Page 42 of Surprise Baby for the Enemy

She’s not feverish. And aside from her bout of nausea first thing in the morning, she was totally fine for the entirety of yesterday. For all of the time we spent the day before, too, and back then she was upset enough to break down sobbing in my arms.

I try to dismiss the growing suspicions in my chest as totally absurd. There are other explanations, surely. She had badnoodles two nights ago. Today, she’s nervous, and she’s had a rough couple of days. Last night she was involved in a high speed chase. This could just be very, very delayed car sickness.

She can’t be… she’s not-

“Are youpregnant?” I demand.

Raleigh flinches. She looks up at me, but her eyes dart away too fast.

She doesn’t even try to lie. That’s how I know I’m right.

I stumble a step back from her. Try to take a breath and realize my lungs have completely closed. I look up at the sky, far down the highway, into the woody distance. Anywhere I might be able to find a goddamn explanation.

Pregnant. She’spregnant. I do the math in my head, even though I’ve been painfully aware, up until we were abruptly reunited two days ago, just how long we’ve been apart. Three months since we were captured by Silver and I came inside her. I didn’t even try not to. The potential to get my fellow hostage pregnant was one of the very last things on my mind while we were fucking in front of two armed men.

I have three epiphanies, one on top of the other, that are almost too scrambled to comprehend.

First, I might be a father. I might have ababy.

Second, I might not be a father at all, because I have absolutely no confirmation that I’m the only man she’s slept with since her first time.

Third-

I turn on Raleigh, still sitting heavily in the grass.

This- this is, by far, her worst betrayal.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”

CHAPTER 22

Raleigh

There’sno point in hiding anything now, I guess. Shaking, still nauseous, I force myself to my feet. Force myself to meet Derrick’s furious blue eyes.

It’s the most terrifying thing I think I’ve ever done. Telling this man, the potential father of my baby, the truth? Suddenly I realize that this is what I was actually planning to run from all along.

Not Thomas’s disappointment in me or my own humiliation, but this. Derrick, and the undeniable connection between us.

“I only just realized I might be pregnant… like yesterday,” I rasp, my throat raw, voice barely above a whisper. “When I threw up at your place… it hit me. I haven’t taken a test yet.

If I am… it’s… it can’t be anyone else’s.”

Derrick takes a step back, another step back since he first guessed the meaning of my silence, absorbing that admission. That he was my first and there was no one else after. His jaw is so tight I imagine I can hear his teeth grinding.

I take a quick breath and force the rest out, like I’m pulling out a giant splinter. “I met with Silver because I thought I could tell him to back off, and if he didn’t, I’d find some way to kill him. I told you the truth about that. But now more than ever,I really wanted to clean up all the messes I caused my brother, my family, before I leave.” I swallow. “You were originally one of those. If I could find evidence of your involvement with the Speares or the bribes you took and leak them to the media-.”

His head snaps up. “I’m sorry,what?” he demands.

I open my mouth to repeat myself, but he’s not talking about my ill-laid and abandoned plans for him. “You were just going to leave? Where the fuck were you even going to go?”

“What the fuck else was I supposed to do?” I burst out. “Tell you I’m pregnant and expect you to just take me in with open arms and we live happily ever after?! If I stayed on the estate I’d be infamous forever for having a baby with my brother’s enemy. If I stayed with you- well, I couldn’t stay withyou!”

Derrick sucks in a sharp breath at that, but I don’t let him ask why not.

“So yeah, I’m leaving!” I barrel on. “I’m going to Italy, or Switzerland, or literally anywhere but here! In fact, I think now’s an excellent time for us to part ways.” My throat is burning, and it’s not just from puking. I’m screaming like a mad woman on the side of the road, and I don’t even care. “You can drive me to the airport, and I’ll catch the first flight out, and neither of us will have to see each other’s stupid faces ever again!”

Derrick is quiet for a long time. His eyes are colder than they’ve ever been, and there’s a muscle jumping in his jaw. He’s not bothering to disguise his rage.

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