“Katie honey, you are the greatest blessing of my life. Did you know that? You are. I love you more than everything. Thank you so much. You’re such a good daughter. I appreciate all that you do. It means a great deal.” Theresa was smiling through her tears and Kate could hear it. It made them both feel so much better.
“I love you too, Mama. More than everything,” she answered with a small smile growing on her face. “I’ll talk with you again soon. You take care and get some good rest tonight.”
“I will baby, I love you, too,” Theresa replied tenderly. They said their goodbyes and Kate set the phone down on the table and sighed, her eyes going to the stack of bills that she wasn’t able to pay in full.
There was nothing big on the horizon. There was no light at the end of her tunnel. Her mother needed her help and she needed to dig herself out of the financial black hole that was swallowing her whole. She felt helpless, as if there was nothing in the world that could fix it or become her saving grace.
Then in the stillness of the night, as she sat at the table in her darkest hour, her best friend’s words came back to her like a quiet echo in the back of her mind. Her friend had made fifty thousand dollars doing a surrogacy program. Fifty thousand dollars.
Kate thought to herself that if she had fifty thousand dollars, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about at all. Her mother would have nothing to worry about. Her mother could get the medical care that she needed and not hurt anymore, and she could get her student loans paid off and maybe not even have to work anymore while she was finishing up her education. The thought of being able to help her mom and of having no debt, as well as having the time to really focus on her studies without having to work had begun to appeal to her tremendously.
The concept took hold in her mind. Nine months would go by so fast. Nine months was nothing at all. The older she got, the more she realized that. She would be able to help someone else have a baby that they couldn’t otherwise have. It would be easy. It would be the answer to all of her problems if she could be accepted for a surrogacy program.
She went to her laptop and opened up the monitor, feeling her heart pick up speed as the screen began to glow. She searched for surrogacy clinics in Manhattan and found one that seemed to stand out above the others as the best possible option. She made an appointment online, telling herself that she should at least give it a chance. She had to be able to do something to help her mother, and as crazy as it sounded, surrogacy might be it.
Chapter3
Kate was leaving her last class of the day when her phone began to vibrate. She pulled it from her bag and saw an unfamiliar number on the screen. The number flashed in her mind and the familiarity of it suddenly clicked.
Swiping her finger over the screen, she answered it excitedly, her heart racing as she grew breathless. “Is this the fertility clinic? For the surrogacy program?” She didn’t even wait for the formalities at the beginning of the call. Since she’d sent in her appointment request and gone to see them, she had barely been able to think of anything else.
“Yes! It is!” the woman at the other end of the phone laughed, surprised at the greeting she had gotten upon the call being answered.
“Well, I’ve been hoping to hear from you! Is there some news?” Kate asked, her heart moving up into her throat.
“Yes, actually. We have a client who is interested in working with you as their surrogate. We’d like you to come in for a meeting with them as soon as you can,” the woman told her brightly.
“How about tomorrow morning?” Kate asked with shallow breath, hoping with everything in her that it would work out. She felt as if she was at the precipice of possibility, and she wanted to feel excited about it, but she didn’t want to set herself up for failure either and be disappointed.
“Tomorrow morning will work. If you could be here at nine, we’ll get the meeting set up for you,” she offered.
Kate stopped right where she was and blinked. The next morning. It was fast. She told herself that she was ready. She told herself that it wasn’t a bad decision and that she needed the money. She had to make it work.
“That’s perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow at nine.” She thanked the woman and said goodbye, hanging up the phone and drawing in a shaky breath. It was happening. She was going to meet with a prospective parent, and if all went well, she would be carrying a child in the very near future, and making enough money that she wouldn’t have to worry about money for a long while. The thought was like a blast all over her, releasing shackles of worry and anxiety from her mind and heart, and relief and hope flooded all through her.
“Please let it happen,” she whispered as she began walking to her car again.
Her nerves were in a tangle from the moment she ended the phone call, all the way through the afternoon and evening, giving her restless sleep, and as she readied herself early the next morning. It would be the most significant thing she had ever done in her life. The biggest step toward what would hopefully be a much brighter future. She was deeply hopeful that it would turn out for the best.
Kate didn’t bother to tell anyone that she had done it. She didn’t want to share her risky move with anyone before she knew if it would happen. There was no reason to alarm anyone or to put herself in a position to have to answer questions like what in the heck was she doing anyway and was she out of her mind. Even Olivia, who had given her the idea in the first place, was in the dark. She wanted to be certain of it all before she said a word.
So quietly, bravely, she went on her own to the clinic to meet the people who may be hiring her to give them a family. She dressed in her best; donning a tea length dress with a full skirt and a V neck, with three quarter sleeves. She wore heels and pulled her long blonde curls up at the back of her head into a loose bun so that the curls cascaded downward somewhat. She checked herself once in the mirror before she walked out of the door.
