Royce's Fate

by Annelise Reynolds

  Fuck.

  Chapter Three

  Narina

  I got out of class, my stomach rolling with nausea. The morning sickness had already kicked in. I’d done my research and kept ginger tea and ginger ale on hand, but it only took so much of the edge off. Certain smells made me want to puke. I passed by a taco truck on the way to class today and wanted to barf. Beans smelled like body odor now. It was horrific.

  I grabbed my phone and checked my messages. I had three calls from the fertility clinic. The first one was the receptionist, Angela. She sounded a bit panicked and asked me to call immediately. The second and third calls were both from Dr. Coulter himself. He sounded calm but stressed and said that it was imperative for me to call him as soon as possible. There was a mix-up of some kind in my file, and they needed to get in touch with me as soon as possible.

  I glanced at the time and noticed it was eleven thirty. I had about twenty minutes before my next class, but it was across campus. I decided to wait to call the clinic until after I was finished for the day. If they were telling me anything bad, I couldn’t afford to be distracted in my last class of the day.

  As it turned out, not calling them was a mistake. I thought about what they could possibly want and what was so urgent the whole time I was in my Economics class that I didn’t listen. Thankfully, I recorded the lecture because I’d be able to replay it later.

  The whole time the professor was talking, my mind was racing with worries about what they wanted. Did the couple whose baby I was carrying decide against having a kid? If so, what would happen?

  I received the first check from the clinic, which helped pay off the first installment on my tuition and gave me a little to live off of, though I was saving that for next semester’s books. What I really needed was a part-time job. One on campus would be best, so I told myself I’d start looking for one as soon as I got a routine in place and figured out how hard the classes were going to be for me.

  I was just getting out of my last class when my phone started vibrating again. New Hope Clinic popped up on the screen and I hesitated, not ready for the bad news. People don’t blow up your phone for good news, so whatever was going on wasn’t going to be good.

  “Hello?” I answered the phone, wary of what they could want.

  “Hi, Ms. Boggs?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank goodness I finally got in touch with you. This is Dr. Coulter from the New Hope Clinic. I need you to come into the office immediately.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, my stomach squeezing tight with worry.

  “Please come in as soon as possible, Ms. Boggs. It’s important.”

  “Okay.” I hung up the phone and placed my hand on my stomach. It was flat, but I knew in a few months I’d start to feel the small bump from the baby. The thought thrilled and scared me shitless at the same time. “I can’t get attached to you, Little Peanut. You don’t belong to me,” I whispered.

  Since I found out I was pregnant and that the insemination had worked, I had been talking to the baby regularly and reminding us both that she didn’t belong to me. I don’t know why, but I was convinced the baby was a girl.

  I took a deep breath and sent a text to my friends, letting them know something was up with the pregnancy. Crazy as it seemed, we were all pregnant at the same time. We’d all signed up to be surrogates, but I was the only one that went through with it. They’d all found their soulmates and were starting families with them getting pregnant the old-fashioned way.

  Part of me envied them, but for right now, that wasn’t in my cards. Apparently, something was wrong, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous as hell about it.

  I got back a bunch of responses from the girls telling me to call them as soon as I knew what was going on. Gwen asked me if I wanted her to meet me at the clinic, but I declined the offer. I could do this. Scared as I was, I could do this.

  The subway system still confused the shit out of me, so I hailed a cab to take me the fourteen blocks to the clinic. It was money I didn’t want or need to spend, but I had to do it. I needed to figure out what the hell was going on.

  When I got to the office, Dr. Coulter ushered me into an examination room and told me to wait there. The receptionist wasn’t there, and everyone seemed to be on edge. My nerves were fraying with every second that ticked by as I waited to find out any information.

  It was only five minutes before the doctor came back in, but it felt like forever. When he did, the look on his face said it all. He was pale and nervous.

  “What is it? Just tell me,” I stated immediately. My hand went to my stomach protectively to try to calm the mass of fluttering butterflies inside.

  “Ms. Boggs, there was a mistake made.”

  “What kind of mistake?” I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself from going into a panic attack. The doctor was not helping my anxiety, and anxiety wasn’t good for the baby.

  “The baby you’re carrying—it’s your baby.”

  Huh? “What do you mean, my baby?”

  “Your file was labeled wrong, and a specimen was put into your file for insemination. You were inseminated, but there was no egg with the specimen. You are pregnant with your own egg, and the man whose sperm fertilized the egg—well, he was planning to have a surrogate carry his baby from a donor.”

  Bile rose in my throat, burning like acid. I moved for the trashcan and heaved into the bag lining it. My lunch from earlier was revisiting me. The nausea I felt after class came spiraling back, making me lightheaded. I heaved again, dispelling more until I felt drained and limp, sweat soaking my brow.

  I moved to the sink and used the water to rinse my mouth out. When I finally sat back down, the doctor was there holding onto a clipboard. “I’m sorry this happened, Ms. Boggs. This was an unfortunate accident, but we are determined to help fix this.”

