Page 112 of Sweet Little Thing

With the panic causing my blood to pound through my veins so loudly, I could hear it in my ears, I opened my eyes. The moment they focused, and I studied the dates in front of me, I knew.

I don’t know when I sat down. The floor had to be cold, but I didn’t notice. My knees buckled, and I went down like a tree falling. I was sitting on the floor, staring at the phone in my hand. My mind was racing, and my heart was beating so rapidly that my breathing became erratic.

All I could think about was a little boy who needed saving from a monster. Stone was facing the hardest battle of his life. The darkness from his past clawed away at his mind so much it haunted him.

This was not what he needed. It was bad timing—the worst.

We had both known that when we chose to get lost in thepleasure, taking that chance, we had been aware this could happen. I hadn’t thought about the consequences, but as the truth sank in, I was thinking about them now.

I dropped my phone into my lap and touched my stomach with both hands. If there was a child inside, if we had created a life, I would love and cherish it. I’d never let my child believe I hadn’t wanted it. But Stone, I couldn’t say with certainty that he would want this baby. Not when he had a world of other heavy responsibilities on his shoulders.

Chapter

Sixty-Seven

Stone

I didn’t wake Beulah when I finally got home. I hadn’t planned on being so late, but my flight had been delayed for three hours.

When I walked in at midnight, she was curled up on the bed in the room I’d given her instead of mine. I didn’t want to risk moving and waking her, so I climbed into bed with her. In her sleep, she had curled up against me and mumbled something I didn’t understand.

She would expect an explanation when she woke, as she should. I had planned on recapping my evening when I arrived home. However, the flight delay prevented me from having that conversation until this morning.

The coffee perked, and the smell filled the kitchen as I watched the sun slowly rise through the windows. It was something I was accustomed to, standing in a kitchen, drinking my coffee as the sun came up. The difference was that I had a woman I loved in bed. I should still be in bed with her.

My eyes had barely closed all night. Instead, I was going through all the different scenarios that could transpire when the results from the DNA test came back. From the moment Wills came home from the hospital, he had felt like my sibling. But I’d always felt the weight on my shoulders that he could be my child. The reality I was forced to accept was that Hilda had decided my father would be Wills’s father even after he beat her ass when she confronted him about sleeping with the college-aged daughter of one of his clients.

The designer clothing line that filled our stores should have been more important than a fucking vagina. Virginia was as empty-headed as a spoiled heiress could be, but my father hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her. Now, she was my stepmother. Hilda was thirty-eight, and as far as my father was concerned, she was over the hill.

I’d hoped she would at least seek revenge when he had divorced her. She hadn’t. She’d taken his threats to heart and given up on being a mother to Wills. Disgusted with my train of thought, I grabbed a cup more aggressively than needed and poured my first cup of coffee.

“What time did you get home?” Beulah’s voice was still raspy from sleep. I’d been so wrapped up in my thoughts I hadn’t heard her in the kitchen behind me. That wasn’t like me. I was usually very attuned to everything around me. I turned to see her standing there in her faded and worn pink pajamas. Not one of my shirts. That had bothered me last night too. I wanted her in my bed and in my shirts when she slept.

I sat my cup down and walked to her. “Midnight. I didn’t realize it would be so late, or I would have called.”

She didn’t relax. There was tension in her shoulders as if she needed to protect herself. I slid a hand around her waist and pulled her to me before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Still, the stiffness remained.

“I went to see Hilda. My flight was delayed three hours. I expected to be home by nine. I was going to tell you all about it when I came home.”

She tilted her head back and gazed up at me. “Is she going to help?” Although her body remained tense, she was truly concerned. Her eyes were so damn expressive she didn’t need to speak for me to know what she was thinking.

“No,” I replied. “She’s not.”

Beulah sighed, and her frown deepened. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too. I didn’t expect her to, but I had to try one more time.”

“What are you going to do?”

I was waiting on the DNA results. I thought I knew what to do next, but I wasn’t sure exactly how I would react if I was told Wills was my son. I couldn’t leave him with my father another day. Knowing that taking him would be the worst move, my father’s wrath was a threat.

“I want to say I know this answer, but I don’t. I will have to wait and see.”

“When will you know?”

“Possibly today.”

Beulah laid her head on my chest for a moment. Something was still bothering her. But she was holding it close. Not wanting to say anything, I would give her some time to tell me what was on her mind. If she didn’t come out with it soon, I’d push until she told me.

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