Page 51 of The Billionaire's Fortunate Accident
I still didn’t understand what she was talking about. “What cat?”
“Oh, Stone, you are as clueless as you are handsome. My sister is carrying your baby. She found out the same day our father died. There wasn’t any time to tell you about it.”
I felt someone coming up on my other side as my mind spun like a top. “How come the last two times I’ve seen you, you’ve had some other woman wrapped around you, Stone Nash?”
How come you haven’t told me that I’m gonna be a father?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jessa
His lips were slightly parted and his blue eyes darted back and forth as he looked at my stomach. “You’re carrying my baby?”
I glared at Lily. “You told him?”
She nodded. “I did. But don’t be mad. He needed to know. It wouldn’t be right for him not to know. And I knew you wouldn’t tell him.”
Stone took me by the shoulders. “Hey, don’t be mad at her. I’m kinda glad about this. It’s only been a minute, and the idea of us having a baby has already grown on me.”
He slipped his hands down my arms, taking one hand in his. I didn’t know what the hell to say, so I said, “Oh. I guess that’s good.” I did feel a ton of relief with him knowing.
He kissed me on the forehead. “Everything is gonna be okay, baby.”
Nodding, I still wasn’t sure about that. Lily came to my other side and took my hand. “Come, let’s get to the front where we belong.”
I didn’t let go of Stone’s hand. “You’re coming with me now that you’re here.”
“I’d like that.” He held my hand as Lily led us through the crowd.
As soon as we got to the front, standing in front of the large mausoleum our father was about to be put in, my legs began to shake. Stone moved closer so I could lean against him.
The preacher led a prayer, one that I barely heard, as I waited for the moment to come when I would finally see my mother’s casket for the very first time. Our father wouldn’t ever let us open the doors to see it, saying he didn’t want to disturb her eternal rest.
The pallbearers pulled the casket with my father’s body from the back of the black suburban that had driven him to his final resting place. Two men from the funeral home unlocked the mausoleum’s doors and opened them.
I couldn’t pull my eyes off what was inside. The place was large enough to be able to walk around. There were six solid marble tables upon which the caskets rested. Only the middle one, the one right in front of us, was taken. A silver casket sat on top of that table, remnants of dried flowers sprinkled over the marble floor beside it. At the very end of the casket, I saw a simple gold band dangling from a gold chain that had been hung around one of the many handles that ran around the casket.
My throat ached with the lump that had lodged there. But I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to take it all in and see it very clearly. Lily wept at my side, leaning against me as she kept a tissue on her eyes.
I looked up at Stone, who smiled at me. “That’s my mom in there.”
He nodded. “Lily filled me in.”
I nodded too. “I’ve never seen this. It’s the first time.”
He let my hand go and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, pulling me in even closer as he kissed the top of my head. “Take it all in, honey. This memory will last you a lifetime.”
The preacher said some more things that I couldn’t hear over the thoughts floating inside my head. Then I watched as the six men carried my father’s coffin into the chamber, placing him next to my mother. At the end of his casket, a simple gold band dangled from a gold chain just like my mother’s. “Those are their wedding rings,” I told Stone.
Lily made a loud sob. “They’re together now, and no one will ever be able to separate them again.”
It felt as if a knife had been plunged into my heart, as I knew that I’d been the one who separated them. “I’m so sorry.”
Stone hugged me even tighter. “Don’t blame yourself, baby.”
There was no one else to blame. And that left me in tears. I heard Lily crying hard, then her hand left mine, and I looked to see our mother’s sister, Aunt Lucy, pulling her into her arms, trying to comfort her.
I buried my face in Stone’s chest, sobbing uncontrollably as they closed the doors, locking them up once more. “I can’t take this.”