  “How? How can you make this right?” I tried to catch my breath to calm down, but I was in shock. I’d been telling myself and the baby since the confirmation that I was pregnant that she wasn’t mine, but now the doctor was telling me she was.

  “First thing first, Ms. Boggs; the father of your child wants to meet with you to try to figure out where to go from here. Are you agreeable to that?”

  The father of my child… I was a virgin. My hymen was no longer intact from the insemination, but I never had sex. I was waiting for someone special to start my life with and have kids with. This surrogacy was supposed to be a steppingstone to the rest of my life, not change the entire course of it.

  Chapter Four

  Royce

  I left the lawyer’s office and went directly to the clinic. They said she was there and waiting for me to arrive, so I wasted no time getting in my car and heading that direction. This was going to be an uncomfortable meeting. I had the paperwork drawn up for her to sign away her rights.

  My lawyer would deliver the lawsuit to the clinic as soon as I gave the word. The first thing I needed to do was get the woman to sign the documents, then I’d work on the damn clinic suit.

  “Mr. Cavanaugh.” There was a nurse at the front desk, different from the one that was here the day I came in to fill out paperwork and give my sperm for the insemination. “Follow me.”

  She led me down the hallway toward a room. I was still angry and frustrated at the way everything worked out. It was one giant clusterfuck. I ran my hand through my hair and took a deep breath when she stopped at an examination room on the right.

  “She’s in here, but she’s nervous and only just learned that instead of being a surrogate that she was actually inseminated, and her own egg was part of the pregnancy. She’s young and scared, so please, dial back on the scowl. This wasn’t her plan any more than it was yours.”

  “No, it was your facility’s screw up.”

  “You’re right, but there’s a pregnancy that has to be dealt with one way or another. We will see how it goes.”

  “You said young… how young?”

  “You
’ll have to ask her, Mr. Cavanaugh.”

  I nodded, and the nurse pushed the door open to let me inside. The first thing I saw when I walked in was her head bowed and a screen of long, dark chocolate tresses screening her face. Her skirt was longer than what was fashionable, hitting just below her knees. She had on a pair of flat feminine shoes that made her look like a dancer. Classy was what came to mind.

  When she looked up, her face was pinkened from crying, but it was her thick, plush, kissable, dick sucking lips that had my heartbeat picking up and my dick coming to life.

  “How old are you?” I growled at her. I couldn’t help it. I had to verify for myself that the clinic didn’t knock up a kid. Hell, she still looked like a kid. That thought made me wince with my earlier thoughts about her lips.

  “Eighteen.” Her voice was soft and lyrical. She was sweet and ripe, and God, so damn young. Why the hell would she want to be a surrogate so young?

  “Leave us,” I said to the nurse. She was standing by the door, but I refused to look at her. She didn’t move immediately. When I saw my beauty nod slightly, I knew the nurse was waiting for her permission to be alone with me. Points for the nurse, but not as many as the facility lost with this whole mess-up in the first place.

  When I heard the door close softly, I moved to the chair across from the table she was sitting at. “What’s your name, Sweetheart?”

  “Narina.” She licked her lips nervously; her eyes were red rimmed and still glassy from her tears.

  “Narina.” I liked the sound of her name rolling off my tongue. “Pretty name. I’m Royce.” I had no idea what to say to her. She was as much of a victim in the situation as I was and asking her to sign over the rights to our child made me feel like an asshole of epic proportions. Plus, I was shocked to find I wanted her.

  My dick has been hard since the second I saw her. Part of me wanted to pick her up, carry her to my car, and keep her forever. The other part of me recognized that she was scared and needed protection from the world right now.

  What I wouldn’t give to hear her call me “Daddy.” Just the thought of her soft voice whispering that word to me had me nearly coming in my pants. She looked so damn sweet and innocent, and I wanted to do dirty things to her that would probably scare her to death.

  I wanted her more than I’ve ever wanted any other woman in my life. I gave up the search a long time ago of finding the woman I was meant to be with. But this girl... this barely legal little girl, called to the daddy in me, and fate had stepped in, handing her to me on a silver fucking pregnant platter.

  Chapter Five

  Narina

  Wow was my first thought when he walked in the door and I saw him. I cried my eyes out while waiting for him to get there. I was stressed and so confused. After throwing up a few more times, I was weak and unsure of whether I could even make it home at this point. I’d need to take another cab, which was more money that I didn’t want to spend.

  Royce was beautiful. He was thickly muscled, and his dark blonde hair was longer on top than on the sides. He had a scruffy face that gave him a harder, edgier look. From what I’d seen in New York so far, men were mostly clean shaven. Not him though. He looked more like a man from back home in Almont.

  “You okay?”

  I shook my head to clear out the cobwebs that seemed to be barring thoughts from making their way out. “Sorry, distracted.”

  “I understand.” He gave me a soft smile and stood up. “Let me take you to dinner and we can talk without pressure. Plus, you’re eating for two now. I’ve got to make sure you’re fed.”

  I looked at his offered hand and bit my lip, he was so calm and confident. How was that even possible in this situation? I wanted to draw on that confidence for myself because I was so damn scared in that moment. What was going to happen to me? To the baby? To Royce?

