by Holly Rayner
She made quick work of packing her bag before stepping back into the hallway. A naïve part of her hoped once more that she might see Kadeen down the hall one more time. Perhaps he would come after her and apologize.
Unsurprisingly, that didn’t happen.
When Nicole reached the lobby, there was a limo waiting for her out front. She hesitated for a second before getting in, feeling like she’d sold her principles for the sake of a night of passion with a man she should have known better than to get involved with. Realizing she had no other way to get to the airport, she slid in and closed the door. The limo’s cabin felt empty as she was driven back to the private airport.
How? How had she allowed herself to get seduced by a known womanizer? Nicole berated herself the whole way there, allowing just a few tears to escape before wiping them away and forcing herself to be strong.
The limo pulled up on the runway, where the pilot was standing in front of Kadeen’s private jet, waiting for her to come aboard. When she stepped out of the car, the pilot nodded to her and took her bag from the limo driver.
“Never a dull moment, eh miss? The boss says I’m to take you back to New York for another urgent matter. You must be quite the conservationist!”
“Yeah,” Nicole murmured, trying to return his smile and failing.
The pilot’s cheerful attitude faltered just slightly at her wan expression, but he seemed to chalk it up to jetlag and nodded to her before heading toward the cockpit. The plane’s engine roared to life, and Nicole watched Al Qazar grow smaller and smaller as they took off into the sky above.
How had such a beautiful country managed to capture her heart, just to break it within a day?
And, more importantly, what was she going to do when Kadeen returned to New York, and she had to see him again?
Chapter 11
Nicole
Nicole stepped back, taking another look at the painting she had been working on.
She was halfway through the restoration of Portrait of a Princess. A few weeks prior, not long after she had returned to New York to finish the piece that Imogen had called about (which was in no way a rush job, she later found out when she called the owner to apologize for the delay), Kadeen had returned with his prized painting and had had Imogen bring it into the studio.
Beside a few awkward encounters in the hallway, Kadeen had barely spoken to Nicole since their return from Al Qazar, and he had been spending decidedly more time outside of the office since their little excursion, which was, of course, never, ever mentioned. Imogen seemed to sense that something was up, but given that all conversation between Nicole and Kadeen was now very tense and limited, her spirits had brightened considerably.
Nicole sighed for the millionth time as she stared into the Sheikha’s eyes, which she had brightened to the point that they nearly glittered as they were meant to.
“Did something like this ever happen to you?” she asked the painting.
Unsurprisingly, the Sheikha made no reply. Nicole carried on with the conversation anyway.
“You’re quite beautiful, you know,” she sighed, arching her back and stretching her aching muscles. “It’s just unfortunate that all you remind me of is him.”
Nicole had gone over the trip to Al Qazar in her mind perhaps a hundred times since returning. She had tried to look for signs that she was being duped, seduced, or otherwise deceived, and had eventually come to the conclusion that Kadeen was a master manipulator, and it wouldn’t have mattered how he behaved. He knew exactly how to weasel his way into a woman’s heart, and she had simply been a fool to believe that she could possibly be the exception to the rule.
Nicole took off her glasses and headed over to her computer, opening up her email to check for any responses to her queries. Not long after returning from Al Qazar, she’d realized that working for Kadeen, after everything that had happened, would be too much for her to handle, and she’d written to a competing firm she had applied to many months before.
There was an email from the hiring manager sitting in her inbox, and she clicked on it, reading carefully.
Dear Miss Hawthorn,
We are appreciative of your email and happy that you would consider us. However, I regret to inform you that we are no longer seeking conservators at this time. We wish you the best of luck in your search for employment, and hope you find a good fit for your considerable skills very soon.
Cordially,
John Stevens
Head of Human Resources
Nicole let out a sigh.
She’d known it was a long shot when she’d sent the email out. Still, there were very few conservator positions available, and she found herself quite stuck, unless she wanted to take a considerable pay decrease.
If things carried on the way they did, with her heart crushed over one night of imagined ecstasy, forced to be around the man who had cared nothing for her the next day, she knew she would have to reconsider her stance on salary. Nicole wrote a quick response to the email before closing her laptop and replacing her glasses on her nose, hoping that spending the rest of the morning hunched over a painting would be enough to keep her mind occupied.
She’d started working again when she heard the door open, and Imogen’s heels clicking across the room.
“Hello, Nicole,” Imogen said, her eyes like daggers.
Nicole sighed inwardly. If Kadeen was hard to take, Imogen was impossible.
“Morning. Can I help you with anything?”
She hadn’t meant to become so curt with Imogen, but the woman really was insufferable, and she almost felt like warning her against Kadeen, who was clearly her target. If it wasn’t for the little barbed comments Imogen always threw her way, she would have done so by now. As it was, she felt no inclination to help the woman out.
“I just wanted to let you know that Kadeen will be coming in today, so if you want to pull the blinds down, you’re welcome to do so.”
Her tone was sickly sweet, and entirely false. Still, Nicole was grateful for the warning, even if it was clearly meant as a jab.
