“You know how you thought you were just going to have one?”
Holy shit.
“Twins?” I gasped. “I'm going to have twins? Oh my God…”
“Not quite,” she said. “Here, look.”
She turned the screen so that I could better see it.
“That's one right there,” she said, pointing to one of the shifting gray blobs on the screen. “And that's another.”
“So, it's twins?” I said, my voice rising in pitch.
“…And that's another.”
I felt like time stopped. I could feel my heart thud in my chest as the nurse's voice became blurry and faraway-sounding, as though she were underwater.
“Did…did you say ‘another'?”
“That's right,” said the nurse. “You're pregnant with triplets!”
It was about the single most insane thing I could think of. Not just twins, but triplets? For a moment, I was certain that I having some kind of prank played on me, like the doctor at any moment was going to leap out from behind the curtain with the real ultrasound image.
“This is for real?”
“This is as real as it gets,” said the nurse.
“I…um, how did this happen?” I asked, my eyes locked onto the screen.
“Just luck of the draw, sweetie. Triplets are rare, but they happen! Do you want to know the sexes?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I think this is all the news I can take in one day.”
The nurse chuckled lightly.
“And don't worry about any complications with the birth. We can do a C-section and get them out with no problems. It's even a little easier this way, since we can schedule the birth. Oh! And congratulations!”
I finished up at the doctor's office and stood in the parking lot for a time, unsure of what to do next. I knew I had to tell Rhys, but how?
I paced back and forth in the parking lot for a time, summoning up the nerve to pick up the phone. It was all so overwhelming; in some ways, I'd thought I'd gotten the hard part over with when I’d told him that I was pregnant. And now, here I was, having to drop another bombshell.
Finally, taking a deep breath, I pulled out my phone and dialed him up.
“Yes?” he asked, his tone professional, as though I were a telemarketer and not the mother of his child. Well, children.
“Hey, it's me,” I said.
“What going on?”
“I just finished up at the doctor's…and, um…”
“What is it?”
“I…think this might be a conversation that would be better to have in person.”
“Is it the baby? Is everything okay?”
There was genuine concern in his voice. It was strange to me to hear him finally react to the situation as anything other than a problem that he needed to deal with. It felt…good to hear that he actually had some emotional investment in this situation.
“The…baby's fine,” I said. “But…like I said, we need to talk in person. Are you available?”
“I've got an investor over at the moment, but they should be leaving shortly. Just head over now and we can talk about whatever this is that's going on.”
“Okay, will do.”
With that, he hung up. I fished through my purse for my keys, but before I could start towards my car, a voice called out.
“Ms. May!”
I turned and saw that it was one of the nurses from the doctor's. He came towards me with lively steps, a small folder tucked under his arm.
“So glad I caught you,” he said. “You almost left without these.”
He handed the folder over and I opened it up. Inside were several printouts of the ultrasounds, one of them with the individual shapes of the three babies highlighted.
“Just a little memento,” he said. “Not that I think you'll have any trouble remembering today.”
The nurse headed off, and I stood in the parking lot for a time. I flipped through the pictures one after the other, my heart filling with a joy that I'd never before known, but also with trepidation for the future…and my very near-future conversation with the father of my triplets.
Chapter 19
Rhys
Shutting the door after my last dinner guest left, I began to pace slowly across the living room of my apartment. I had no idea what to expect from Cassidy's big news. At first, I’d been worried there might be something wrong with the baby, but she’d been quick to dispel that notion.
What else could it be?
I headed over to the bottle of wine that I'd opened and poured myself another glass, eager for Cassidy to hurry up and get there.
The evening air was cool and fresh as I stepped out onto the balcony. The city was aglow with evening lights, and the sky was still and dark. The troubles stirring within me were a sharp contrast to the calm cityscape spread out ahead. The words of my parents repeated over and over again, and deep down, I knew that they were right. If anything, the lies I'd been living were simply becoming too much to keep straight.
But coming clean…it was an overwhelming option, not to mention a potentially messy one. I supposed that I could simply tell Nina that this little ruse of ours was over, but that would carry its own costs. And if people found out that I'd gotten an employee pregnant, it would be the scandal of the year. Especially if the gossip rags started putting together the timeline and finding out that Cassidy's conception date was around the time I'd begun to “date” Nina.
It would be a mess all around, no two ways about it.
A low chime sounded through the apartment, alerting me to someone calling from the lobby. Cassidy. I headed inside and pressed the button next to the elevator to allow access.
Moments later, the doors opened. Cassidy stood in the elevator, a hesitant expression on her face. Despite her casual clothes, I couldn't help but be struck by just how beautiful she was.
I realized with a jolt, in that moment, that I had real, true feelings for her.
As if I needed another complication.
“Come on in.”
She stepped into the apartment and as she passed, I noticed that she had a small folder tucked under her arm.
