Page 102 of Selfless

A shrill scream wakes me in the middle of the night. “Ashlyn?” I ask, blinking and trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness in our apartment. We still live here throughout the week. Only staying at the house in the Hamptons on the weekend.

“Ryder!” She gasps, and then she screams again.

I fumble to find the lamp on the nightstand and knock a few things to the floor before it comes on.

“Ashlyn?” I ask, turning to face her. Her eyes are closed and tears run down her face as she bends over the best she can with her pregnant belly. “Baby, what’s wrong?” I ask, my panic rising and already grabbing for my phone that I had knocked to the floor.

She sits up, and I can see the sheets where she sits are soaked. Her blue eyes meet mine and tears run down her cheeks. “Something’s wrong.” She gasps.

I start shaking my head quickly. It can’t be … It’s too early … She throws her head back, letting out a cry so loud it makes my ears ring.

We crash through the hospital doors of the ER at Saint Meds. Milton runs to the nurses’ station while I hold Ashlyn in my arms. She’s pale and sweating as she cries in pain.

A nurse grabs a gurney, and I place her on it before they push her off into a room, telling me I have to wait out here. Moments later, my sister and Jaycent arrive followed by my father and his girlfriend. Her parents both rush through the door.

We sit out in the waiting room for I don’t know how long when I see a doctor coming toward us. I jump up as he comes up to us.

“My wife, Ashlyn O’Kane …” I stop, needing to swallow the lump in my throat as I twirl the wedding band on my finger.

He looks me in the eyes and sighs. “I’m sorry … we did everything we could…” And I take off in a mad dash down the hallway to where I know she is.

Four months later

“You may kiss the bride.”

The smile on her face as she looks at me makes my chest ache. The most beautiful woman in the world just said yes to me.

I place my hands in her blond hair that she wears down in big curls and pull her to me. She places her hands over mine and closes her eyes just as my lips touch hers.

A baby cries out, interrupting the dream I was having of our wedding on the beach behind our Hamptons home. I get out of bed and make my way across the hallway to her nursery to find my daughter wide awake in her crib, kicking her little feet and speaking in a language I haven’t mastered yet.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I say, picking her up and holding her to my bare chest as I move to the glider in the corner.

“Shh,” I say, rubbing her back over her little pink onesie as she fusses. “How would you like to hear a story?” She cries louder, and I take that as a sign she wants to hear how I met her mommy. “One warm afternoon, I met a gorgeous blond on the beach,” I say, and a smile spreads across my face as I remember those big blue eyes and feisty attitude. “And she was gorgeous,” I say, closing my eyes as her cries start to quiet. “She had this look of pure beauty. So rare. She had these eyes that matched the ocean and this smile.” I sigh. “It was blinding like the sun. When she looked at me, I knew right then and there that she was gonna get anything she asked for.” I open my eyes and look down to see her little blue eyes closed and her little lips parted as her breathing evens out. “I just didn’t know that she was gonna give me more than I could ever give her …”

“You gotta get a new love story.”

I look up at the doorway and see my wife leaning up against it with a smile on her face, dressed in nothing but my t-shirt that she loves to wear. “Why? Ours is my favorite.”

She laughs softly. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

I stand, cradling her to my chest. “I don’t mind getting up with her.” I place her back in her crib as Ashlyn comes up beside me, leaning into me.

“She’s so gorgeous.”

I wrap my arms around her. “Just like her mommy.”

She sighs and whispers. “It’s after mid night. Happy birthday, Ryder.”

ASHLYN

“Happy birthday, Ryder,” I say for the fifth time today, leaning over to kiss him in the back seat of the Escalade while Milton drives us toward Fifth Avenue. I have a big surprise party planned for him tonight and I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he sees who all want to share this special day with him.

“Thank you, my love,” he says with a smile and then leans over to give me a chaste kiss.

Julianna, our daughter, makes a noise, and he leans down to kiss both her cheeks. It’s crazy how one year ago today we stood outside his penthouse suite in Panama. And now he’s my husband and we have a child.

Things have been going great. I have the gallery up and running. Between being a wife, mother, and business owner, life is hectic. But we got a routine down, and it is working for us. Ryder hasn’t been at the office as late anymore. He even works from home one day a week now that his father doesn’t have to step down to make his mother happy. She is in jail. Timothy’s assistant, Jackie, had found checks written to a company that didn’t exist, and after doing some research, she found out that Jessica and his assistants before her had been helping Gwenda embezzle from the company. So, needless to say, she went to prison, Timothy got his divorce, and somehow, he convinced Gwenda to sign away her parental rights to Maggie, so Rosie could make it official and adopt her. Mr. O’Kane took all the money that his ex-wife had embezzled and put it in a trust fund for Maggie to have when she turns twenty-one. That little girl is set for life. Ryder never came out and told me, but I know Gwenda was behind my car wreck. I overheard him talking to his father about it one night on the phone. I’m not sure what kind of charges she got for that, and I never cared to ask. She is out of our lives for good and can’t hurt any of us anymore.

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