“Thanks. I’ll make sure I do.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you two in Al Qazar? It’s like the Cold War in here. Spill the gossip, girl! You know you can trust me!”
Nicole just stared at Imogen. Her face was painted with perfect makeup, her blond hair shining under the studio lights. It was entirely possible that Nicole had never seen another woman so beautiful.
Or so fake.
“I told you. We got into a disagreement on the plane and decided we’d prefer to keep our relationship purely professional. There’s really nothing more to tell.”
Imogen looked unconvinced, but before she could pry further, Kadeen himself walked past the open door and glanced in.
“Imogen, there you are. Can I see you in my office, please?”
Imogen’s eyelashes went on full blast as she moved towards the door. “Of course! It’s so good to see you, Kadeen. I feel like I haven’t talked to you in ages. Ta-ta, Nicole,” she said, not looking back as she reached Kadeen’s side and waved backwards in Nicole’s general direction.
Kadeen, for his part, had not looked at nor addressed Nicole in any way, breaking her heart just a tiny little bit more.
Imogen had left the studio door open, and it was clear she had left Kadeen’s door open as well, because her giggles and flirtatious tone echoed down the hallway, curving right into the studio. Nicole moved over to her laptop and opened up her job search again, determined to find another place to work, when a wave a nausea hit her unexpectedly.
She placed a hand on her stomach, trying to quell the discomfort, before she realized that if she didn’t head for the bathroom stat, the Sheikha was going to need a whole other level of preservation work.
Running down the hall, Nicole made it to the bathroom just in time to lose her lunch.
Chapter 12
Nicole
Crouching by the toilet, Nicole groaned as she tried to think a
bout what might have caused her to throw up. While the sound of Imogen flirting with Kadeen had turned her stomach, she didn’t believe it was enough to make her physically queasy. She had always had a strong constitution, and illness wasn’t something that happened often.
A horrifying thought crossed her mind.
Wiping her mouth, Nicole washed up before slowly making her way back to the studio, and her laptop. She pulled up her calendar and began counting back weeks, trying to remember when her last period was.
No. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t.
Grabbing her jacket, her nausea forgotten, Nicole flew out the door and down several flights of stairs, unwilling to wait for the elevator. Across the street there was a small pharmacy, and she walked in, heading straight to the pregnancy test section.
After a brief moment of deliberation, she chose the most expensive test and paid for it up front before heading to the bathroom.
Nicole had never taken a pregnancy test before, and she read the instructions carefully, even though she basically knew what to do, before taking it. She then set the test on the bathroom counter and sat on the toilet with her head between her knees, begging the universe for the result she wanted.
After a few minutes, she worked up the courage to look at the result. Standing, she took the two steps to the counter, her eyes locked on her reflection, as though making a pact with herself that she would survive, no matter what the result was. Then she looked down.
A tiny pink plus sign stared back at her.
Nicole let out a sob as she lifted the test and shook it. She’d bought a two pack, so she ripped the other one out of the box and tried again, sitting on the toilet just as she had before. When she rose the second time, the look in her reflection’s eyes was much more afraid than it had been before. When she looked down, the answer was the same.
Nicole was pregnant. And Kadeen was the child’s father.
Not knowing what to do, she burst into tears as she sat back down on the toilet, burying her face in her hands. She was pregnant by a man who was due to be married—a man who had dismissed her like so many others the minute the sun peeked over the horizon.
She cried until she couldn’t cry anymore. Finally, she stood and washed her face, cleaning up her test results and slinging her purse over her shoulder before unlocking the door and making her exit. Pulling out her cellphone, she dialed Ellie’s number and held back sobs as the phone rang.
“Nicole? What’s wrong?”
It was always the strangest thing how twins seemed to be able to read each other even when they were far away. Nicole let her sobs loose again, and Ellie waited while she collected herself enough to answer.
“El, I’m pregnant.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m pregnant!” Nicole cried, provoking curious stares from several passersby. Ducking into an alley, she leaned against a cold brick wall, pressing the back of her head against it and looking up at a clear blue sky.
“You don’t sound very happy about it,” Ellie observed, after a moment.
“Oh, don’t I?” Nicole snapped. She wiped her nose, collecting herself a little at the comforting sound of her sister’s voice. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I’m just a little on edge.”
“Just tell me what happened,” Ellie said calmly.
Nicole spilled everything, then. She told Ellie about the crush she’d had on Kadeen since she’d started working for him, how she’d been chosen to travel with him to Al Qazar, where they’d found the painting, been swept away by the romantic story behind it, and the day had ended with them sleeping together.
“The next morning, he gets a phone call from his mom demanding he help his fiancée with the wedding planning. I confronted him about it and he dismissed me like I was some annoyance that had to be gotten rid of. Oh, Ellie! I don’t know what I’m going to do!”
Nicole burst into tears again, reaching into her purse for a tissue and setting the phone down to blow her nose. She had never been so beside herself. Then again, the pregnancy hormones could have something to do with that. She cleaned her face once again before putting the phone back to her ear.
