by Sam Crescent
The realization caused her to drop them.
No.
This couldn’t be happening.
Drake wouldn’t do that to her. All his life, he had people jumping to conclusions.
She grabbed both packets and made her way toward his office.
His laptop was turned off, but she turned it on and sat waiting, staring at both packets. There was a nasty emptiness beneath her chest, and it had started to freak her out. She rubbed at the spot right over her heart.
The moment his laptop was on, she heard the sound of an incoming email. The subject caught her attention: Pills.
This was a rabbit hole she didn’t want to go down but found herself clicking on the email, and any doubt she had about her husband’s betrayal was erased with a single glance.
Drake had ordered the placebo pills. She scrolled through the previous emails and discovered he’d taken a picture of the packet so it was an exact replica of hers, and unless she looked at them side by side, she wouldn’t have known. In fact, she didn’t know until she saw them right now. The pills contained a small shot of vitamins, harmless in most cases.
Mira didn’t need to look anymore.
Standing in only a towel, tears filled her eyes.
The betrayal cut so deep. She felt sick, and anger swirled inside her. With her hands clenched, she stormed into the bedroom, changing into a pair of sweats and a large shirt.
Drake had done this on purpose. He hadn’t listened to her concerns or been willing to wait. Like so many other times, he did what he wanted without a thought or care for anyone else.
She was so mad. Furious.
She walked back to the kitchen, putting the vegetables and beans into the stew pot. Checking the time, she knew Drake would be back within the hour.
After leaving the kitchen, she went back to the bedroom. There was nowhere else for her to go, and now that she was pregnant, she couldn’t exactly leave him. Medical care was expensive. She wouldn’t be able to afford this child on her own, nor did she want to raise him or her alone.
Everything was so messed up, and it was all because Drake refused to listen. He just charged ahead without thinking about anyone else.
She wouldn’t leave him, but she certainly wasn’t sleeping in his bed tonight or any other night for the foreseeable future. He was going to have to learn the hard way. The ring felt heavy on her finger, but she didn’t take it off.
For the next hour, she transferred her belongings into the spare bedroom, making up the bed and trying not to break down in a fit of tears.
By the time Drake arrived, she had the table set, dinner ready, and had composed herself enough to be able to listen to him.
He came in, and where he would normally pull her into a kiss, she turned so he only grazed her cheek.
“Is everything okay?” Drake asked.
“Fine. Never been better.”
She walked to the table and served him some food. With his plate set, she put some on hers, even though eating was the last thing on her mind now.
“How was your day?” she asked.
“Fine. The same stuff happened, just a different day.” Drake scooped up some food and took a bite. “This is delicious.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“So good. How was your day?”
“Made dinner. Cleaned a little, took a nice shower, and then had an epiphany.” She pulled out the strip of pills, tired of this game, and threw them near his plate. Her hands clenched into fists as she looked at him. “Call me surprised, Drake, but it would seem you have been keeping secrets from me.”
“Mira, I have no idea what the hell you mean. I don’t know what these are.”
She snorted. “You know, I thought the same thing. I thought I was being unfair and judging you wrong, but I was the asshole. I was the one who had expected you to take me seriously. I don’t know why the fuck I could even think you’d take me seriously.” She shook her head. “Don’t try to lie to me, Drake. I saw the emails. I know you ordered the pills to look like mine. You swapped them out. Allowed me to take a vitamin rather than my actual birth control pills. You lied to me.” Tears filled her eyes as she stood up.
He got to his feet. “Mira, please, let me explain.”
“What is there to explain? How can you justify lying to me?” She pressed her lips together. “You told me you were a changed man. Changed men do not swap out their wife’s birth control pills, not when she asked you to allow some time to make this work. We haven’t been together long enough, and you go and do something like this.”
She took a step back.
“Mira, damn it, I love you. Okay, I wanted … I wanted to keep you with me. A baby means you’re mine. You will always be mine.”
“For goodness sake, Drake. This isn’t the dark ages. I can leave whenever the hell I want and nothing can stop me. Love me. Trust me. Allow me to see the real you. That’s how you keep me. Not this. I’m already bound to you because the thought of going anywhere else terrifies me. I want to be with you, Drake. As it is, I’m not leaving.” She put a hand on her stomach. “But I’ve moved into the spare bedroom, and I’m not going on the hunt for houses with you. I don’t even know if I want to stay married to you. You’ve hurt me, and I don’t know what to feel about that.”
She turned on her heel and walked to the spare bedroom, closing the door silently behind her before collapsing into a heap on the ground.
****
Drake had fucked up big. There was no doubt about it.
In trying to keep his woman, he’d successfully pushed her away, and now as he sat in his office, he hated himself. Hadn’t he always hated himself? The city looked so fucking happy with the sun shining. The people walking about, going about their lives. It all nauseated him. It had been a month since Mira discovered the pills. A month of him sinking lower and lower into a pit of depression.
