to the pregnancy. I wasn’t even carrying that much extra weight, but it didn’t seem to matter much, as I was already getting slower and more ungainly with every passing day. I briefly placed my hand on my stomach, letting it rest there for a moment and smiling briefly. I’d had a scan the week before and everything had been good, and I was still excited about having this little creature. I didn’t know whether it was a boy or a girl, because Nathan had wanted it to be a surprise, but I knew at least that I was going to be a part of it’s life as long as Nathan and I stayed together. Which I had to admit, I was kind of relieved by, because the thought of just handing this thing off to someone else after carrying it and birthing it felt a little…odd. Not that I wanted it for myself – I wasn’t about to pull some shit in the delivery room, make a break for it with someone else’s baby tucked beneath my arm – but I was glad I wouldn’t have to say a total goodbye, at least not for now. It had been a hard enough few months without having to consider what that was going to be like.
Nathan had told me that Sophia had stopped by his place not that long ago, and had tried to get back together with him. I had thought about her a lot since then – before, too, when I’d been trying to figure out whether or not I should reach out to her and get in touch regarding what to do about this baby. But now I was worried that Nathan might finally figure out that I was nothing more than a rebound fling, that he might dump me to get back together with Sophia now that she had put the offer on the table. He had assured me that that wasn’t going to happen, but I wasn’t totally convinced. What had happened with Damien was still fresh on my mind and, while I knew that Nathan wasn’t going to run off with a big pile of my money, he might run off with what was left of my trust. If he dumped me for her, then I wasn’t sure I would ever get over it. I had tried to hold myself back, to play it cool and calm and casual with Nathan, but I knew I had failed dismally. I wanted him badly, and he wanted me back, and knowing that I was desired in that way just made me like him and want him all the more. To be valued and needed the way he valued and needed me was new and exciting and I wasn’t sure I would ever get over how good it felt.
But it wasn’t just that I was worried about – no, I could have dealt with that fine, with the worry that she might swoop in and steal the man I was falling for. It was the baby I wanted to know about. Nathan had avoided questions about what the two of them were going to do about custody, no matter how much I had pressed, and every time I brought up the situati
on his face would tighten up like he didn’t want to talk about it. Like there was something in that conversation he couldn’t bear for me to hear.
“Should I get in contact with her?” I had demanded, last time I’d seen him. His head had snapped up from the book he was looking at instantly. That had gotten his attention.
“No, don’t do that,” he replied hurriedly. “Really. It’s between us. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?” I raised my eyebrows at him, challenging him to come up with a decent excuse. “Did she say something when she was around here?”
“Nothing important,” he replied vaguely, but slid his eyes away from me as he spoke, letting me know that he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I shook my head.
“Just tell me, is there anything I need to know going forward?”
He met my gaze steadily.
“No, there’s nothing,” he affirmed, and then held his arms out to me. “Come here.”
I stepped over to him, and he pulled me on to his lap. Pressing his nose into my hair, he wrapped his arms around me and the murmured the words that got me thinking there was something that I wasn’t being told.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he promised. “I swear.”
Those words had been dancing around my head ever since – safe from what? What was there to keep me safe from? That’s what I wanted to know. Surely, Sophia hadn’t threatened him with anything? Or me? Maybe she had found out about the two of us, knew that’s why Nathan hadn’t wanted to get back together, and had every intention of taking that out on me. I couldn’t stop going over the possibilities in my head – everything that she might be capable of, everything that I should be afraid of. The stress, I was sure, wasn’t doing the baby any good, and yet I couldn’t restrain myself.
I paused for a moment, planting a hand on the back of a bench and catching my breath. The air formed little puffs of steam around my mouth as I inhaled and exhaled, and the only sound was that of me panting slightly and the trees around me rustling in the breeze. The lake that sat in the center of campus had all but frozen over – I had seen a few stupid kids trying to skate on it earlier in the week. It was a miracle they hadn’t fallen through and caught their deaths in the freezing water. I grinned and shook my head at myself – look at me, already sounding like a total Mom. That must have been the hormones and the baby activating some kind of Mothering Mode within me, even if I knew I wasn’t going to keep the baby myself; I guess my nagging and fussing had to go somewhere.
I was about to start walking again when I heard those footsteps behind me again. I looked over my shoulder once more, but there was still nothing – well, I thought I caught a glimpse of a woman, a flash of hair out of the corner of my eye, but I thought nothing of it. I was just overthinking. I continued my walk to the library; not long until I’d be surrounded by people anyway. Whoever was following me – if there was someone, which I highly doubted – was in for a surprise when I ended up surrounded by dozens of students and professors. I pulled my jacket up and over my face, hoping that if someone was following me, they’d be thrown off by the fact they could no longer see my features. I picked up my pace, just a little, knowing that I was being stupid, that it was probably nothing more than a student heading in the same direction as me and that letting my brain get ahead of me was-
“Jen?”
I froze on the spot, the blood in my veins turning to ice as soon as I heard her voice. It took me a moment to place it, but as soon as I recognized who it was, I turned around slowly and met her gaze.
