There are several STD checks, but much to Rebel’s disappointment, he was clean every time.
“Lucky bastard,” she grumbles.
I click onto the next page, and I swear, my heart fucking stops.
“Does that say what I think it says?” I demand, my pulse racing.
“Holy shit.”
“Rebel,” I snap. “Tell me that says what I think it says.”
It’s right there in black and white. The absolute foolproof solution to all our problems.
“It says what you think it says,” she confirms, her voice shocked.
The word ‘vasectomy’ is printed in front of me, clear as day.
The notes read, ‘vasectomy successful, specimen checked.’
It’s dated two years ago.
Two fucking years.
I held Darcy in my arms as she cried, thinking there was something wrong with her. It broke her fucking heart she’d been trying to get pregnant for a whole year and nothing had happened.
Now I know why.
I also now have concrete proof of what I already knew in my heart. That baby is mine. I’m the little peanut’s daddy, and no one is ever going to take that from me.
I get to my feet, my desk chair skidding away from behind me.
“Where are you going?” Rebel looks up at me.
“I don’t know.”
I stride around the desk, to the other side of the room and back. I’m full of so much pent-up energy, I couldn’t sit still right now if I tried.
“I want to go over there now and rip his fucking head off.”
“I’m not going to stop you, in fact, I’ll drive. Let’s go.”
She grabs her coat, high fives me on the way past, and we head for her car.
27
Darcy
I’m too fat for this crap.
I’m eight months pregnant, trying to be stealth and failing miserably. I can’t hide behind anything without my stomach sticking a mile out. It’s ridiculous.
I should just go home.
I don’t know what I was hoping to achieve by coming here, but I knew it was worth a shot.
If Jacob catches me here, I can just pretend I’m picking up my game as the doting little wife, and I’ve come to visit my man at work.
If he doesn’t catch me, well, then I don’t have to make myself sick by pretending I don’t hate everything about him. It’s a win-win.
I slip into one of the boardrooms, and take a relaxing breath.
I can’t hear a sound. It’s empty, but the temporary partition wall prevents me from seeing the room, so I stay quiet, just in case. Jacob’s schedule says he has a meeting in here in half an hour, so I should be able to make a safe escape from the building once he’s settled in here and not potentially out roaming the halls.
I sit down to rest. This seems like as good of a spot as any to wait him out, and I shouldn’t be bothered by anyone here. I used the lesser-known, back entrance to this large room; everyone else uses the door on the other side.
I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes. I’m so tired. I’m uncomfortable and sore. Pregnancy isn’t all that great after thirty weeks, but at least I’m not still spewing.
I hear the door open on the far side of the room and I freeze, listening for voices.
I can hear Lindsey, a woman who reports back to Jacob, she’s droning on and on about some supplier and a bunch of other stuff I don’t understand and don’t care to try to.
“Tell them we want another five percent or we walk.”
That’s Jacob’s voice.
I hear the sound of heels clicking against the hard floor and then the door opens and shuts again.
The room is quiet once more, except for the sound of fingers tapping on a keyboard. Jacob must have come in early.
I could try and sneak out now, but given the airy silence in the room, and my newly acquired heavy footsteps, he’d likely hear me. Hell, someone a town over could hear me, I sound like an elephant.
I close my eyes again, deciding to wait him out when I hear the door open again.
I get up as quietly as I can with a belly this size and creep towards the door nearest me, waiting for some type of noise or chatter that will cover for me as I escape.
My hand is on the door handle when I hear Jacob say, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
His voice is like venom.
I pause, intrigued. He never speaks like that within these walls. I’m overwhelmed with curiosity of who he’s directed it at.
“I wanted to see the look on your face when I tell you that it’s over… that you lose.”
My heart speeds up to a gallop. It’s Ryan. Ryan is here.
I haven’t heard his voice in far too long, but it still affects me the same way, all the way down to my toes. I know it’s almost identical to Jacob’s, but the two men couldn’t sound more different to me now. I’d be able to tell them apart underwater.
Jacob chuckles, menacingly. “What the fuck are you going on about? I’ve got a meeting in half an hour, go and tell your bullshit to someone who cares.”
It’s Ryan’s turn to laugh now and it’s mocking. “I really don’t think you’ll want me to do that.”
There’s silence for a moment, and I take an unconscious step in the direction of the partition.
I want to hear more. I need to know why Ryan is here, speaking to a man he can’t stand. I want to know what he’s taunting Jacob with. Maybe I can use it to get myself out of this situation.
My brain tells me that Ryan’s here for me, but I shut that thought down as quickly as it comes. I can’t afford to be thinking like that. I need to keep my cool until I get more information.
“Why don’t you just tell me what the fuck you’re here to tell me. Some of us have work to do,” Jacob sneers.
“I tracked her down, Jake.” Ryan’s reply makes no sense to me, but his tone is triumphant, as though he knows he’s already won.
“Who?”
“Your baby mama.”
I feel my jaw drop open. A baby mama? Jacob has a baby?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jacob’s arrogance is back.
