Page 46 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

The trouble was that it didn’t make it any easier to live with.

She was the one who spend every day with Charlie. She was the one watching him long for his father, a longing that was beginning to seem as though it would never be properly satisfied.

And she was left longing for Eli herself. She had truly believed for a moment there that things were about to change between the two of them for good. The night they had spent together had been magical, and the morning after, he had seemed eager to embark on — something. Even when he’d had to go into work, she had assumed it was only a postponement of the conversation they would inevitably have and the plans they would inevitably make for their future. It had to be that, surely.

But he had never come back to her.

Walking into the TV room late at night and acting as if he understood her well enough to worry about her — that was far too little and coming far too late.

She didn’t want to talk to him about herself or how she was doing. She certainly wasn’t going to tell him she had been feeling unwell. What business was that of his?

Eli had made it clear that he wanted to view her and treat her as an employee — so, fine. That was what they would do. That was what they would be to each other moving forward. And Maddie felt no urge to tell her employer that she hadn’t been feeling well for the past few days.

“It’s your house,” she told him. “I’m your nanny. You can ask me whatever you want.”

“But I shouldn’t expect an answer?”

“Not if it’s personal. We don’t have a personal relationship,” she said. “I don’t owe you the answers to any personal questions.”

“Okay, got it. I just wanted to see whether you were all right. But I suppose that was nosy of me.”

“I mean, I don’t know why you’re asking about me instead of Charlie,” she said. “If I had just gotten home and hadn’t seen my son all week, my first question would be about him. But people are different, I guess.”

He tensed. “I can get another nanny, if need be,” he said. “If you and I can’t be civil to each other, I don’t think it’s to anybody’s benefit for you to go on working here.”

Maddie lowered her head, though she was still angry and didn’t regret saying what she had. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. Not now. And even though Eli might not see the benefit to Charlie in having her here, she was sure that Charlie needed consistency. And right now, she was the only person providing him with anything like it.

“I’m sorry,” she said, though there was no real regret in it. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Is there anything I need to know about Charlie? Did anything happen today?”

“It was a normal day,” she said. Of course, a normal day consisted of Charlie missing his father terribly, but she had already pushed his limits as far as she dared for one night.

He left the room.

Maddie tried her best to settle back into watching the movie, but she found she couldn’t. The interaction weighed on her mind.

He was right that he shouldn’t have confronted her. It offended her that he would presume to think he knew anything at all about her, and it disturbed her to think that he might be right.

Because there was truth in something else he’d said — shewasn’therself lately. She would have been dancing on an ordinary night, and the only reason she wasn’t doing that was due to the fact that she still wasn’t feeling well. Whatever illness had gotten to her and caused her headache and nausea, she still wasn’t over it. It came in waves — worse in the morning and late at night, but never fully gone. She didn’t feel like dancing because the idea of spinning made her feel sick to her stomach, and she didn’t know what could be done about that.

The fact that it didn’t seem to be going away on its own, as she had hoped it would, was starting to worry her.

It wasn’t until the following morning that the answer came to her, in a rush of shock and disbelief. It was so obvious, once she thought of it, that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before — and yet itcouldn’tbe the right answer because it simply couldn’t be true.

Eli was at work, so there was no choice but to take Charlie to the drugstore with her. Maddie gave him instructions to pick out a few candy bars while she nipped into the neighboring aisle to get what she needed, her heart pounding the entire time.She couldn’t quite believe that this was really happening, that it wasn’t some sort of strange dream, and she couldn’t even begin to process the implications of it. How everything would change for her — for all of them — if her suspicion was correct.

Back at home, she parked Charlie in front of the TV. He didn’t even complain or ask to do something else, and she had the feeling that he must have picked up on the tension of the moment. She excused herself to the restroom and took out the pregnancy test she had purchased.

She had chosen the one that developed most rapidly, and the plus sign had already shown up in the window by the time she finished washing her hands.

Still, she stalled there, staring at the test as if time might somehow change the answer she was being given.

I’m pregnant.

It seemed impossible — and yet it made perfect sense of everything. All the symptoms she had been experiencing. Of course this was what it was. What else could it possibly have been?

The reality of the situation was finally starting to settle over her. This pregnancy, if she chose to keep it, would tie her to Eli for the rest of her life. Eli, whose parenting she had little but criticism for, would be the father of her child.

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