Her makeup was perfect. There was a thin gold necklace around her slender neck, and her heels matched her dress. She looked as if she might have stepped out of a magazine. She drew in a deep breath and stared at the reflection of her green eyes, wide with all of the emotion that was coursing through her.
“This is it,” she whispered to herself, hoping to sound more courageous than she felt. She could not believe she was doing it, when she walked into the clinic, but she knew she had to try.
Kate was taken to a quiet meeting room with a round table situated at one side of it, and a small counter with a sink and coffee pot set up adjacent to it. There were some windows overlooking a park across the street.
Standing near the table was a tall lean man, muscular and trim, wearing a dark blue suit. His hands were in his pockets and he had a passively stoic expression on his face. His blonde hair was perfectly combed over to one side, his face cleanly shaven. He could have been a model for a men’s fashion ad, standing there with elegant patience.
She turned and looked around her and saw that there was no one in the room, and the receptionist who had led her to the meeting room had just left and closed the door behind her. They were alone, Kate and the blonde man. There was no one else with them in the room.
“Oh… I’m sorry, I thought I was meeting a couple. I wonder if I was brought to the wrong room…” she trailed off, confused as to why it was just the two of them in the room.
He shook his head and turned fully to her, extending his hand to her. “No, you’re in the right room. I’m Pierce Carrington,” he said, taking her hand in his when she offered it.
“I… I am?” she asked in surprise. Then she gave her head a shake and smiled at him. “I’m Kate. Kate Wilder.” She wasn’t sure who he was or why she was meeting with him instead of a couple, but she wasn’t going to ask that right away. She was sure that the answers would come.
“Your name sounds familiar to me…” she trailed off again, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully. “Have we met before somewhere?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think we have
. It might sound familiar because it’s a well-known name in the city. My family does a lot of business in Manhattan. Law firms, corporations, and other things.” He gave her a little smile, and an almost expectant look, as if telling her that might confirm in her mind who he was.
It didn’t. She smiled and gave him a little shrug. “I guess I don’t recall hearing about it anywhere, but it does sound familiar.” She took a deep breath. “So, I guess I’m meeting with you today?” she asked, raising her brows as she smiled.
“You are. I’ve spent some time reviewing the list of possible surrogate mothers associated with this clinic, and I think you’re the right one for me.” He stepped toward her and pulled a chair out from the table near them, offering her the seat. “Shall we sit and talk about it?”
Kate nodded and moved to sit with him. He held his hand out to the coffee pot on the counter. “Would you like some coffee?”
She shook her head. Her nerves were already dancing on edge. The last thing she needed to do to them was caffeinate them. “No, thank you, none for me.”
He gave her a nod and poured himself a cup before sitting down. She was astounded as she looked over at him, watching him. He was gorgeous and if she was going to make an easy guess by his demeanor, clothing, and mannerisms, she would bet that he was pretty well off. Especially if he was considering hiring a surrogate for fifty thousand dollars, or whatever the going rate was for her service to him. She wondered why he would be looking for anyone to have a child for him.
Pierce sat down with her and gave her a friendly smile. “The pictures in your file here don’t do you any justice at all. You’re quite a beautiful woman.”
She blinked in surprise. “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say to him, but she didn’t have to wait to hear what he was thinking.
“You were expecting to meet with a couple. I shall explain why it’s just me. I’m a single man. I have no one in my life in a partnership capacity. The reason behind that is because I am a businessman and I am extraordinarily busy with the work that I do and with my family; that is, my father and my siblings. I haven’t taken the time to find the right woman and settle down, but I’ve become concerned that too much time might have passed for me to do that in the near future, and it is of great importance to me that I have my own family. I want children. I want someone to leave my legacy to, and right now the only realistic and viable possibility of that happening is if I hire a surrogate mother to have a child for me.” He kept his eyes on hers as he spoke, making sure that she understood his plight and what it was that he was hoping to accomplish with her.
“Well that makes a lot of sense, actually,” she said as the pieces of his puzzle fell into place in her mind. She realized then that there must be many different situations and circumstances that would call for a single person to want to have a family. The only other possibility that she had thought of was that he might be gay and looking for someone to give him a child, but then there was no partner with him, and because of that, she’d let that supposition go. When he explained the circumstance, it made perfect sense to her.
“Good!” His smile broadened some.
She frowned slightly. “Would you be raising the child on your own, then?” The thought of a busy businessman who intended to raise an infant on his own was not at all appealing to her. Images of a lonely child flashed through her mind.