Gripping the back of his head, he pressed his forehead to the glass. The irony of his situation was he’d planned to tell Mira that night what he’d done. The guilt had been eating up at him, tearing him apart. She had so many worries when it came to motherhood and her insecurities ate away at him. He’d caused this.
His selfish desires and old insecurities drew him to do this, and now, where was he, sleeping alone.
Mira wouldn’t even eat with him. His food was always prepared, and it was so delicious. He never saw her, though. To see his wife, he had to wait until late at night to sneak into her bedroom to watch her sleep.
Every single night, he was tempted to slip behind her, hold her close, and pretend nothing was going wrong.
Everything was going wrong. Nothing had gone right.
They’d gone to the doctor’s and he had plunged the knife in confirming the pills she’d picked up were not working from the very first day. He’d knocked her up that first night they had sex after their pause to make sure they took effect.
All it had done was deepen the pain.
He missed her so much. He loved his wife and no amount of flowers, chocolate, or jewelry was going to make this right.
Time. He wasn’t a patient man.
His work was affected by the constant distance between them. If his enemies ever found out, they would be laughing at him now. A woman making him fall.
The moment five came, he closed down his computer, turned his light off, and left his office. Even though he spent his time at home alone, he was determined to never be late for dinner. He arrived home at five thirty. His food was on the table. No sign of Mira. If he was quiet enough, he heard her, though. Sometimes her bedroom door was left open.
He put his briefcase down and went to the lonely table.
A pasta dish waited for him and a single envelope.
Normally, just the food waited for him, but fear tightened in the back of his throat as he picked up the envelope, not knowing what she could have left for him.
He turned it over, dreading what he might find.
Inside was a picture.
>
Drake turned it over and saw it was from the ultrasound. At the time, there had been a technical fault, but the doctor had promised an image would be provided of their child. His baby didn’t want to show them if it was a boy or girl.
“It came today,” Mira said. She stood in a jacket as he got to his feet.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I need to head to the pharmacy. It’s not a big deal. I talked to the doctor about the sickness. I’m losing a little too much weight because of the morning sickness. He gave me the details of something to take that will help. I’m just going to go and get it.”
“Let me come with you.”
She held her hand up. “No. It’s fine. Eat your dinner while it’s warm. I cooked it. I hope you like it.”
“Mira, I love everything you do. You know this. I love you.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I know, which is why this is so hard, Drake. I … I’ve got to go and get some air and then I think we need to talk about … the future.”
“I’m not letting you go.”
“Let me go and get this. I really need the air. We’ll talk when I get back.”
“I love you, Mira. Please, I love you.”
“I’ll be back in ten minutes. We’ll talk. Please.”
He wanted to argue with her. To demand he go with her, but instead, he nodded. “Our baby looks beautiful.”
She nodded and didn’t say a word, just stepped out of the penthouse, and he stood, like an asshole, broken.
What could he say?
What could he do to make her see that he loved her and he regretted what he’d done? He loved her so damn much, and there didn’t seem to be a damn thing he could do about any of this.
He was a man who’d built himself up from nothing, and now look at him. He couldn’t figure out how to get his wife to forgive him.
There was no way he’d accept defeat. They were going through a rough patch. They would get through this.
With the ultrasound in his hand, he went back to the table and ate every bite of his dinner. She’d made it for him. There was no way he was going to let his wife come home to find it in the trash.
After he finished, he took his plate to the kitchen and washed it. Rather than let it drain, he dried it, and then headed back into the dining room.
He checked the time and saw it had been nearly half an hour. Fear ran up his spine as he constantly glanced at his watch.
Just when he was about to lose his mind, he grabbed his coat and headed out the door. The elevator opened and closed, taking him down to the main floor. He stepped out of the elevator as his cell phone rang.
Without looking at the person on the display, he answered. “Eastwood.”
“Is this a Mr. Drake Eastwood?”
“Yeah, who’s calling?”
He stopped as the woman on the line told him her name, and that she was calling from the hospital.
“We have a Mrs. Mira Eastwood—”
Drake took off out of his apartment building. The hospital wasn’t too far from where he lived. There was no time to get to the underground parking. He stopped listening to the woman on the phone and ran the short distance to the hospital.
He saw several police cars outside of the hospital and he ran straight past them, pushing people out of his way as he entered the building. There was a small line of people waiting to speak to the main receptionist.
Ignoring all of them, even their complaints at him jumping the line.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to get—”
“You called me. Told me my wife was here. Mira Eastwood.”
“Sir, I haven’t made any such call.”
“Damn it, I was just on the phone with you. From someone here.” He started to get angry and noticed two police officers approaching. He didn’t care if they wanted to arrest him, he wasn’t going anywhere until he had seen his wife. The call wasn’t a prank. “You told me my wife was here. Don’t play games with me. I’ll have your fucking job, do you hear me?”
“Sir!” one of the police officers said, approaching.