“You sure about that? Because she’s got a kid that looks just like us, and a pocket full of cash that she’s burning through at a rapid rate of knots.”
More silence. My heart is pounding like a jackhammer inside my ribcage. Jacob has a child.
Tears spring to my eyes. I couldn’t be more grateful that I never got my wish of having a baby with Jacob, but still, knowing that we spent a year trying and failing, only for him to have a child with someone else, hurts – as stupid as that might be.
It’s just another kick in the guts.
“I’ve met her, she told me everything.”
More silence.
“I’ve met him too… he’s one hell of a little boy.”
A son. Jacob has a son.
“Keep your fucking nose out of my business,” Jacob growls, his earlier arrogance gone and slight panic taking its place.
Ryan chuckles. “It’s a bit late for that. You took something from me. You forced my hand, Jake, and now I’m gonna be calling the shots. Darcy is with me. End of story. You leave us alone, and I won’t go to the media with the story of the city’s CEO wannabe billionaire, knocking up a stripper.”
A stripper?
What the actual fuck is going on here… I feel like I’ve been transported into an alternative dimension.
None of this makes sense. Illegitimate children and pregnant strippers… what the hell have I been blind to?
“Darcy is with me because she wants to be,” Jacob retorts.
I want to scream about what bullshit that is, I want to kick and yell and make the biggest scene of all time until Ryan takes me away from here, but I need to hear the rest of this. I need to know what the fuck is going on before I make my presence known.
“Bullshit. I know everything, Jacob, I know you hired a private investiga
tor to stalk her – us – I know you don’t give a shit about that woman. I’m starting to think you never did.”
“Is that what this is really all about?” Jacob chuckles, his laughter a mocking sound. “Are you seriously still cut up about the fact that I got her way back then instead of you?”
Ryan doesn’t reply.
Jacob laughs again. “What? You think I didn’t know you were in love with her? I saw that pathetic longing in your eye when you looked at her. You’re like a puppy dog. Then there were the flowers you sent every year that I got credit for. Thank you for that, by the way, scored me major points, and I don’t even understand what the fuck they symbolise.”
I gasp. The flowers… they weren’t from Jacob, they were from Ryan… all this time…
Four years ago:
I open the door to the apartment and am greeted by a huge bunch of flowers.
“Miss Shearer?” the voice from behind the arrangement asks.
“That’s me,” I reply, confused. I never get flowers.
“Here you go.” He thrusts them towards me, and I take them, struggling to hold them up.
“Who are they from?”
“There’s a card on the top.”
I thank him and shut the door behind me. I sit them on the bench and pull the card off. They’re beautiful.
I have no idea who they’re from – Jacob has never bought me flowers before – I don’t know why I’m receiving them now. It’s not my birthday, it’s not our anniversary yet.
I slip the soft pink card out of the envelope and read the words written in scrawled handwriting.
“I couldn’t send you the moon, but here are all of the stars.”
I flip it over and find a note from the florist about the flowers. I hear my sharp intake of breath when I read that these are starflowers.
He remembered.
I grab my phone and check the date. It’s been exactly one year since the day I met Jacob – the day I told him about my parents saying ‘to the moon and all of the stars’.
I can’t believe he remembered.
I smile to myself. Jacob might be closed off and hard to read at times, but things like this prove to me that he’s a good man, that he’s the man for me.
I can’t believe it was Ryan. Year after year. But I still don’t understand. Why would Ryan be sending me flowers? I didn’t meet Ryan until I’d been dating Jacob for a few weeks. None of this makes any sense. I have so many questions and, right now, I can’t ask any of them.
“Why’d you do it?” Ryan demands. “We’re brothers, and you screwed me.”
“I saw something I wanted. I saw an opportunity and I reached out and took it. It’s not my fault you were too chicken shit to do anything about it.”
I creep to the edge of the partition wall and peer around it.
They’re standing toe to toe, both of their chests heaving. They’re both so angry. I’ve never seen Ryan look so terrifying.
“She’s mine,” Ryan growls. “Has been since that night in the bar.”
That night in the bar… Ryan was there?
“I don’t give a fuck,” Jacob spits. “She left with me. She always chooses me. You mess with me, Ryan, and I’ll fuck you both. I can take that kid she’s growing, and you know it.”
Ryan’s chin lifts in defiance. I don’t know what it is about him right now, but his stance, his energy tells me that he’s got this.
“I think you’d have a pretty hard time proving that you fathered her baby, when your swimmers don’t even work… don’t you think?”
They’re on the other side of the room, but I can see Jacob’s face pale from here.
The silence stretches between them.
“Yeah… I know about the vasectomy you had done two years ago. You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?”
A vasectomy.
Jacob had a vasectomy. Two years ago. That fucking prick. All that time I spent peeing on sticks… all those moments of disappointment.
“You and I both know that baby is mine, Jake, and it wouldn’t take more than five minutes to prove it. I don’t care how many judges you bribe, you can’t argue with science.”
Game, set, match.
