Rags to Riches Baby

by Andrea Laurence

  “What?” She flinched as though he’d reached out and slapped her.

  This obviously wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. He didn’t know why. Did she think he would be excited over the prospect of the potential scammer having his child? Believe that fate had intercepted and brought them together to be one big, happy family? No. Life didn’t work that way without someone like her pulling all the strings. She’d been manipulating him from the very beginning—perhaps angling for this outcome since the day they met.

  “You certainly didn’t waste any time,” he continued. “You must have sabotaged that first condom you handed me in the garden. Pretty bold. And to think I was relieved you had one ready to go. Of course you did. My stepmother at least married my father and moved into the penthouse before she locked him down with a child and spent all his money. I guess you’re in a hurry, though.”

  “A hurry for what?” she asked.

  “Well, I mean, the judge will rule on my aunt’s will soon. This really was the best way for you to ensure that you’ll get a chunk of cash from the Drake family, win or lose.”

  A shimmer of tears flooded Lucy’s big, brown eyes. Crocodile tears, he had no doubt. “Is that what you think I’ve done? Do you really believe I’m capable of getting pregnant on purpose? Derailing my whole life just for money?”

  “Not just money, Lucy. A shit-ton of money.” The flood of angry words rushed from his mouth and he was incapable of stopping them. “I had you pegged as shady from that first day. That Pollyanna ignorance when the attorney announced you were getting everything... I knew you were playing us all. Playing my aunt. Even playing Harper, unless she’s in on it for a cut. I thought that if I got to know you better, I could figure out your game, but I was wrong. You’re better at this than I ever expected. I was on the verge of dropping my contest of the will, you had me so convinced. I mean, well played, Lucy. Cover all your bases.”

  He clapped slowly with a wide smile that probably looked more like a grimace. The bitter words were the only thing keeping him from being sick. “You’ve set yourself up for a win-win situation. You could walk away from this with my aunt’s fortune, half of mine and then that kid will be set to inherit more from my family someday. I thought Candace was crafty and cunning going after my father, but you’ve got her beat, hands down. You didn’t have to sleep with a lonely old man to get what you wanted.”

  The tears in her eyes never spilled over, but the longer he talked, the redder her face got and the tighter her jaw clenched. “Yeah,” she agreed in the coldest voice he’d ever heard pass from her lips. “I just had to sleep with a lonely, bitter young man instead.”

  Oliver laughed at her cruel retort. “Maybe I am lonely and bitter, but I never had to screw anyone to make my way in the world.”

  “I thought you were a better man than this, Oliver.” Lucy threw her napkin on the table and got up from her seat. “Don’t point fingers at me and act so self-righteous. You may not do it now or tonight or even in a year, but one night, when you’re lying alone in bed, you’ll realize the mistake you’ve made and it will be too late.” She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder.

  “Leaving so soon?” he asked as casually as he could muster. Of course she would act upset and insulted. That was part of the charade. He wouldn’t let her words get to him even if every arrow painfully struck the bull’s-eye in his chest. He would keep up the facade of the bored businessman unfazed by her until she was long gone. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing she’d gotten to him.

  Lucy just shook her head with sadness pulling down at the corners of her mouth. “You know, I am just as surprised by this whole situation as you are. I’m actually terrified and knowing now that I’ll be doing it on my own makes it that much scarier. The difference is it’s going to uproot my entire life, destroy my body and take over the next twenty years of my life, and you’re just going to sit back and cut a damn check. If you don’t want to be a part of your child’s life, then don’t bother sending money. That’s an insult to me and the baby. Let’s just skip the paternity test game with the attorneys and pretend we never met, okay?”

  “Sounds fine. At this point, I wish we hadn’t.”

  “Me, too. Goodbye, Oliver.” Turning on her heel, Lucy barely missed a collision with the waiter as she nearly ran from the restaurant.

  Oliver made a point of not watching her go. Instead, he calmly accepted his wine from the waiter and sipped it, ignoring the stares of the nearby restaurant patrons. After all that, he needed a glass of wine. Or some scotch. Anything he could get his hands on, really, to dull the pain in his chest and chase away the angry tears that were threatening to expose themselves in the restaurant.

  The first large sip seemed to settle him. The blood stopped rushing in his ears and he was able to take his first deep breath since he arrived at the restaurant. That was a start. Wine couldn’t undo the mess he’d just found himself in, but it would get him through this painfully uncomfortable moment.

  “Sir.” The waiter hovered awkwardly nearby. “Will the lady be returning?”

  Oliver shook his head. “She will not.”

  “Very well. Will you be staying to dine with us tonight?”

  He might be known for being cool under pressure, but even Oliver couldn’t sit here and eat as though his world hadn’t just disintegrated in his hands. “No. I think I’ll finish my drink and free up the table if you’d like to run the bill.”

  “Yes, sir.” The waiter disappeared, as visibly uncomfortable on the outside as Oliver was on the inside.

  Oliver went through the motions to wrap up, finished his cabernet and stuffed his wallet back in his suit pocket. Pushing up from the table, he made his way out of the restaurant and onto the noisy street. Once there, he felt his anger start to crumble into disappointment.

