Page 64 of Baby By my Best Friend's Daddy

I had no choice but to do this alone.

Brad didn’t want anything to do with me anymore, and I didn’t blame him. If he found out I was pregnant with Landon’s child—a baby that would be his half-sibling—he would only be more pissed off at me than he already was.

The only person in my corner right now was Celine, but as much as she wanted to be there for me, she just didn’t understand. How could she? She didn’t want for anything; money wasn’t an object. Raising a baby when she had help and staff at her beck and call would be a breeze.

I had to work for my money. To make ends meet wasn’t that hard when it was just me, but to have a baby, to pay for a nanny, to juggle my hours as a nurse… the more I thought about it, the more I felt sick.

It wasn’t morning sickness, either. This nausea came from pure fear of what my future held.

A nurse came to me.

“I’m going to chat to Rebecca real quick, okay?” she said to Zoey. “We’ll be right there, where you can see us the whole time.”

Zoey nodded at us with big eyes, and I got up, following the nurse a few steps away so Zoey couldn’t hear what we were saying.

“How is she?” I asked.

“She’s out of surgery, but it doesn’t look good,” the nurse said. I didn’t know her by name, I’d only seen her around. She was an operating nurse, always in the operating rooms with the doctors. “You’ll have to call social services for the girl. The mother has no family she can reach out to.”

My heart constricted, and I felt terrible for Zoey.

“It’s a tough one,” the nurse said gently when she saw my face. “The social worker will make sure she’s okay.”

I nodded. That wasn’t what I’d worried about when the nurse had told me to call social services.

I’d seen myself in Amelia, a single mother with no one to turn to. If she died, Zoey would be completely alone. Was that what my child would be doomed to, as well?

My throat swelled shut, and my heart was in my throat. I couldn’t think about it, not now. I couldn’t panic about my future. I had to take care of Zoey.

Zoey watched me with big eyes as I walked back to the table.

“Your mom’s still sleeping after they checked up on her, and they’re going to have to keep an eye on her. In the meantime, I’m going to call a lady who can help, almost like a nanny.”

“I’ve never had a nanny before.”

I felt for this little girl.

“Come with me while I make a quick call, and then we’ll buy sweets from a vending machine.”

I felt like an idiot trying to fix this little girl’s complicated life with food, but I didn’t know what else to do. All of this hit so close to home; I was struggling to breathe.

I hoped to God this little girl’s mother would survive. If she died here and now, it felt like all my hopes for a happy future with the baby growing inside me would die too.

20

LANDON

Whenallelsefailed,I worked. It had been my go-to from the very start. When life went balls-up on me, I threw myself into my company. It was why it was so fucking successful. Divorce? I opened offices in another state. I accidentally missed my kid’s recital? I expanded my company and created a thousand new job opportunities.

For everything I did as a jackass, for every way I fucked up, I put that shit right into my company and made sure that some good came of it. Call it my personal brand of karma.

This time, I’d lost Rebecca, and I couldn’t figure out how to kick the company up another notch. The only thing I could think about was to groom the company, to refine it until it was the best it could be so that Brad could take it over one day.

One day soon, maybe. It was time for me to pass down the mantle, to take a step back, and let the new generation take over.

Not that I could tell Brad that right now. To hand over to him, my son had to talk to me, and he was giving me the cold shoulder in an ugly, petty, childish, and totally justifiable way.

“Morning, Chris,” I said when I arrived at the office.

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