He saw her concern and was swift to allay her fears. “No, not at all. I live most of the time with my father and my two brothers and a sister, in our family home. It’s quite large. There is most assuredly a familial atmosphere there. Also, I’d be hiring a live-in nanny to help raise the child. It would have a loving and doting family around it to grow up with.”
Kate felt a little sigh of relief escape her. “Well that’s good. It looks like you have given this quite a bit of thought.”
“I have,” he stated seriously. “In fact, not only have I given it quite a bit of thought, I’ve done a good deal of research on most of the possible surrogate mothers here. You’re the right fit for my requirements. You have the biological makeup that would be best suited as a match for mine, your medical history is good, and even though as I understand it, your mother has some health concerns, none of them are hereditary, and everything else in your medical history is quite good. You’re an intelligent woman, and you’re attractive. All of those qualities are what I would hope for in my child. You are the best possible choice at this facility, and there is no better facility in the state. You are who I would like to be the surrogate mother for my child.”
She smiled at him and gave him a nod. “Thank you, I guess you have done your research.” She felt her heart rate pick up as the reality of the situation unfolded in her mind. It was happening. It was really happening, and with any luck, it would be just what she so desperately needed. “I think we would be a good match, and I would be glad to do this for you.” She said it. She was going to do it.
Pierce looked away from her for a moment and when he raised his eyes to her again, she saw uncertainty in them and it made everything in her stop short.
“There is a bit more to discuss,” he began, sounding as if his hesitance was holding back an ocean of information that she could not conceive. “This would not be a traditional surrogacy situation. Because of my own personal preferences, I would want to do this my way, and that would be quite different from the way that the clinic does their program.”
A knot formed in Kate’s stomach. His clear blue eyes were serious and she wondered what it was that might make him want to take a different road. “I’m listening,” she said, as panic began to eat away at the edge of her happiness. She felt the tinge of fear that her saving grace might slip away from her, and images of her mother appeared in her mind and anchored themselves there. She couldn’t let it slip away. She had to find a way to take the chance and get the job and make it work, no matter how unconventional he might want to make it.
He cleared his throat softly. “Traditionally, I would contribute my physiological part to the clinic and you would undergo an invitro fertilization procedure, and I would not see you until it was time to go to the hospital for the birth, and perhaps not even then. I would arrive at the hospital and take the baby home with me, and that would be the end of it and we’d be done.” He shook his head and pursed his lips together. “That just seems so cold to me. It’s not how I want this to happen at all. I may not have had time to cultivate and sustain a relationship with a partner, but I would absolutely not want to miss out on any part of the pregnancy, including the creation of my child in a traditional manner. We are talking about the conception and gestation of my first offspring. My baby. I want to be part of every aspect of it, from the moment the spark of life is created and in every moment past that. Just because I don’t happen to have a wife doesn’t mean that a cold and clinical pregnancy is the right way for me to bring a child into this world. I will not do that; not for my child. Instead, I propose a distinctly personal option. I would provide a home for you during the duration of your service to me. I have a penthouse condo overlooking Central Park on Fifth Avenue, and I would want you to move into it and live in it on your own for the entire duration of the pregnancy, to the birth of the child. I would want to ensure your safety, your comfort, and your health. Having you live there will give me peace of mind that you could want for nothing.”
He took a breath and continued, as Kate’s big green eyes stayed locked on him in amazement. “I would hire a service for you; a small team of people who would clean for you, cook for you, drive you anywhere you wanted to go, do all of your errands for you; in short, see to your every need, so that you could remain comfortable and not feel any stress at all during the pregnancy. Stress on an unborn child isn’t healthy. In addition to providing you with every necessity, I would also provide for all of your medical care and needs, and you would have a medical team of the best doctors and nurses in the city to see to your care all the way through the gestation. The biggest dif
ference between creating this child’s life the clinical way that this facility would do, and the traditional way that I would prefer, is that I would come to the condo to make conjugal visits until you are pregnant. You and I would initiate an intimate relation to conceive the baby together ourselves, and then when you become pregnant, we would cease that relation and focus on the pregnancy. There would be no romantic nuance to it; it’s solely business. The vital thing is that I want to be personally involved in every aspect of this baby’s life. I don’t want to miss any part of it, and I don’t want this child created in what is essentially a laboratory. It means everything to me. It needs to be personal, right from the beginning.”
He could see that she was totally shocked at his request, but he had more to say to her, and she was still listening. “Now, as I understand that this is quite a substantial difference from the way that you probably assumed that we would be doing this, I intend to compensate you handsomely for it. The payment for your service in full upon the birth of the baby would be five hundred thousand dollars.”
She gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. He continued.
The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (MANHATTAN BACHELORS Book 4) Page 4