I walked to the door and rang the bell, my heart in my throat now. I wasn’t sure how I was going to speak, let alone what I was going to say. All these stupid lines played through my head—I’m your daughter’s surrogate. Want to meet your grandkids? Drop the charges against Nicolas and I’ll make sure you see your grandkids whenever you want. It was stupid, really.
“Can I help you?” a tall, slender man asked as he moved up behind me.
“I’m here to see Virginia Davis.”
“That’s my stepmother,” he said, pushing open the door and gesturing for me to proceed him inside. “Does she know you?”
“No. But I knew her daughter. Aurora.”
The man gestured for me to lead the way down a narrow hall that cut off the entryway to the right.
“Do I know you?” he asked as we walked. “You look familiar.”
The pictures from the tabloids flashed through my mind, but I didn’t say anything. He touched my shoulder to direct me to the left. We walked for a full minute before we came to a door that opened onto a long, brick patio. Virginia Davis was sitting out there, reading a book at a large, comfortable outdoor dining table. There was a glass of wine on the table in front of her and a plate of fruit that looked incredible to my always hungry baby bump.
The babies moved again. I touched my belly, silently urging them to settle down.
“Daniel,” Virginia said, as she put her book down and watched us walk toward her. “I didn’t realize you were bringing company.”
“She came on her own. She was at the front door when I arrived.”
“Oh.” Virginia looked me over for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. “You’re that girl from the tabloids. The one who was in a romantic clutch with Nicolas’ bodyguard.”
“We’re not involved,” I said quickly. “The paparazzi got it wrong.”
“Didn’t look wrong to me,” Daniel said, shooting me a look that I didn’t appreciate. I touched my belly again, trying to remind myself I was there to do a good thing.
“Well, whatever it was, you are that girl?”
Virginia was watching me with more than curiosity in her eyes. There was judgment there as well. A part of me wanted to run as fast and as far as I could, but I again reminded myself I was there for a reason. And that reason was a good one.
“I am.”
“Then you’re a friend of Nicolas?”
“That’s why I came to see you. I wanted to talk to you about Nicolas.”
Her eyes dropped to my belly. “Well, if it has anything to do with your condition, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Oh, come on, Virgi,” the man, Daniel, said. “Give her a chance. She came all this way.”
“It’s important,” I said.
Virginia studied me for a long second. “Alright. I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
Daniel came over and pulled a chair out for me. I smiled at him gratefully. My back was aching from being on my feet a little more than I should have been. The bigger my belly got, the more punishment my back took. Some days, I just wasn’t sure my body would be able to take much more of this.
I settled in the chair and smiled gratefully at Daniel. He inclined his head slightly and moved around the table, taking a seat to Virginia’s left. She never bothered to get up, let alone greet me properly. She just stared at me, waiting for me to say whatever it was I had to say.
I suddenly had no idea what I was going to say.
“How do you know Nicolas?” Daniel asked.
“Aurora introduced us.” I touched the top of my belly again. “Actually, their lawyer introduced us.”
“He has his lawyer pimping for him now?” Virginia asked.
“It’s not like that,” I said, my face reddening at the implication.
Daniel made a gesture, and Virginia sat back, her face puckered like she had just swallowed something bitter.
I looked down at my belly, telling myself that this was the best thing for everyone. She would stop this crusade against Nicolas if she knew that he was about to become a father to her daughter’s children, wouldn’t she? She’d have to.
“Did he hurt you? Do you need money?” Daniel asked.
“No, of course not.”
They certainly had a dark idea of who Nicolas was, didn’t they?
I took a deep breath and just blurted it out. “I’m a surrogate. Aurora contracted with me to carry her and Nicolas’ baby.”
“Surrogate? That’s a new term for it,” Virginia said.
Daniel again made a face that caused her to stop talking.
“Aurora and Nicolas wanted to have a family, but Aurora had decided she couldn’t carry a child to term. So she started looking for a surrogate. My mom is friends with the maid who works in their house and told me, so I went to the lawyer and filled out some paperwork. A couple of weeks later, Aurora and I met and she decided that I was the one.”
“You?” Virginia looked me over with something new in her eye. “Even if Aurora did want a surrogate—which I don’t believe because there was no reason why she couldn’t carry her own children—why would she want you? She could have asked a friend to do it, someone she could trust. Why a stranger?”
“She said she didn’t want someone she knew because she was afraid there would be issues after the baby came.”
“That’s plausible,” Daniel said.
“Aurora wouldn’t have been able to see far enough past her own nose to think something like that,” Virginia said. “She was too self-centered.”
I must have gasped because Virginia stared down her nose at me for an instant. “Don’t be so naive, girl,” she said. “I know who my daughter was.”
I stared down at my hands, beginning to wonder if this was really the great idea I’d thought it was. Maybe I should go. Maybe this was not something I should be doing. I mean, if Nicolas had wanted her to know, he would have told her himself, right? Since he hadn’t…maybe that meant something.