  This situation was crazy and terrifying. I swallowed hard and stood up on the step, immediately feeling a bit light-headed. Royce reached for me to put me on solid ground. The second his hand touched me; I felt a curling need in my belly that I never felt before.

  “Easy, sweetheart.” His low timbre was sweet, and I loved the way he sought to look out for me. Being in the big city after living my whole life in a small town that still had a general store rather than a big chain store was a new world.

  “Thank you,” I said, pushing down the desire I felt to curl into his side. He was tall standing next to me. My head didn’t even reach his chin, and I felt safer with him by my side. Which was crazy since he was a stranger.

  “What do you like to eat?” he asked, opening the door and leading me out into the hallway toward the exit.

  “Anything but Mexican food.”

  “You don’t like Mexican food?”

  “The smell of beans makes me sick. I loved eating Mexican food before the baby, but I passed a taco truck on the way to class this morning and had to fight the urge to puke.”

  “No Mexican food. You like Italian?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great.”

  He led me back through the lobby. Nobody stopped us to talk. They all seemed scared to say or do anything. I guess that’s what happened when you make a major mistake.

  When we got outside, a man stood beside a black car holding the back door open. I was surprised when Royce led me to the limo. “I’ve never been in a limo before,” I said, sliding over so Royce could join me on the back seat. The plush seats molded to my body.

  “I’m glad your first time is with me.” Royce gave me a wicked grin and I melted a little inside as I felt a flush spread across my cheeks.

  Thankfully he changed the subject, asking questions about me. What was I going to school for? What did I want to do for the rest of my life? Where was I from? It was just general questions and I reciprocated, learning more about him. It was comfortable as we rode to Lower Manhattan toward Little Italy.

  I didn’t expect him to take me to a little hole in the wall mom and pop restaurant, but he did. Nona’s Kitchen was a small Italian restaurant. I noticed a help wanted sign in the window and took note of it. I needed to find a job. Maybe this was my lucky day. A small restaurant would be perfect, and I had experience waiting tables, so that was a bonus.

  A girl in black pants and a red shirt greeted us as we walked in the front door. “Welcome.”

  “My normal table please, Cara,” Royce said politely, his hand lingering on the small of my back as he led me up to the podium.

  “Follow me.” She gave me a curious smile before leading us to the table in the darkest corner of the room. It was small and intimate. Soft music was playing from the speakers and the way the restaurant was designed, gave everyone the feeling of being alone in their own world.

  “Would you care for some wine today?” she asked as we slid into opposite sides of the booth.

  “No, thanks. Waters for both of us.” Royce said, ordering our drinks which irked me a bit. I could have wanted something other than water. I didn’t, but I could have. I decided not to push it since he was footing the bill, and we were in a big enough pickle as it was. We were about to be parents and neither of us expected to have a kid between us.

  I picked up my menu to distract me from the nerves dancing in my empty stomach. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I walked in the restaurant and smelled the delicious aromas.

  It was habit to pretend to read menus, so I didn’t look weird. Italian places always had chicken alfredo, so I got that when I went out for Italian food.

  “You come here a lot?” I broke the silence that had settled around us. When I looked up, I found him staring at me. Something in his gaze had the hairs on my arms standing on end and a shiver running up my spine.

  “Yes. I grew up not far from here before my mom married her second husband and moved us to the Upper East side.”

  “Oh. I can’t imagine growing up in a city like this.”

  “You don’t like New York?”

  “I do, it’s just that I came
from a very small town where everyone knows everyone, and people are always there to look out for you. In the city, you’re kind of anonymous which I’m sure has its perks, but it also sucks when you get lost and end up in a bad neighborhood, like I did.”

  “Where did you end up, Narina?” The waitress arrived with our water and some bread that smelled heavenly. I quickly snatched a piece and pulled a bite off.

  I didn’t notice that Royce was staring at me intensely or that he stiffened when I mentioned getting lost in a bad place. None of that registered to me.

  Cara took our orders and told us she’d be back with our salads shortly. When she left, Royce got my attention again.

  “Where did you get lost at, Narina?”

  His tone was deep and borderline menacing. Royce had his jaw clenched, and I realized how bad I’d messed up telling him I got lost.

  “I . . . I was in Harlem. The subway system confused me, and I took the wrong train.” I didn’t admit to him that I misread a sign because I was tired from studying and my head hurt from trying to force myself to read when the letters just weren’t computing. It was my shame that I kept hidden as best as I could. My friends knew about my learning disability, but it’s not something that I liked to talk about, especially not with Royce.

  “What time were you in Harlem?”

  I didn’t answer. If he was upset just by me saying I was lost, he’d be furious to know that it was at nine o’clock at night. Instinctively, I knew it was better to keep my mouth shut, so I just shrugged.

  “It was a few weeks ago when I first arrived. I’m doing better with the trains now.” That was a half-truth. The only reason I was doing better with them was because I didn’t use them. It’s why I stayed close to campus or walked wherever I needed to go.

  “Evading the question tells me all I need to know, Narina.”