“Nicole? Are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“Look, you’ve had a shock. That much is clear. I think the best thing you can do is tell Kadeen what’s happened. Maybe he’ll have a change of heart, you know? There has to be a reason why you liked him from the start.”
“Because I was stupid and naïve? Ellie, this man goes through women like toilet paper. Who knows how many illegitimate children he has? Besides, you didn’t see how cold he was the morning after. What if he fires me because of this? I can’t find a single company hiring right now, and I’ve worked so hard to get where I am today.”
Ellie listened as Nicole puzzled out her options. It seemed clear what direction she was heading in.
Nicole sniffled, squaring her shoulders as she began to finally calm down. “No. I’ll just have to keep the identity of the baby’s father a secret. That’s all there is to it. Kadeen seems fine having me still working for him for now, and I’ll keep looking for another job so I can one day get away from him.”
“Is he hurting you in any way?”
“No, of course not. He barely speaks to me.”
“That’s a form of hurt,” Ellie said.
Nicole didn’t want to agree, but her sister was right. The way he’d treated her, only to later pretend it didn’t even happen, was unforgivable. Of course, it didn’t help that he still made her traitorous heart flutter whenever he passed her by, even if he was a jerk.
“Yeah, well. I’m going to be fine. We both will,” she said, placing a hand on her belly.
It felt strange to imagine a little person growing beneath her fingertips. Nicole was going to be a mother! It was something she hadn’t even considered. Her whole life had been devoted to her education and career. She’d imagined she might consider kids when she was in her early thirties, but the right man had never come along.
The right man still hadn’t come along. Regardless, she would still be having a baby. It was time to face that reality.
“Of course you’ll be fine,” Ellie agreed. “You have us. If you need anything—anything at all—I want you to call me straight away. I know a thing or two about this whole process after having my two little monsters. You are not alone, sis.”
Hearing those words was a balm to her tortured spirit, and Nicole let out a weak chuckle. “Thanks, Ellie. I’m so grateful I can always count on you.”
“Always,” Ellie said firmly.
“I’d better get back to work,” Nicole said.
“Are you sure? Maybe you should take the rest of the day off.”
“No. That would seem suspicious. I never take time off.”
“You’re going to have to at some point, Nicole. I really think you should just tell him. If he hasn’t fired you already, he certainly won’t when he finds out you’re the mother of his child!”
“You don’t know him,” Nicole whispered.
“Do you?”
Nicole really couldn’t answer that question. She’d thought she’d caught a glimpse of the kind, funny, interesting man Kadeen was when they’d been in Al Qazar, but in truth, that had probably all been an act to get her into bed. The annoying thing was that it actually worked.
“I suppose not,” she hedged. “Still, I’ll be better off with my mind occupied.”
“Fair enough,” Ellie said. “Just call me later and let me know you’re okay, will you?”
“Of course.”
“And, Nicole?”
“Yes?”
“You’re going to be somebody’s mommy! Try to remember that. It’s not just about him anymore. You’ve got someone more important to think about now. Once the shock passes, you can start getting excited.”
“I’ll try,” Nicole said.
Leave it to Ellie to fight to find the positive in such an awful situation.
Nicole
bid her sister a fond farewell and replaced her phone in her purse before dabbing at her eyes with another tissue and rejoining the streets of New York.
It was funny how one’s whole world could come crashing down, and no one on the streets noticed. Anyone who had seen Nicole tearful before had kept walking, living out their own lives. She would have to do the same. What was that old adage? When you laugh, the world laughs with you, when you cry, you cry alone?
It didn’t take long for Nicole to reach her office building again. This time she took the elevator, now knowing that she was truly in a delicate condition. As she shot up to her floor, her stomach twisted again, and she was reminded that she had vomited not long before. She reached into her purse and pulled out a piece of gum, popping it into her mouth. The cool mint settled her stomach, and she was grateful she’d had one left.
When the elevator dinged and the doors opened, Nicole was relieved to see that the hallway was empty. She darted back to the studio, where Sheikha Ulyaa was waiting patiently to be restored to her former glory.
“Sorry I had to leave for a minute,” Nicole said to the painting. “I got some pretty life-changing news today. I’d tell you about it, but since it kind of involves your grandson, I doubt you can be unbiased.”
“Are you talking to the painting again?”
Imogen’s head was poking in through the doorway. Her expression instantly turned suspicious when she saw Nicole’s face.
“Have you been crying?” she asked.
Nicole could see the hunger in Imogen’s eyes. She sensed juicy gossip, and she wanted information.
Nicole shrugged. “No,” she said, sniffing.
Imogen rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’m deaf and blind, Nicole? Here I am, chatting away with Kadeen, when I hear footsteps dashing down the hall, and all of a sudden, you’re nowhere to be found. So, where did you go? I’m only asking out of concern, of course.”
Yeah, right, Nicole thought.
“I…I received some bad news from home. That’s all.”