“Go on, child,” Virginia said. “My daughter hired you to be a surrogate, and…”
“The doctor implanted embryos from Aurora’s eggs and Nicolas’ sperm ten days before she died.”
The color washed out of Virginia’s face. She stared at me as though she expected my head to explode or something. After a minute, I couldn’t meet her gaze any longer. I dropped my eyes to my belly, tears beginning to well in my throat.
“The baby you’re carrying belongs to my Aurora?”
“Twins.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m carrying twins,” I said, after clearing my throat twice.
“Shit,” Daniel said.
Virginia shook her head. “I’m supposed to believe you’re pregnant with twins, and they’re biologically my daughter’s babies?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head again, the movement almost like the comforting rock some small children engage in when they are deeply upset. Then, she stood and charged toward me. I thought she was going to give me a hug or touch my belly. Instead, she grabbed my arm hard enough that I would find bruises later that night and dragged me out of the chair I was sitting in.
“Get out of my house!”
She started to pull me toward the door from which I’d come, her grip so much stronger than I would have imagined. I tried to pull away, but I was at an odd angle and would have fallen if I did. Daniel came around the table and moved up behind Virginia, blocking her path.
“Get out of the way, Daniel!”
“You need to calm down, Virginia. Can’t you see you’re frightening the girl?”
“She’s a lying bitch! I’d be surprised if she’s even pregnant.”
I didn’t know what to do. I was shaking, and I just wanted to get out of there. This was obviously not what I’d expected to happen when I came over here today. I just wanted her to drop her crusade against Nicolas. I hadn’t imagined she wouldn’t believe me.
Daniel set his hands on her shoulders and whispered something I cou
ldn’t hear against her ear. After a minute, Virginia let go of me, glaring at me as she waved her hands and walked away.
“You okay?” Daniel asked, lifting the arm that was still in the brace even three weeks later. “She didn’t hurt you?”
“I’m fine.” I pulled away from him and walked in the direction Virginia was trying to drag me, anxious to get out of that house before she came back.
“You have to understand, Aurora was her only child. She’s devastated by her loss.”
“Yeah, well, I knew that. That’s why I came here.”
“To do what?”
“To convince her to let Nicolas alone. He’s struggling enough, trying to prepare for these babies and salvage his career.”
“He should have thought of that before he flew to New York that night.”
I spun on my heel and confronted him. “Just because he was there doesn’t mean he had anything to do with her death. She could have taken those pills herself.”
“I know she did.”
I stared at him. “You what?”
“I know that Aurora died of an overdose. I know she was addicted, and she took too much that night, but she wouldn’t have taken it if Nicolas hadn’t shown up and argued with her.”
“If you know he’s innocent—”
“I didn’t say he was innocent. I said he didn’t drug her. There’s a difference.”
“A huge difference.”
Daniel looked at me, his green eyes piercing in the dim light of the hallway. “Aurora had her problems, but none of them were insurmountable until she met Nicolas.”
“What did he do to her that drove her to drugs?”
Daniel shrugged. “What does any star-crossed lover do to hurt his love? He loved her too much.”
“And for that, he deserves to be prosecuted?”
“Virginia needs to work out her grief in her own way. This thing…it will blow over.”
“Not soon enough.”
His eyes fell to my belly. “Those are really Aurora’s?”
“Yes.”
He stared at my belly for a long minute. It made me self-conscious, as I slid my hands over it and tried to protect the babies as well as I could. Then he nodded as though he’d made a decision.
“I’ll talk to her, but I can’t make any promises.”
“I wasn’t looking for any.”
I drove back home and slipped the keys in Constance’s purse while she was in the laundry room checking on the weeks towel load. No one seemed to have realized I’d gone. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
I was hoping, though, that things would be smooth sailing from here on out though.
Chapter 22
Thanksgiving snuck up on us. One minute it was the end of May. School was ending and I was looking forward to summer. The next, my mom was dead, I was pregnant, and everything I thought I knew was turned upside down. And now it was Thanksgiving and I was twenty-eight weeks pregnant with another woman’s babies.
I insisted on helping Constance in the kitchen. I wasn’t much of a cook, but I could chop vegetables and wash pots and pans like a pro. She seemed to enjoy my company, laughing as I sang along to the Tejano radio station she always played.
“It smells like heaven in here,” Nicolas said as he moved up behind Constance and tried to steal a piece of turkey.
She slapped his hand. “Stay out of my kitchen. We’ll call you when it’s ready.”
He groaned even as he shot me a wink. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“He seems happy today,” I said, as I watched Nicolas disappear around the corner.
“It’s Thanksgiving. Everyone’s happy on Thanksgiving.”
I shrugged. It seemed as good an explanation as any.
I carried the china into the dining room and set the table, struggling to make sure everything was exactly as it should be. My mother taught me how to do this when I was barely tall enough to see over the table so that I could help when she served at formal affairs. I knew how it should look, but I wanted this to be perfect.
