Page 54 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

“Was it your turn? I didn’t realize.” Molly grabbed a few tissues and tried to mop up.

“Why are we even crying over them, anyway? Should I order a hit? I can afford it and I’m not afraid to go to jail again.”

“You’ve never—tsk.” Molly chuckled as she blew her nose.

“Made you laugh, though.” Sasha sat down beside her and nudged her shoulder into Molly’s.

They leaned on each other for a bolstering moment.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Sasha proposed. “We’ll hang a sign on the door that says No Boys Allowed. Then we’ll stay here forever, raising our little peanut, just the two of us.”

“That’s very tempting,” she said truthfully.

Can Libby join us?She didn’t ask, though.

Sasha was making progress at her own pace. She had reconnected with their counselor in London and had said, after yesterday’s chat with her, “I want Libby to know she has a sibling, but I don’t know how to tell Rafael about her.”

The same cheerful woman had checked in with Molly about how she was feeling about the inevitable separation after she delivered.

Molly expected it was going to be hard emotionally, but now that she had this time to reconnect with Sasha and knew they would continue to have a relationship after the baby was born, her anxiety on that front was manageable. From the beginning, Sasha had assured Molly she would have an auntlike relationship to the baby. That would go a long way to softening her sense of loss. Now she was even talking about opening herself to Libby, which made Molly even happier that she was doing this.

No, she wasn’t particularly worried about the aftermath of the delivery. It was the emptiness in the other corners of her life that loomed like ghouls. She wouldn’t have her job. She had planned to live with her mom and Libby while she looked for a new position, but already knew her life would feel desolate because it already did. Gio wouldn’t be in it.

“I think I expected that if Gio knew you were Libby’s mom, and that I’m just trying to give you what you gave us, it would make a difference. That he would understand.” She started to choke up again.

“Oh, Moll. Let’s both have a good cry and get it over with for a few days. Shall we?”

“I’d love to, but now I have use the bathroom again,” she said with a beleaguered sigh as she rose. “Maybe we should go back to bed and start over tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a pl— Oh, my God. Moll.”

Molly looked over her shoulder. Sasha was staring with horror at a bright red stain on the sofa.

Gio was in New York, heading to one of a dozen quarterly meetings, when Avigail walked in, wide-eyed with alarm. She held out her phone.

“My grandfather?” Gio asked with a lurch of his stomach.

“No, but she says it’s urgent. Alexandra Zamos.”

Gio jolted as though struck by lightning. His heart nearly came out his mouth.

In every way, he had tried to cut Molly from his consciousness, but she was still there, every single hour of every single day. The most coldly pragmatic side of himself told him that accepting the call was prolonging a weakness he needed to conquer, but another part grasped at this delicate thread of connection to her.

He walked from the room, then said gruffly into the phone, “Alexandra?”

“I’m evacuating Molly to the hospital in Athens.” She sounded as though she was crying. “She’s bleeding. Will you—”

“What happened? Does her mother know?”

“No. That’s why I’m calling. Can you tell Patty? I can’t ask Rafael. He’s never even spoken to her and he doesn’t know—” Her choked voice was almost drowned out by the growing sound of helicopter blades thumping the air. “Can you arrange to get them here?” she shouted. “Tell Patty— Tell her that she should tell Libby anything she needs to know. Tell her about me.Everything.”

She didn’t sound like the spoiled heiress he had met in the past. She could barely speak through palpable anguish that was causing the blood to drain from his head into his shoes. He had to lean on the wall for support.

“I know this is a lot to ask when you and Molly are on the outs, but Rafael—”

“It’s done. I’ll handle it.” Gio didn’t know how he would have that conversation with Molly’s mother. He didn’t know how he would speak or breathe or function if Molly didn’t survive this. “Keep me posted,” he said, but he wasn’t sure she heard him.

Molly blinked awake to the dimly lit private hospital room. She sensed it was the middle of the night and wasn’t certain what had pulled her from sleep except lingering anxiety over all that had happened today.

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