“Something to drink?” I asked, remembering as soon as the words left my mouth that she couldn't have anything alcoholic.
“Just some coffee. If you have decaf?” she said, her voice small.
“Of course.”
I stepped into the kitchen to pour her a cup, her strange, faraway expression weighing heavily on my mind. What could be going on that would cause her to act like this?
“Here you are,” I said, setting a mug in front of where she sat, a couple of cubes of sugar and a small pitcher of milk on the saucer along with the decaf coffee.
She plunked one of the cubes into the mug and stared down into the drink.
“Listen,” I said. “You know that I'm trying to do right by you. Whatever it is, you need to tell me so we can figure out how to work through all of this.”
“I know,” she said. “It's just that this situation just gotten a lot more complicated.”
With that, she took the folder from where it lay next to her on the couch and set it on the coffee table in front of me. I eagerly picked it up and opened the brass prongs, my fingers darting into the folder and pulling out the photos within. I flipped through them, trying to figure out just what I was looking at.
“Just looks like static-y blobs to me.”
“Keep going.”
Finally, I reached the last of the set. This one was mostly the same as the others, but with one difference: three separate areas had been outlined. I looked at them closely, trying to figure out what they meant. Then, I spotted a hand. Then another. Then another.
And it hit me.
“This means…”
“That's right,” said Cassidy. “Triplets.”
“Holy shit.”
Cassidy glanced at me, a small smile spreading across her lips.
“What?” I asked.
&nbs
p; “I don't know,” she said. “I just don't think I've ever heard you swear like that before. I think I've found the one way to get past Rhys Cole's famous cool.”
“I don't think there are many men on the planet who would be able to stay calm after being told they were going to be the father of triplets.”
I sat back in my seat, letting the news settle in my mind.
“Three children,” I said, shaking my head. “Do you…do you know the sexes?”
“No,” she said. “I told the nurse this was all the big news I could take in one day.”
“Good call,” I said. “Have any preferences?”
“Nope,” she said. “I figured they're gonna be a handful, no matter what the gender ratio ends up being.”
I drummed my fingers on the coffee table for a moment before speaking, my eyes latching onto the ultrasound pictures.
“If…this is a matter of money, you know that I'm more than willing to help. One child, three children, ten children—it's all the same to me. I can pay for everything, increase your monthly stipend…whatever funds you need.”
Her expression turned hard.
“I know it's all the same to you,” she said. “It's all one big problem that you just need to throw the right amount of money at.”
“But…what more could you want?” I asked, incredulous. “I'm going to be covering every expense; you and the child—children—will never want for anything.”
Cassidy practically jumped out of her seat.
“Don't you get it?” she shot out. “This isn't a matter of just wanting more money out of you. This is a matter of giving this problem the attention it deserves.”
“Isn't that what I'm doing by paying you?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“I know you're a billionaire,” she said, her tone turning cold, “but there are some problems that you can't just sweep under the rug. I'm not just some secretary that you banged and you're paying off so I don't blab to the press; I'm the mother of your children. And you're just standing there, thinking all you need to do is add a couple more zeros onto a check and everything will be hunky-fuckin-dory.”
I took a deep breath and looked away as I stood up. I knew I needed to choose my words carefully.
“You know how complicated this situation is,” I began. “You know that there are many, many factors at play here.”
“Yeah, like your relationship with Nina.”
I remembered that she didn't know the truth about all that. As far as she knew, my relationship was genuine.
“The thing about my…relationship with Nina…” I said.
She crinkled her nose in a way that I couldn't help but find adorable, despite everything.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“It's a sham.”
“A what?”
“It's all…ah, a publicity stunt.”
The words tumbled out of my mouth and I prepared for the worst.
Cassidy spoke quietly.
“But why?”
“Well, I figured that a little bit of controversy, a little something for the gossip rags to chew on, would be just the thing to keep our collaborative line in the news. And with the cruelty-free line that we've been working on getting into the final phases, I knew it would boost sales for that, too.”
“Are you serious?” she asked, her hands on her hips. “You've been keeping all of this from me?”
“I figured that our issue and my situation with Nina were two separate matters.”
“You honestly thought that you could just compartmentalize everything,” she said, her tone one of utter disgust and disbelief. “Let's see, I'll just schedule in a little time for my fake relationship here on Monday afternoon, then I can squeeze in paying off my baby-mama here, and then I'll be in bed and up in time for morning kickboxing.”
“Are you done?”
“This is ridiculous. You're ridiculous.”
I formed my mouth into a flat line and said nothing. I knew I deserved this.
“Never in my life did I ever think that the father of my first child would be a lying asshole who paid me money to keep a secret like this. And while he went off and lied to another woman after that! Why did you think any of this was a good idea?”