I was right. Ryan has him right where he wants him.
“You know what, I was starting to think you didn’t have any Steele in you, but I see that ruthlessness now.” Jacob almost sounds impressed.
“I’m nothing like you,” Ryan sneers. “This isn’t about money or power. It’s about the woman I love and the child who I want to grow up as far away as possible from men like you.”
“Everything is about power,” Jacob argues.
“I guess that’s where we’re different. Game over, Jake, you lose. You might have taken her from me then, but you’re not taking her from me now.”
It all happens so fast. Jacob lunges for Ryan, but he’s too quick, anticipating his move and shifting his weight so Jacob misses. Ryan swings, connecting with Jacob’s jaw before Jacob retaliates and lands a punch to Ryan’s mid-section.
I don’t know where I find the strength, it must be the adrenaline kicking in, because I stride forward, towards the two of them.
“Stop!” I scream.
Punches keep flying.
“I SAID FUCKING STOP!”
They freeze, and ironically, the identical twins turn their heads towards me in a perfectly synchronized motion.
28
Ryan
“Darce?” I breathe. I blink a couple of times, just to make sure I’m not seeing things.
“What are you doing here?” Jacob demands.
I want to punch him again, just purely for the use of that tone with her, but my woman already looks like she’s seen a ghost, so I won’t. Not for now at least.
“What the fuck is going on?” Her voice shakes.
She stops a few metres away, eyeing us both cautiously. I don’t know what she’s doing here or how much she’s heard, but it’s irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that she’s right here. In front of my eyes. She’s here and she’s okay.
I feel like I breathe easy for the first time in months, but it’s short-lived as I really look at her. She looks stressed and exhausted.
She rests her hands on her lower back, the discomfort clear on her face.
Her bump has grown so much in the past couple of months. She hasn’t got long to go now until the baby comes. Our baby.
I take a step towards her, but she holds up her hand in a motion that stops me.
“Just stay where you are. I want answers from both of you and I want them now.”
There’s no arguing with that tone, even if I wanted to – which I don’t. I’m tired of keeping things from her. No more secrets.
I freeze. Even Jacob doesn’t move.
I’ve got that prick’s nuts in a vice and he knows it, but I can’t help but feel like mine are right in there with his. Darcy looks anything but impressed with the pair of us.
“You have a child?” She narrows her eyes at Jacob.
He doesn’t answer, just lifts his chin arrogantly.
I smack him in the ribs, hard. “Answer her.”
He grunts in pain but nods his head.
“How old?”
“Three,” Jacob replies, unsure.
“Nearly three,” I correct him.
I see the tears well in her eyes. Not only did he have a child that she knew nothing about, but he conceived that child during their relationship. He’s a fucking tool of the worst kind. I can’t even imagine how much this information would hurt her.
I’m about to lay into him again when I see the change in Darcy. She blinks the tears away and straightens her spine.
“You had a vasectomy after that?” she asks, all the emotion gone from her voice.
“I did.”
She nods, silent for a few beats before looking him dead in the eye. “Fuck you, Jacob.”
Fuck, she’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I want to give her a rou
nd of applause.
The coward doesn’t even reply. He doesn’t apologise. He doesn’t do anything. He just stands there.
He basically kidnapped her – he’s been holding her hostage for weeks and weeks, and I can tell he feels not one ounce of remorse for it. It might not be going to pay off for him in the long run, but he’d do it all over again, given the same situation – he’d do anything to get himself ahead.
“I’m leaving, and if I ever see you again, I’m going to the media – with everything, do you understand me?” she threatens him.
“It wasn’t personal, Darcy, for fuck’s sake,” he snaps.
“Really?” she yells, her voice going from zero to one hundred in a flash. “It wasn’t personal? Felt pretty fucking personal when I cried over not being able to get pregnant. It feels pretty personal that I gave you everything and you still went out cheating on me. And it sure as hell felt personal when you’ve held me and my unborn child against my will.”
Fuck, I want to pull her into my arms and hold her so tight that all that hurt and anger just melts away, but that’s not what she wants from me in this moment, and I won’t take anything from her, I’m not my brother.
“Get out,” she snaps at him.
“This is my fucking boardroom,” he says in disbelief.
She glares at him. “I can stay right here and keep yelling if you prefer? Maybe I’ll open the door. I know how much the PAs love a good bit of gossip.”
He wants to stay and argue – I can tell he’s dying to try and manipulate her into doing what he wants, but he’s also not stupid, he knows he’s beat.
He mutters a string of profanities under his breath before grabbing his laptop and storming from the room.
I don’t know how he’s going to explain his dishevelled appearance to his colleagues, but it’d be entertaining to hear him try. He’s got a ripped shirt and a bleeding lip – not a great look for such a ‘powerful’ and ‘in control’ man.
I watch the door shut behind him and turn slowly back to face Darcy.
She looks terrible, like she hasn’t slept in weeks, but she’s still stunning. I’ve never felt such relief just from laying eyes on a person.
The First Rule: A Standalone Second Chance Romance Page 19