I didn’t know how I was going to tell Gabe. It seemed to me the thought of an heir was something he’d applied for in theory only...not because he had some deep craving to be a father. Even so, I knew he would have been a good one. He was firm but fair, serious and caring…. all at the same time.
But for the time being, the only thing I had to do was make it through the rest of the night without letting anyone else catch on to the fact that I was pregnant. Until I’d had some time to talk it through with the father of the child, I wanted to keep it to myself. Even though there was nothing I wanted more than to call up Lorraine and blurt out the truth about everything that had been happening.
When I came out, I found Gabe waiting for me outside. He looked so tall and dashing my heart ached for him. I wanted to reach out, touch him, tell him about the baby, but I kept it in. I didn’t know how far along he was into his surrogate project, if he even wanted another child. Our child.
Gabe was eating me with his eyes. I swear he looked as if the last thing he wanted to do was go out. "You ready?” Even his voice sounded thick with desire.
I nodded silently.
He moved closer to me, buried his nose in the crook of my neck and inhaled deeply. “God, Willow. Every day you just look more and more beautiful. If ever it could be said a woman was glowing it has to be you. Right now.”
I almost winced. As in pregnancy glow?
Outside, the limo waited for us. Gabe opened the door for me to climb in, the perfect gentleman as ever. "Austin’s going to be at this thing tonight," he warned as we pulled away from the house. "Stay by my side and avoid him as much as you can."
I felt my belly clench with dread, but I kept my voice light. "You make it sound like he’s an assassin out to get me.”
"Yeah, well, he might not be an assassin, but there is a lot at stake for him. He wants the company. At the very least, he’ll be trying to trick you into proving his suspicions.”
I winced. Gabe still didn’t know about the time Austin came to the apartment and told me right out that Gabe was slumming it with a girl like me. I could hear the words, loud and clear, still ringing in my head. "Trust me, he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to spend any time around," I assured him. "I’ll keep well out of his way."
"Good," Gabe replied with a tender smile. "Other than that, just be your normal, charming self. I’m sure they’re all going to love you to bits."
When he smiled like that at me, I could almost believe he cared. Really cared. I was more than explosive sex. "Okay," I said softly. As I continued to stare helplessly into his magnetic eyes I became afraid that he would start knowing how I really felt about him so I dragged my eyes away and gazed out the window.
We arrived at the party, and I found myself laying a protective hand on my belly. I already felt protective of the vulnerable little bean in there. It hadn’t asked for any of this. It was my job to look after it.
"Gabe, Willow, great to see you," Austin announced loudly as he slimed up beside us.
I dropped my hand from my belly. He would have eagle-eyes out for anything amiss, and he was the last person I wanted to know about my baby.
"How’s it going?," Gabe said, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me close to him.
"Wasn’t sure if we’d see you here today," he remarked. "Given, that you were away last week."
"We got back a long time ago," Gabe stated evenly, but there was something different about his voice. "And besides, we’re not letting you have all the fun here."
"Of course," Austin replied.
A waiter passed by with a tray of drinks, pausing to offer us something. Gabe ordered a scotch from him, Austin already had a glass of champagne.
I reached out for the same, then remembered I couldn’t have anything with alcohol in it. "Do you have anything...alcohol-free?” I asked, lowering my voice.
I could see Austin leaning forward with interest in what I was saying.
The waiter nodded, retreated, and then a moment later re-appeared with Gabe’s scotch and my orange juice, but the damage had already been done.
"Not drinking, are we, Willow?” Austin remarked, a strange inflection to his voice. "Strange, you struck me as the type who—"
"Careful," Gabe warned in a cold hard voice I’d never heard before. "Willow is my wife, so watch your mouth.”
Austin jerked his head back in surprise. “Hey, I wasn’t trying to be rude. You know how much I like my drink.”
“Whatever, but you’ve had your warning. You won’t get a second one.” Then Gabe took my hand and led me away. When we were a little further away from Austin, he looked down at me. “He’s an asshole. Don’t pay any attention to him. You were ill all week and if you’re not feeling up to drinking booze yet, you just stay with the juice, okay?”
I felt too stunned to reply. I could only nod weakly. My heart felt as if it might burst. The way he had jumped in to protect me. No man had ever done that. I knew then Austin was wrong. He wasn’t slumming it with me. We were tied together in some way beyond money and status.
I glanced back and Austin was staring at me with something like hate on his face. I could feel a sinking feeling in my chest already.
Gabe squeezed me tight, obviously sensing my anxiety. “Are you okay?”
I flashed a smile. No matter what, I wasn’t going to let him down. I would smile and be the kind of wife he could be proud of.
The rest of the night passed without much difficulty, but the whole time I was there, I could feel Austin watching me like a hawk. Finally, to my great relief, Gabe pulled us out of the party. I let out an audible sigh of relief as soon as we were in the limo, out of sight of Austin and everyone else. I’d never before been under such intense speculation and scrutiny.
"You all right?" Gabe asked me, a frown on his brow.
"Yeah, of course," I replied, but my voice was weak and I knew I wasn’t selling anything.