I took a moment to think over her question.
“I suppose that I didn't imagine it going any other way than how I intended. I figured Nina and I would have a quick fake thing, then all would go back to normal. I suppose the one factor I didn't count on was…you.”
“What, you didn't count on knocking up some employee?”
“I don't know what I didn't expect.”
Cassie stared at me hard, the expression on her face making it clear that the next words out of my mouth had better be good ones.
But I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to make things right. The big date that Nina and I had planned was tomorrow, and now here I was, dealing with feelings that I couldn't even begin to understand.
“I swear to you, I'll make things right.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I could only hope that she believed me.
Chapter 20
Cassidy
I couldn't even begin to describe how angry I was. I'd come over here with the biggest news of my life and there Rhys stood, acting like all it would take was a swirl of his pen over his checkbook and things would be back in nice, neat order.
And the news about Nina was almost too much. He had one lie going with me, and another with a different woman!
“I don't know what else you want me to say,” he said after a long silence.
I was on the verge of tears. Between the pregnancy hormones and everything else, I was a mess.
“Look at you!” I shouted. “You're acting like this is all some situation that's completely out of your control!”
“It is!”
“No, it's not. What happened to the unflappable Rhys Cole that I met? Hmm? The one who didn't give a damn about what the press had to say; the one who cared about the work and nothing else? And now, here you are, worried about what might happen if the press finds out that you've faked your relationship with Nina, and that you're about to become a father.”
I didn't know where the words were coming from. I don't know if it was the hormones giving me superpowers or what, but I was being more assertive than I'd ever been in my life. And, judging by the expression on Rhys's face, it was clear that it had been a long time since anyone had talked to him like this.
“Go on,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
At his words, it occurred to me at that moment that I wasn't the only one with a spine in this fight.
And so, I did.
“You've turned your back on who you are for nothing more than a little boost to the bottom line,” I said, my voice icy cool. “And now that your back's against the wall, all you can do is try to figure out how to weasel your way out of doing the right thing. And it's not like the right thing is even hard to figure out! You just want it both ways.”
He slowly walked towards me, the full force of his CEO authority blasting onto me like a superheated laser beam. Part of me wanted to back down, to say that I'd gotten out of line, that I was sorry.
But another part of me, a new part of me, wanted to keep going.
“I think there's something you want to say,” said Rhys, now only a foot away from me, his gaze hard and a little frightening. “So, go ahead—say it.”
I gulped. Sure enough, there was a word on the tip of my tongue that I couldn't bring myself to say.
“Go on. I dare you.”
“Coward.”
He let out a little snort.
“Good one. Let's hear another.”
He took one more step towards me.
“Asshole.”
He was so close to me that I could hardly stand it. The tension between us crackled like electricity. Between his nearness and the fire from the argument, my heart thudded in my chest like a war drum. Rhys loomed over me, staring at me hard
with those angelic blue eyes, now narrowed into cutting slivers.
“One more time,” he said.
I opened my mouth, took a deep breath, and let it out.
“You're a real piece of—”
And that was as far as I got. Rhys's mouth moved towards mine and locked onto my lips, hard.
I was frozen in place, stunned. What kind of audacity was this? Who did he think he was just to kiss me like that? After what he'd done, after the fight that we'd had?
Regaining my senses for a brief moment, I clamped my hands down on his shoulders and pushed him back.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I shouted.
But he said nothing, instead flashing me a sly little grin that made it clear that he knew what I really wanted, deep down. And he was right. As indignant as I was being, as mad as I might've been at him, that kiss was just what I needed. But I wasn't about to let him have the satisfaction of me saying it out loud.
Rhys closed the distance between us once again, the sensation of the heat from his body returning to my skin. He leaned in close, the smell of his hair rushing up to my nose. I closed my eyes and let my head tilt back as he moved in towards my neck, kissing it lightly.
What little bit of protestation I had in me vanished at the feeling of his lips on my skin. He moved up, along the curve of my neck, then along my jaw, a sigh escaping my lips as he did. Sensing that I was disarmed, he pulled back and glared at me sensually once again. I was frozen, helpless in front of him as he started heatedly at me with those piercing eyes, a strand of his blond hair loose and hanging in front of one of them.
I was there for the taking, and he knew it.
Rhys locked his lips onto mine once more, and that was it. I fell into the kiss in spite of my anger and frustration. Hell, maybe because of my anger and frustration. The tension boiling between us moved into the passion of our kiss, and soon, I was kissing him back, my hands moving through his hair as I pressed his head against mine.
We moved backward, nearly bumping into the coffee table as we clambered towards the couch. Once we reached it, we collapsed onto one another, our lips not breaking apart even for a moment.
Accidental Triplets - A Secret Babies for the Billionaire Romance (San Bravado Billionaires' Club Book 4) Page 11