Page 38 of His Fake Wife

Gritting my teeth, I sighed, “Henry isn’t Nate’s biological father. My mother had an affair before we were both born and passed him off as my dad’s. The big secret came out years later in one of their stupid arguments. Good times. I’m done talking about it.” I could see Beth gawking at me from my periphery. “Sorry, you offered your shoulder to cry on?”

“I thought I was supposed to be the sarcastic one,” she grumbled. “You know what? I am sorry I offered a shoulder. I should have known you’d regress to being a jerk because you don’t know how to deal with your emotions.”

“And you’ve regressed to being your old snooty self so, we’re even.”

“Why would you say that?” She gasped.

“You’ve been looking down your pretty little nose at me like you used to. For what reason, I don’t know. Don’t think I haven’t noticed, the looks and how you go out of your way to avoid me. The only time you say a word to me is when you’re in my bed moaning in my ear.”

The blanket of silence along with the rising tension felt almost explosive. One wrong word and either I or Beth would go off like a bomb for sure. Yet, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

Turning to her, I taunted, “Tell me Beth, why the sudden change of behavior in the last two weeks? Is the sex not good enough anymore?”

I braced myself for her angry words or maybe a slap to the face. Neither came. I was taken aback by the sadness in her eyes when she looked at me. “You know, Adam, you make it easy for me to hate you sometimes, but I can’t anymore.”

Beth opened the door and marched to the elevator, leaving me baffled. God, I was an idiot. Why couldn’t I just share my ridiculous family drama, tell her how I felt about her, and set myself free?

My pent up frustration about everything caused me to stupidly hurt her feelings, and I couldn’t even run after her and apologize. The second the elevator door closed, I restarted the car and sped out of the lot. I needed to blow off some steam and get a little liquid courage before I set things right with Beth.

Chapter 16

Beth

I was a mess. A worried, guilt-ridden mess. I had no one to talk to. If I shared with anyone the secret I’d been holding onto for a month, the rumor mill would start spinning. It wouldn’t be long before Adam found out. Then again, it wasn’t like I could keep this particular secret for much longer. I had another month tops, before it became obvious.

Taking a deep breath, I turned off the tap and stepped out of the shower. I didn’t feel any better than I had last night. After our little tiff in the car, I hadn’t seen Adam since. He’d hurt my feelings but I understood why he’d snapped. After experiencing the tension between him and his family, I suppose I couldn’t stay mad at him for being a jerk. He was stressed.

Besides, I had no right to hold a grudge when I was keeping something huge from him. I had every intention of being the bigger person and mending things between us. We’d come so far?minus the small part of me being distant because I was hiding something. I refused to allow things to get worse. So, I was going to apologize for yesterday, whether I was in the wrong or not, and then I’d come clean. Hopefully, he wouldn’t blow a fuse.

“Adam, I’m pregnant.”

“No, I can’t just throw it out like that.”

Staring at myself in the mirror, I tried again.

“Adam, I’m sorry about last night. I had no right to pry in your family’s business. There’s something I need to tell you. Please don’t be angry. I’m pregnant.”

“No, that’s not good enough.”

“Adam… Argh!”

I was losing my shit and I hadn’t even seen him yet. Plus, I felt foolish rehearsing in the mirror. Taking a deep breath, I squared my shoulders. “You, Beth,” I pointed at my reflection, “are no coward.”

I was going to put everything out there. My feelings for Adam, my desire to try at a real marriage, our unborn child. Everything. The worst that could happen was him laughing in my face and rejecting me...I’d recover from that humiliation, eventually.

******

There was no sign of Adam so I figured he’d left early for some meeting. Maybe it was a good thing. I’d have more time to get myself together and figure out the best way to drop the bombshell on him. What if he assumed I deliberately got pregnant to trap him? The horror that thought brought on made me stop in my tracks. Surely, Adam knew me better than that to think that. My phone vibrating, stopped me from totally freaking out.

“Hey, Mel!” My overly cheerful greeting made me cringe. She had no idea what was going on and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. She had school to focus on.

“Beth! Are you okay? You sound okay, that’s good...unless this is you being deathly calm. Please, tell me you didn’t kill him. Do you want me to come home?”

I let out a laugh at Mel’s rambling. “What? Has someone been overdoing it with the caffeine again?”

“Oh, my God. You don’t know.”

“Know what? What’s going on?”

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