Sophia. She was standing just a few feet away from me, and I recognized that dark hair from before. She had a look in her eyes that told me that this wasn’t going to be the kind of meeting that you had offer coffee and cookies. She took a step towards me, and instinctively I took a step away from her. I didn’t like the way she was looking at me. I didn’t like anything about the fact that she was here at all, but the way she was looking at me especially – it sent a shiver down my spine, my body tensing up on instinct at the sight of her in front of me. I knew this couldn’t be good news.
“I know about you and him,” she snarled, and I looked around, praying that there would be someone else nearby, someone else who would see the look on my face and read it for the terror that it was. “I know that you’re fucking him.”
“Sophia, I never intended any of this,” I tried to soothe her but knew that I was only really going to make things worse. “I know how it looks, but all of this just happened. I didn’t want-”
“Don’t lie to me,” Sophia spat, advancing on me once more. This time, I stood my ground, as though acting tough and strong would keep her away from me. I planted a hand on my belly.
“Sophia, the baby,” I reminded her. “I know you wanted this kid, I know that-”
“I only wanted it to keep him,” she waved her hand. “You really think I give a shit about you or that thing you’re carrying?”
That’s when I started to panic; this baby was the only leeway I had over her, and now she had told me that she wasn’t even going to allow me that.
“He’s going to leave you, you know,” she sneered as she got closer. “You really think he actually gives a shit about someone like you?”
“Yeah, I do,” I pulled myself up to my full height – kind of pathetic, especially since I was in flats – and looked her in the eye. “I think he really cares about me.”
“You’re so naïve,” she shook her head against, inching towards me. I backed away once more.
“What did you want to gain by coming here?” I demanded. “Seriously? What did you think you were going to get from cornering me like this?”
“I just wanted an explanation, and to warm you that this bullshit little thing you have with him isn’t going to last,” she shrugged, as though it should have been obvious. Her tone was almost neutral, like she was telling me that it would be dry with some showers over the weekend, but her voice had the tiniest manic edge that told me I needed to get the hell out of here, and fast.
“I don’t owe you an explanation,” I replied, glancing up towards the building behind me. It would have taken maybe two minutes at a straight run, and that was if I hadn’t been pregnant. I willed someone to come out and to see what was going on, but no, it stayed just me and her.
“Sophia, please just get out of here,” I begged, knowing that my words were going to fall on deaf ears and figuring that it was worth trying anyway. “Please. Really. I’m not going to hold any of this against you, but I think you should leave before you get the both of us in trouble.”
“It’s only fair that you know the truth,” she looked at me unblinkingly for a second, and, in that moment, I realized that she really did think that she was doing me a favor, that she honestly believed that coming to my campus and telling me all this shit was her attempt at making things right with me. She honestly thought that Nathan leaving her had more to do with me than it did to do with the fact that she had been fucking someone else behind his back. And somehow, that conviction – that complete and utter refusal to face up to the truth – was more unsettling that anything else she had done so far. Someone driven by badness who knew it would stop before they went too far; someone driven by what they believed to be goodness wouldn’t hold back.
“I need to go,” I shook my head. I wasn’t going to wait around and let her berate me any longer. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone, not pulling it out, and called Nathan’s number – I had it on speed-dial by now, and I thanked God that I still used that old-fashioned function, because she hadn’t taken her eyes off me. Her gaze flipped down to my hand and then back to my face, and she narrowed her eyes, not liking what she saw. But I wasn’t going to stand around. I was going to get the fuck out of here, once and for all.
I turned and started up towards the building that contained the library, knowing that if I made it up there things would be fine – what would she do to me in front of
other people? What would she dare do?
But I couldn’t run fast, and sure enough I heard her feet behind me, catching up, gaining ground.
“Jen, I’m just trying to help you,” she called after me, but there was a hard edge to her voice that told me that was a lie. “I don’t want you to end up like I did…”
I kept running, not looking back, pulling my phone from my pocket. My breath was coming faster now, and I felt weighed down, heavy on my feet. Nathan had answered my call, and I lifted the cell to my ear.
“Nathan!” I gasped.
“Jen, what’s wrong?” He demanded, his voice filled with concern – but before I could get the words out to tell him, I felt something connect with the back of my head, and I collapsed to the ground, the world fading rapidly to black. The last thing I could focus on was the fear that seemed to overwhelm me in the seconds before I fell into unconsciousness – and the terror at what was going to happen to me next.
Chapter Twelve
Nathan
I sat by the end of the bed, looking up at her – everything felt so quiet now, after the noise and panic of the last couple of hours.
I had known as soon as I had gotten her phone call who it was. Sophia was the only one who would have gone after her like that, knowing that that was what was going to hurt me the most. She was vindictive that way. But I had never thought for a moment that she could be that evil, could hurt the person I adored most in the world like that, just to get back at me.
I had heard the phone clatter to the ground and had at once hung up to call 911. I knew where she was, and I knew that the campus was quiet enough at this time of year that whatever was happening would be the only thing happening. As soon as I’d hung up on the cops and an ambulance, I sped out of the office and straight to my car and headed down there myself. I wasn’t leaving this up to chance. I would pull my ex-wife off her myself if I had to. The thought of her in pain, hurt or suffering, was enough to get my pulse racing in the worst way.
The Holiday Surprise: A Billionaire Surrogate Baby Romance Page 5