"You didn’t drink at all tonight," he pointed out. "Don’t you feel well? I can call up the doctor and get him to come right away."
"No, no, I don’t need that," I assured him quickly. "I just need—uh, I just need..." I trailed off. I didn’t know what to tell him. My unfinished sentence hung in the air between us.
“Need what?”
I sighed. “Time. I just need a bit of time.”
The car pulled to a halt outside the house, he helped me out, and we headed up the stairs together.
"What’s wrong, Willow?” Gabe asked gently once the door closed behind us.
I bit my lip and stared at him. He would have to find out sooner or later. So it might as well be now. "Okay. There’s—there’s something I haven’t been honest with you about. I mean, I didn’t lie or anything. I just haven’t told you about it… yet.”
He stared at me, silent, strong, prepared for anything.
I took a deep breath, mustered all of my courage, and dropped it on him, "I’m pregnant." It didn’t even sound like my voice coming out of my mouth as I spoke those words. Instinctively, I put my hands on my belly as if protecting the little baby I was carrying inside me.
"And it’s—it’s mine?" he asked in an odd, choked voice.
I nodded quickly. "I haven’t been with anyone else for more than a year. One of the condoms we used must have failed or something, I’m not sure.” I knew I was babbling, but I couldn’t stop myself. “I promise, I never planned this, I didn’t want this to happen. I am sure—“
"Stop, Willow. Stop." He even raised his hand as if all my words were like blows he was fending off. His eyes were shining, as though he was looking into a future he had never imagined before.
“What?” I whispered.
He grinned. "This is...this is good. Very good. Fucking perfect, actually!"
"Perfect?” I echoed.
"Of course, it is," he shouted before throwing his head back and laughing.
Okay, so this was a good sign, I felt pretty sure it was.
"The most important part of
the stipulations in that will was that I had to come up with an heir. And now, I have."
“What about the surrogate baby?”
“I got a bit sidetracked by you. I was planning on starting that next week.”
"Well, I’m only a couple of weeks gone. It’s going to be while before the baby is born."
"I’ve waited all my life to get the company. What’s another nine months?"
"Right, of course," I agreed, but I felt my heart sink. He just saw the baby as the means to land the business once and for all. This wasn’t about me, or us, or a family. This was about what it had always been about. Him getting Grayson Inc.
"You have no idea how happy this makes me, Willow," he murmured, as he caught my face in his hands and kissed me. Before I knew it, I was kissing him back. Close to his body like this, I could convince myself this was how it was meant to be. I’d just told the man I was married to that I was pregnant with his child, and now he was holding me, happy, thrilled, elated.
Then he pulled back, and I couldn’t pretend anymore. None of it was real. He was my husband, but he wouldn’t be for long. The clock was ticking. And the baby inside me wasn’t the beginning of a family we would construct together. I felt the backs of my eyes begin to burn and I knew I needed to be away from him for a while. "I need the bathroom," I mumbled, and quickly turned away so he would not see the tears in my eyes.
Even before I had retreated into the safety of my bedroom, tears had begun to flood down my cheeks.
Chapter 25
Willow
"Oh, my God."
"I know."
"No, but seriously, oh my God!" Lorraine stared at me from across the table, her jaw hanging open. She looked like I had just upped and landed two giant slaps on either side of her face.
I knew how she felt. My brain was still fizzing over it.
"You’re pregnant? You’re really pregnant?" Lorraine repeated incredulously, leaning forward.
I nodded. "I’m really pregnant.” I’d taken at least three more tests to confirm that this wasn’t some kind of false reading, and I felt entirely confident I was actually in the family way.
"I can’t believe this is happening. What does Gabe think about this whole thing?” she asked. "I mean, you’ve told him, right?"
"Yeah, he knows. He’s happy about it. It means he gets what he wants, doesn’t it? He needed an heir, now I’m pregnant, so he doesn’t have to go out of his way to find a surrogate. It’s convenient, I guess."
"Yeah, but it’s not exactly convenient for you," she shot back, always on my side. "Do you even want this kid? What’s going to happen when you have it? Are the two of you going to stay together, or are you just—"
"Honestly, Lorraine, I have no idea what happens next," I confessed. "I just needed to talk to someone about all of this, or else my head was going to explode."
"You know I’m always here for you. And if you need someone to step in and help raise this baby, then you know I’m going to be right there too."
I felt a pain in my chest. "I really appreciate the thought,” I said in a choked voice. It was good knowing someone was on my side with all of this. Until I met Lorraine, I had always felt alone in the world. Only after I met her had I felt close to another human being.
"And do you..." she began, then hesitated.
"What is it? If you’re going to be my future baby-momma you should be able to tell me anything."
"Do you have feelings for him?” she asked finally.
I paused for a moment, letting her words hang in the air. I would have liked to be able to brush it off and tell her I felt nothing for him, he was nothing more than a great fuck and a quick way to a million dollars, but it would have been a lie. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, I do.”
“Oh, honey,” she cried.
I knew it was a sound from her heart. She was suffering for me.
The waiter came over then and we were forced to turn our attention to him and what we were going to order. I was glad to have something to draw my attention away and when he was gone, I told Lorraine, I didn’t want to talk about Gabe or the baby for a while.
