Page 54 of The Fake Family Deal

I can hear her smile. “Of course.”

Lila squeals in front of me, clapping her paint-covered hands together and wiping them on her face. We’re going to be having a good bath later, for sure.

“I’m aching all over,” I tell Dr. Chenka. “And the internet said I’m going to start showing sooner than last time. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s quite likely. And aches are to be expected. Unfortunately, pregnancy isn’t something the body ever truly gets used to. Have you been taking all the supplements I advised?”

I glance up at the table, where several bottles of vitamins lie unopened. “Umm…” I say, not quite able to lie.

Dr. Chenka finds the humor in it again, chuckling knowingly. “Take them. It’ll help.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

When I hang up, Lila is rolling around on the floor, giggling.

“Are you having fun, baby?” I ask her. “Let’s see what you’ve made.”

Carefully, I extract the paper from her to see a muddied scene of handprints. You could almost call it a sunset, if you squinted and applied some real leaps of logic. “Good job,” I say, reaching out to ruffle her hair. She grins toothily at me, her tiny little teeth just starting to break through. “This is going on the fridge gallery. Do you want to do another?”

She nods, even though I’m certain she doesn’t understand that she looks like she’s agreeing. It’s cute though, and I’m going to choose to believe that she wants to keep painting. I squeeze a little more paint out for her, then put a fresh sheet of paper down.

Then my phone buzzes with a call again.

Absently, I pick it up, half-expecting it to be the doctor, and almost drop my phone when I see Ellis’s name flash up. Why the hell ishecalling me? I should have blocked his number, but I guess it must have slipped my mind — and it’s not like I ever expected to hear from him again.

Angry, I reject the call. I’m not speaking to him right now. Knowing him, it’s going to be some pointless “emergency” about profits or something equally as mundane. I’m not in the mood for more business speak, not now or ever again.

But before I can turn back to Lila, my phone lights up with his call again.Seriously?

I reject it once more and really hope he gets the message this time. If he really wants me and it’s actually important, he can leave a voicemail. I might listen to it later. Right now, I am playing with my daughter.

I silence my phone, put it away, and try my best not to think about Ellis.

Or his child inside me.

CHAPTER 27

ELLIS

Idon’t really know why I was expecting Marina to answer my call. After all, she told me in no uncertain terms that we were done. I’m feel stupid for hoping that somehow, for some reason she might find it within herself to forgive me.

It’s not like I’ve given her any reason to.

But I also can’t give up on her that easily.

One more try, and then I’ll never talk to her again if she still wants to hate me. One more chance to prove that I have changed, to prove that she was right all along that business Ellis isn’t truly who I am. Itwasonce, but it hasn’t been true for a long time.

She was right about everything, and she showed me a better way to live — as someone who cares about his family. As someone who sees that the most important thing in life is other people.

It’s not something I could ever have imagined thinking five years ago, but it’s something so completely true now that it aches inside me like a creature growing, screaming to tell me that Ihave to do something more with my life and my money. That I can be the man Marina wants me to be.

I just have to prove it to her.

And if she won’t answer my calls, I have to show her another way. If she won’t speak to me, fine. But I have to know that I tried.

How else to get through to her, though?

I stand up and pace around the office, unable to settle and incapable of doing any work. There’s no way I can think about work at a time like this.

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