The babies were due in February. That meant this was my only chance to spend Thanksgiving with Nicolas. I wanted it to be special. I wanted him to remember it next year when he was struggling to have a meal with two nine-month-old babies. I wanted him to think of me fondly as he watched his kids grow up and they shared many, many holidays together.
Was that too much to ask?
“You shouldn’t be doing that,” Adam said. He was dressed a little less formal today, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He was actually very handsome when he smiled and he wasn’t trying to look so fierce. I was beginning to see this side of him from time to time. He even cracked a joke last week when I was complaining about not being able to go for a walk around the block. He really was a pretty nice guy.
“I’m just helping out Constance.”
“Why don’t you let me help Constance and you go relax with Nicolas? I’m sure he’d like the company.”
“When’s your family going to be here?”
He glanced at the screen on his phone before shoving it back into his pocket. “Fifteen minutes.”
He suddenly seemed nervous, which I found incredibly adorable. I touched his arm as I walked past him.
“It’s going to be great.”
He just nodded and headed for the kitchen.
Nicolas was in the living room, standing at the back doors.
“Do you think a swing set would ruin the layout of the garden?”
I moved up beside him and surveyed the scene that laid out before us. “You might have to tear out a few rose bushes.”
“I like the rose buses.”
“Yeah, well, thorns are not so great with small children. That’s why you never see rose bushes surrounding elementary schools.”
“True.” He slid his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “I guess a few of them can come out.”
“More than a few. Those swing sets get pretty big these days.”
“Don’t steal all my joy.”
I leaned closer to him and said, “Welcome to parenthood. Your life as you know it will never be the same again.”
He pulled me in front of him and pressed me to the glass door. His fingers slid over my face before burying themselves in my hair. His kiss was gentle, kind, the kiss I was beginning to expect from him. It was like heaven, moving into his arms and accepting his touch. I remembered the first time and couldn’t, for the life of me, remember why I’d pulled away. Or bit him, to be exact.
I slid my hand under the bottom hem of his shirt—a polo shirt whose rough material was a lovely contrast to his silky skin—my fingers playing a symphony on his ribs. There was a scar on his third rib, a thick, gnarly scar that I was dying to ask him about, but never got up the courage. Or found the right moment. I pulled back to ask now, but then he buried his lips against my throat and all thought just disappeared from my mind.
His hand wandered over my ass, his fingers looking for things he wasn’t going to find until he lifted my skirt. He was always searching, and that was what made him a perfect lover. Not such a perfect companion, but a perfect lover. He began to tug at my skirt, but then the doorbell sounded and brought us both back to reality.
“That’s probably Adam’s family. Or Constance’s.”
He groaned. “Whose bright idea was it to invite so many people over?”
“Yours.”
A slow smile formed over his lips, inspiring me to touch my fingertips to his bottom lip. He lifted my hand and kissed my palm, his lips lingering for a minute.
“Remember where I was.”
“I’ll definitely do that.”
Nicolas turned and strode toward the front entryway, confidence oozing out of every pore of his beautiful body. I loved to watch him walk, loved the way his muscles moved. And his ass wasn’t bad, either. If I had my way, I’d have him walk miles around this room just so that I could watch him both coming and going.
I poured
myself some water at the bar and thought about all the things I had to be grateful for. It was something my mom and I always did, even when there wasn’t enough money for a turkey, or she had to work someone else’s celebration and didn’t have the energy left to share a meal with me. We always told each other what we were most thankful for.
“The experience of carrying these babies, and the chance to know Nicolas.” I glanced up toward the ceiling, thinking of my mother in heaven—where else would such a good Catholic be?—“I miss you, mom,” I said softly. “Teamo, mama.”
“What the fuck did you do?”
There was so much anger and bitterness in Nicolas’ voice that it frightened me. I turned and the look on his face was even worse. He was staring at me as though he wanted to murder me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He held up a set of papers that I couldn’t read from this distance. I was still clueless even as he shook them at me.
“You told her. I know it was you.”
“Told who what?”
“You told her about the babies so the two of you could find a way to steal them from me, right? You thought a rich, lonely widow would be thrilled to death to find out she’s about to be a grandma. So you told her, hoping she’d help you get out of the contract you have with me, right?”
Virginia.
“What has she done?”
He waved the papers at me. “She’s suing me for custody. The babies aren’t even here yet and she’s fucking suing me for custody.”
It was like I’d been struck by lightning. My entire body went numb. I couldn’t have responded to him even if I wanted to. But I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to an accusation like?
“I didn’t—”
He charged me, dropping the papers to the floor and grabbing my neck. “You have been scheming to take these babies from me from the moment you found out you were pregnant. And when I threatened to cut you out of their lives, you just hatched another scheme, didn’t you?”
“Nico,” I said, my voice garbled by his grip, “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
BOUGHT: A Standalone Romance Page 30