The rest of the meal, we talked of other things. Well, I listened and she tried to draw a laugh out of me. She was good to me, a better friend than I had suspected. I felt so grateful for her existence. I wouldn’t have been able to make it through this whole mess without her.
When the meal was over, she gave me a tight hug, pulled back and looked into my eyes. "It’s going to be all right, Willow," she promised. "It’s going to be okay. I’m here for you. We’ll figure this out. Like we always do."
"I know we will," I agreed. I hoped my smile was enough to paper over the cracks I was feeling inside.
She squeezed my shoulder. “You know I love you, right?”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “You know I love you right back, right?”
We hugged again
I could have called for the limo or gotten a cab back, but I decided to walk. I needed to clear my head. The restaurant was only a few blocks away from home. Home. It was funny, I had started to think of Gabe’s apartment as my home now. When did that trick of the light happen? The apartment I lived in with Lorraine was my real home and would be again when I returned to it. His home was mine only for now...
And that was when everything went black.
Chapter 26
Willow
The first thing I noticed was the smell, dank and musty. It filled my head like the scent of a cheap beer spilled on an old floor. The first reaction was nausea. Then fear. Jesus. Where was I? Something, a sack, or a bag made out of rough fabric was pulled over my head. I pressed my lips together to keep from screaming or letting the smell get too deep into my brain.
My hands were bound with thin ties.
And I was tied to a metal chair.
I was someone’s prisoner.
Whose?
I tried to piece my fragmented memories together, but I was having trouble getting everything to stick. It had all happened so quickly. I was walking down the street in bright daylight after lunch with Lorraine. Walking almost in a daze. Concentrating on nothing but my thoughts. Not even properly registering the sound of a car screeching to a stop on the street just behind me. Then the sensation of a sharp prick on my arm. As blackness descended with a man’s arms wrapping themselves around me from behind.
I’d been kidnapped in broad daylight. Would they be sending a ransom note to Gabe?
I felt remarkably calm given the situation, my brain oddly focused. I didn’t scream or move a muscle. I knew if I panicked, nothing good was going to happen. I had to keep my shit together for myself and for my baby. I knew Gabe would pay to get me back. The baby and I were the ticket to him having Grayson Inc.
I tried to figure out my surroundings. It smelled like I was in the basement of some gross old house, the cold damp air sinking into my skin. I tried to pull my hands apart, testing the strength of the ties, but a voice came from behind me.
"I wouldn’t bother with that, if I were you."
I recognized it. I heard footsteps making their way around the chair. The bag was pulled away from my head. My jaw dropped when I saw the identity of my kidnapper. "Austin?” I gasped.
His face seemed set a little harder than it had been before, his jaw tense, his body intense with energy. Energy, he had focused on me. "Yes, it’s me, Austin," he mocked with a sneer.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, glaring at him.
"I’d be very, very careful how you talk to me if I were you. My big, strong cousin isn’t here to protect you and I don’t like you, so there’s nothing to stop me from kicking the shit out of you.”
With fear fluttering in my chest, I peered up at him once more.
“That’s better. Now, where was I? Yes, I’ve done a bit of research on you and uncovered a few little secrets about you."
"What are you talking about?” I fired back, hoping that my voice was doing a decent job
hiding the utter terror pulsing through my system. Until I saw him, I’d been able to convince myself it was a straight up kidnapping job and all I had to do was stay calm and wait for Gabe to pay them off. But now knowing this monster was the one responsible for snatching me—a man who clearly wished me harm—I knew I was in serious trouble.
"You know exactly what I’m talking about," he replied, voice terse. "Your deal? With Gabe? I knew he would never hook up with someone like you, turns out I was right all along..."
"You don’t know what you’re talking about," I replied desperately. But I knew it was over. He knew about the deal, he knew about the contract. The best I could do was keep deflecting long enough for someone to notice I was gone and do something about it.
"Oh, drop it already, Willow," he replied, waving his hand with irritation. "I know about the contract between you and Gabe. I know this whole thing is a scam for you to get some cash and for him to steal the company from me."
“He’s not stealing the company from you. He worked his whole life for it. He deserves it.”
“Is that what he told you? What a little liar he is. My grandfather put that stipulation in because he wanted me to have the company. I was his favorite. He didn’t trust your husband and he was right, wasn’t he? He’s just a low-down thief. Lusting after what isn’t his.”
I fell silent. What could I say? I could have announced I was pregnant and hoped it would be enough to earn some decency from him, but I had a feeling revealing that knowledge wouldn’t help me at all. It might even make it worse. "How did you find out?" I asked quietly. I had no idea what kind of deranged game plan he’d put together, but I wasn’t going to risk getting him angry by continuing to deny his accusations. The only real choice in front of me was to somehow negotiate with him.
"Did a little research on you, saw that you had a roommate before you went for my cousin," he explained proudly, clearly impressed with his own powers of deduction. As though any idiot with enough cash couldn’t have figured out the same thing. “And I guessed she might know a little something about whatever the fuck was going on between the two of you," he continued. "So, I found out where she liked to hang, went to a bar, met up with her..."
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