Page 3 of Grand Love

I struggle to hear her, and my brows drop low as I catch her sad face.

The nurse gives me a death stare. “You have a minute. If I can hear you from out there, you are out. The lot of you. Never in my forty-four years have I seen anything like it!” She leaves the room and Lucy follows her, not looking at me as she passes.

I rush to Nina’s side. “What happened? Scar wouldn’t tell me, she said she couldn’t.” I grasp her hand and she rips it away. “Baby, I’m sorry. I woke up in a hotel. I cut my head. I think I fell. I don’t know what happened last night.”

Her lip trembles, then she pulls something from under her blanket, placing it between us on the bed. She turns her head away from me.

I lift the photo, not believing my eyes. A baby, outlined in the small image. “You’re pregnant?” I ask in disbelief before a smile splits my face. “I… fuck. I’m the dad? We are pregnant?”

“No, I am pregnant. And of course, it’s yours.”

“Oh my god.” I laugh, staring at the image in wonder. She’s pregnant. “And you’re okay?” I go to take her hand again, but she pulls it away. It has my heart hammering in my chest. Something is wrong. “The baby?”

“Healthy.”

Leaning over, she pulls a bag from the end of the bed, reaching in and pulling out an envelope. She thrusts it into my chest. “Here. Congratulations.”

I pull out the contents and find four images. Bile rises in my throat as I take in the woman, legs spread and dancing on my lap, her lips mere inches from mine. “What? I don’t understand. This isn’t me.”

“Don’t!” she screams, making my entire body flinch and my body run hot. “Don’t you fucking dare lie to me!”

“I’m not. Nina, this isn’t me.” I shake the images in my hand.

What the fuck!

“Get out,” she says, barely audible.

Panic floors me, threatening to take me all the way down. “No!”

“Get out! Get out of my life and stay the hell away from me. I hate you! I hate you so much it hurts because you have me now. You have me trapped for life, and I can’t leave. I hate you, Mason Lowell, with everything inside me.”

My throat burns with her words. She doesn’t mean that. “Don’t say that. Let me fix this. This isn’t real.”

“Yes, it fucking is, Mason! It’s real. She is real. That is you.”

I shake my head, confused. What happened last night? “I don’t understand. Give me a chance to figure this out, and I can explain.”

“Explain what? How you fucked a prostitute?” My chest cracks. “Because if the picture wasn’t clear enough, the fact you never came home last night is explanation enough. Done! I am done!” Tears line her face and I feel my own start to fall. “A stripper? You might as well have fucked my mother.”

“No.” I shake my head vehemently. “I didn’t sleep with anyone. I woke alone.” I try to hold her, but she shoves me off. “Stop! Please, I don’t want to upset you. Nina. You can’t leave me again.”

She lifts her eyes to look at me, confusion and hurt washing out her beautiful face. “Nina, we are having a baby. Let me figure this out,” I beg.

“No.” She holds my eyes, defiant. Her tears flow and all I want to do is reach out and rid them. “Believe me when I tell you, this is it. I can’t do this anymore.” She tears two scan photos free and slaps them to my chest again. “Get out.”

No. “I didn’t do this. I didn’t do anything.”

“Leave!” she sobs, and it has me snapping. She can’t do this. Why is she doing this?

“Walk away from me now, Nina, without giving me a chance to explain, and I won’t ever forgive you for it. I won’t keep begging on my knees to keep you.”

My nostrils flare as I fight to keep my chin from trembling.

“You think this is me leaving you? You ended this the minute her lips touched yours. Now, leave.” I watch as she swallows, her brows dipping low. “Please, just go.”

“That’s it. We’re done?” I wipe at my face, feeling utterly hopeless.

“Yes.”

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