Page 43 of Secret Daddies

“Oh, yeah?” I remarked, keeping my voice light. “I guess that pasta really did a number on me, huh?”

“That’s what I thought, at first,” he agreed. “But…but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered. And I know I’m not going to be able to get it out of my head until I just ask you, so…”

He inhaled deeply, and turned to look up at me properly.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity,fuck!This was the last thing I needed. My mind reeled. I hadn’t prepared for any of them to notice that there was anything different about me, let alone come right out and ask me if I was pregnant. I had just gotten my head around all three of them wanting me, but this…this was a far cry from what I could handle.

“What do you mean?” I asked, keeping my voice as light as I could. He frowned at me.

“Just what I said.”

“I don’t know—I mean, I didn’t think I looked that different,” I replied, forcing a laugh. It sounded fake, even to my own ears. Oh, shit. I was fucking this up. I couldn’t just deny it to his face, I felt like he would see right through me. And the way he was looking at me right now, I could tell that he wasn’t going to let this go. He was waiting for me to tell him that he was wrong, get all offended that he thought my body could belong to a pregnant woman, and I wanted to, fuck, I wanted to…

But at the same time, this secret was weighing so heavy on me, maybe it would be better for everyone if I just came clean and told him the truth. I stared at him for a long moment, and he raised his eyebrows slightly, nudging me along to a response.

“Taylor, I…”

“Fuck,” he growled, tearing his gaze away from mine. “You are, aren’t you? You’re pregnant?”

I dropped my chin to my chest, and managed to nod.

“Yeah. Yes. Yes, I’m pregnant.”

He sprang to his feet and began to pace, his earlier quiet curiosity replaced with something more forceful, almost frightening.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me? Do either of the other guys know?—”

“No, I haven’t told anyone,” I replied, feeling a lump spring to my throat. “I would never. I just didn’t know what to do, I wasn’t sure where I stood with all of you when I found out last month, and?—”

“Last month?” he exclaimed. “You’ve known for that long, and you didn’t tell me? Tell any of us?”

He sounded genuinely hurt. My heart twisted in my chest, and I wished, more than anything, that I could go back in time and just come clean with him as soon as I’d found out. It wouldn’t have been easy, of course, but it would have been better than this—better than seeing him in such distress, knowing I’d kept this from him.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I had no idea what was happening between us!” I protested, lifting a hand to quiet him. “I—I knew that I would have to come clean eventually, but?—”

“Come clean?” he exclaimed. “That’s how you think about this, coming clean, like it’s some sort of crime?”

“I had no idea how any of you would react!” I confessed angrily. “And it wasn’t as though I knew who the father was, either!”

“Do you know now?”

“I don’t have a fucking clue,” I replied, the words bubbling out of me in a painful sob. “I—I was with all of you, and I was stupid, and I didn’t use protection, and now I know that any one of you could be the dad. And I know that makes me an idiot, and you can call me one if you want, but I want to have this baby and I’m not going to let anything change that!”

He tore his gaze away from me, his jaw set tight, and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You kept Matty from Devon all this time,” he muttered. “Would you have done the same to Lee? To me?”

“No!” I exclaimed. “I—I would have handled it differently now. I’m not the same person I was back then, and it’s?—”

“But you didn’t tell us,” he replied, cutting me off, his voice hollow. “You hid it. Would you—would you have just waited till the end of the shoot? Moved on with your life, never told any of us, like you did with Matty and Devon?”

“That was different?—”

“How was it different?”

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