  Why? Why had he let himself get involved with Lucy when he knew she was just playing him, and everyone else? Instead, he’d let himself get wrapped up in her smile and her freckles. He’d lost himself in the warmth of her body and the softness of her touch. And now she was going to have his child.

  His child.

  Oliver sighed and forced his feet down the sidewalk toward his building. It was a long walk, and he’d normally take a taxi, but he needed the time to think. It pained him to realize that as much grief and blame as he’d heaped on his father, he’d made the same mistake. He’d fallen for a woman and let himself be used. And he’d enjoyed it. Every single second. He supposed it was karma’s way of teaching him that he wasn’t any smarter than his father when it came to love.

  Love? He didn’t dare even think that word. It wasn’t love. He didn’t know what to call it, but it wasn’t love.

  One thing he did know, however, was that if Lucy was carrying his child, Oliver would be in his or her life whether Lucy liked it or not. It wasn’t about money or child support or anything else but being a good father. Oliver knew what it was like to grow up without one of his parents. Cancer had stolen his mother away, greed had taken Danny’s mother from his life, but Oliver had no excuse not to be there for his child.

  So whether Lucy liked it or not, he would be.

  Eleven

  Sitting at Alice’s desk, Lucy picked up the sonogram photo again, staring at the fuzzy black-and-gray image and wondering why the Fates got so much amusement by messing with her life. This tiny photo, these blurry little blobs, no bigger than a sesame seed, were about to change her life forever.

  Twins, the doctor said. Not just pregnant. Pregnant with twins. She’d laughed hysterically as she looked at the two fat little circles side by side on the monitor. It was that or cry until she ran out of tears. Fraternal twins. Because a single baby wouldn’t be enough of a challenge for her to raise on her own.

  The doctor was concerned by her response, not entirely sure if she was happy or sad or freaking out. Honestly, it was a combi
nation of all three spinning in her head so fast she could hardly keep up. It was early in the pregnancy, he’d warned. Things could change. One or both could fail. Both could last to term. Be in “wait and see” mode, he’d said. Perhaps wait until her twelve-week ultrasound to confirm the twins before announcing it to everyone.

  That wouldn’t be a problem. Lucy doubted she could say the words aloud. She’d hardly known what to say to him and the nurse anxiously watching her in the exam room. All she could do was lay there in her crinkly paper dress and watch her world start to crumble around her.

  Putting the picture aside, Lucy focused on sorting through the apartment brochures she’d brought home from Yale. It was hard to believe how much her life had changed since she’d gotten on a train and toured that first apartment with Harper. Now, she was not just going back to college, she was doing it while pregnant. Hugely pregnant. She was having twins by herself. And even that was hard to focus on while she was also completely heartsick.

  Somehow, the idea of Oliver thinking she was scamming his aunt hadn’t hurt her that much. He didn’t really know her, and given his past experience with his stepmother, she understood his suspicions. It was a lot of money to give someone who wasn’t family. If she had been in his shoes, she might’ve had the same concerns, even if she didn’t need a penny of Alice’s money.

  But when he accused her of getting pregnant on purpose—to hedge her bets, so to speak—that stung.

  She wasn’t just some woman he hardly knew anymore. How many hours had they spent together over the last month? How many times had they made love and held each other? Enough to know she wouldn’t do something like that.

  And yet there wasn’t a single moment, a flicker of expression across his face at that restaurant, where the news of her pregnancy stirred anything but anger in him. He’d probably think that her having twins would be karmic retribution for her scheming.

  Lucy looked down at the apartment brochure for the place she’d liked the best. The price for the two-bedroom was pretty steep. Add tuition and books, furniture, baby everything times two...she wasn’t even certain she could afford it all. Not on what she had saved, and that was all she could count on getting. Oliver certainly wasn’t going to back down on his protest of the will. The news of her “deliberately trapping” him with a pregnancy would likely hurt her case, so odds were she wouldn’t see a dime of Alice’s estate.

  In truth, that was fine by her. That was more money than she could fathom, much less handle properly. She was much better at barely getting by. Her mother had taught her well. But getting by with babies meant a job with medical insurance for all of them. Day care expenses times two. Diapers times two. Chaos times two. She’d always admired her mother’s ability to make it work, but could she do the same?

  She let the brochure fall from her fingers down to the desk as tears began to well in her eyes. Could she even do this? Was going back to school a pipe dream now? Was it smarter to put her savings into a place to live and things for the babies instead? Hell, maybe she needed to spend it on a plane ticket back home to Ohio. At least there, she would have her mother to help her with the twins. And she wouldn’t run the risk of seeing Oliver again.

  “Yes, this was absolutely deliberate, you ass,” she said aloud to Alice’s large, empty office. “I ruined all of my plans of going back to school and building my future so I could trap you with a child. Because that’s the best way to keep a man you love in your life forever. But you get the last laugh, don’t you? Twins!”

  Lucy dropped her face into her hands and let the tears fall in earnest. She hadn’t really let herself cry yet. It had been almost a week since the trip to New Haven and her breakup with Oliver, but she hadn’t really let herself wallow in it. It seemed like a misuse of valuable time. Instead, she’d tried to keep herself busy with other things. After her earth-shattering doctor’s appointment, she spent hours in different stores, studying everything from prenatal vitamins and stretch-panel jeans to onesies and twin strollers.