He held his hand up. “Don’t make me call your fucking boss. I got a call my wife was in this hospital, and she’s fucking pregnant.”
“You need to remain calm.”
“Fuck calm.”
“Mr. Eastwood?”
He turned to the feminine voice. A nurse approached and the two police officers stepped back.
“You called me?”
She nodded. She looked to the police officers. “He’s the husband of the woman you just brought in.”
Drake looked at the men and he saw the pity in their gaze.
“What the fuck happened? Where is Mira?”
“Your wife is in surgery. There was an accident.”
Mira was in surgery. Drake listened, feeling his world starting to tilt. While Mira was at the pharmacy, an addict had entered the store. He’d been on drugs and held a gun. Drake couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
The addict had gotten angry and started to shoot up the store. Mira had been hit.
“The bullet is near her heart. We have been able to stabilize her and the baby is fine.”
“Fuck the baby,” Drake said.
“Sir?”
“No, you listen to me. I will shut down this entire fucking hospital if anything happens to my wife. She is the only person that matters. Do you hear me? She has to live. She has to … live. I fucking love her. Tell the doctors, I don’t know how long it takes but they have to make sure she wakes up. They … make sure she wakes up.”
“Sir?”
Drake grabbed his chest. Everything was spinning. Mira was in the operating room. His wife could die. Shot at.
“Breathe.”
He couldn’t get enough air.
The world started to move from under him. He looked into the police officers’ faces as the world went black.
Chapter Twelve
“Drake, Drake…”
He opened his eyes slightly, groaning as he shifted under the starch-white sheets.
“Can you hear me?”
Mira ran her hand through his hair. She’d been a basket case, crying and praying, reliving their short time together over and over. Why had she been so hard on him? How would she raise a child on her own?
“Mira?”
He tried to sit up, but she put a hand to his chest to keep him down. “Rest, Drake. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“You’re up walking already? How is that possible?”
When he grabbed her hand like a lifeline, he surprised her. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re out of surgery. Shouldn’t you be in bed?” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Thank God you’re okay.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly. “I wasn’t in surgery, Drake, you were. But everything’s going to be fine. You’ll be home before you know it.”
Drake shook his head, tugging her closer. Even though he’d been out cold for two days and undergone surgery, he was still strong. “They said there was a bullet next to your heart. They didn’t sound hopeful. The baby? Is the baby okay?”
He was talking crazy. Maybe it was the painkillers messing with his head. “I wasn’t shot. Don’t you remember anything that really happened?” she asked.
He nodded but looked unsure of himself. “You went to get … something at the pharmacy. You never came back. I got a call that you were at the hospital and I ran here in a few minutes. The cops wouldn’t let me see you. They said you were in surgery.”
“Drake, the hospital is at least ten miles from the condo. You couldn’t have run here. It was Katherine. She shot you in the lobby by the elevators. You haven’t regained consciousness until now.”
“Katherine?”
“Don’t worry. She’s in custody. Everything was on the lobby cameras, and there were a lot of witnesses. She’ll never bother us again.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. These past couple of days had
been a rollercoaster for her. She’d stayed by Drake’s side the entire time. When she’d found out he was shot, a desperation she’d never known nearly knocked her flat. She’d rethought everything while he’d been asleep. All she needed was a second chance.
“Bother us?”
“I’m sorry for being so hard on you, Drake.”
“No, I shouldn’t have lied. I know that. It was stupid and juvenile. But you have to believe it wasn’t anything sinister. I just … didn’t trust you could love me without a reason.”
She cupped his face, a short beard growing in, prickling her fingers. “I love you unconditionally, Drake Eastwood. Nothing you can buy or do will change that. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.”
They kissed, a soft single kiss.
She hated that he had dark circles under his eyes. He’d look so fragile the past two days with monitors hooked up to him and IV fluids keeping him alive.
“And how long have I been out exactly?”
“Two days,” she said. “Luckily, Katherine wasn’t a good shot. You only got one bullet in the shoulder. The doctors said you were unconscious from the shock.”
“And you’re fine? You’re sure?”
She rubbed her belly. “Yes, we’re both fine. Now that you’re awake, I’ll probably sleep for a couple of days myself.”
“You never left me, did you?”
“I couldn’t. What if you woke up alone? We left on such a bad note, I had to be here.”
“I’m not used to having anyone care that much about me. Can you forgive me, Mira? For everything? It seems I just create one fuckup after another. I don’t deserve you.”
“You’re my husband, Drake. We’ll get through this together.”
She had to admit this trauma had brought them closer together, making their other issues seem irrelevant in comparison. They were having a baby, and they loved each other. That was all that mattered.
The doctor came into the room. “Mr. Eastwood. Good to see you alive and well.”
“I hear I’ve been out a couple days.”
“You had us all a bit worried, especially your wife. She wouldn’t hear of leaving your side.”
He took her hand again, giving it a squeeze.