  It was a tough realization to find she was completely unprepared for any of this. Before Oliver came around, she’d almost forgotten she had a uterus, much less spent time anticipating it to have not just one but two nine-month occupants. Kids were a far-off idea. One that came after love and marriage and the decision that it was time to start a family with someone she could count on.

  At least she’d found the love part. Lucy did love Oliver. He didn’t love or trust her one iota, but she had done her part and fallen for him. She knew now why they called it falling in love. It had been that easy, like tripping and smacking her face against the rough, hard sidewalk. Like a fall, she wasn’t expecting it, but all of a sudden there she was, in love with Oliver. She could only hope that falling out of love with him was just as easy.

  Easing back in the desk chair and resting her hand on her flat tummy, she knew that wouldn’t be the case. Getting over him would be hard. Especially with two tiny, blue-eyed reminders of him staring at her from their cribs each morning.

  It was easier than she expected to picture two wide-eyed toddlers standing in their crib in matching footie pajamas. Wild brown curls. Devious smiles. Pink cheeks. One sucking his thumb with a furrowed brow of concern while his sister clutched her favorite stuffed bunny and tried climbing over the side. In her mind, they looked like tiny clones of Oliver, although the boy had her freckles across his nose.

  It was just a daydream, not a reality, but it made Lucy’s heart ache. Life didn’t always go to plan, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t come up with a new plan. She needed to find a way to be happy about this, no matter what happened with Oliver or the will or with school. Things would work out and she had to keep that in mind. One of the pregnancy books she’d picked up had mentioned how her emotions could impact the babies. She didn’t want that. No matter what happened, they would be just as loved and cared for as if they’d been planned.

  A ring of the apartment’s phone pulled her out of her thoughts. No one really called that line except for the doorman, so Lucy reached out and picked it up off the desk. “Hello?”

  “Good morning, Miss Campbell. I have a large delivery for you.”

  Lucy frowned. A large delivery? She hadn’t bought anything. “Are you sure it’s for me? Where is it from?” she asked.

  “I’m sure. It’s from the Museum of Modern Art. It’s another painting for the collection, ma’am.”

  The staff at the building was used to priceless paintings and sculptures being delivered to Alice’s apartment. Every few months, something would catch her eye on an auction website and a new piece would arrive. The difference this time being that Alice was deceased and Lucy hadn’t bought any art. There had to be a mistake.

  “Send them up,” she said. She wouldn’t know for sure until she saw what it was. Perhaps Alice had a piece on loan to MoMA that Lucy had forgotten about and was being returned.

  About ten minutes later, two men came out of the freight elevator with a painting in a wooden crate. Lucy stood holding the service entrance door open as they brought it inside. “Where would you like it?” the older of the two men asked.

  “The gallery,” she said. That’s where most of the paintings went, so it was a knee-jerk response. “I’d like to see what’s inside before you leave, however. I didn’t buy anything. This may be a mistake and if so, I’ll want you to take it back with you.”

  After they set down the box, the second man pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “You’re Miss Lucille Campbell, right?”

  “That’s me,” she replied, even more confused. If it was a piece on loan, it would’ve had Alice’s name on it, not hers.

  “Then this is for you.”

  The older man pulled out a crowbar to pry open the side and expose the painting. They carefully pulled it out of the straw and paper bedding that protected it and held it up for Lucy to inspect.

  She remember
ed the painting now. It was one of the items available at the silent auction. The painting of the New York skyline made entirely out of hearts. She’d loved it, but she hadn’t bought it.

  In an instant, that whole amazing night came flooding back to mind. Touring the museum with Oliver, leaving early after getting overheated, making love—and conceiving the twins—on the rooftop garden. There was only one painful answer to where this had come from—Oliver bought it for her that night before they left and it was just now arriving.

  The timing was agonizing.

  “You can leave it there,” she said, indicating the wall where it was leaning.

  The men nodded, gathered up the box and packing materials and made their way back out the door. Lucy watched them leave, then stood looking puzzled at the painting in front of her.

  What was she supposed to do with it?

  Part of her wanted to set it on fire, just to spite him. She didn’t need a reminder of that night hanging on the wall, taunting her about everything she’d lost. But destroying it was an insult to the artist and the painting. It didn’t have anything to do with the situation with Oliver, and she loved art too much to consider it for long. Besides, she wasn’t sure how much he’d paid for it, but since she’d turned down child support in her anger, she might need to sell the piece to support the twins. Unlike everything else in the apartment, that belonged only to her. His romantic gesture come too late.

  The thought made her knees quiver beneath her. Better safe than sorry, she lowered herself down to the cold, marble floor of the gallery. There, she had a better view of the painting. She really did love it. Under any other circumstances, she’d be thrilled to own it. It was just a painful reminder of Oliver that she didn’t need.

  Staring at it for a moment, she reached out and ran her finger along the edge of the painting. Lucy knew then that she would keep it. If nothing else, it might be the only thing the twins would have from their father.