Her Secret, His Heir (The Diamond Club Book 11)
Page 9
Change in plans, she thought as she rushed out of the school to her car. “Pregnant?” she whispered as she drove to the drug store.
Getting a pregnancy test was simple enough. Easier than she’d thought, but why it would be hard, she wasn’t exactly sure.
Ten minutes later, she had confirmation. She wasn’t just tired because she was sad.
She was pregnant!
Chapter 9
“Okay, this is worse than asking for money,” she whispered to herself as the elevator carried her up to the executive floor of JJH Technologies. She hadn’t been able to make an appointment, but when she’d arrived in the lobby and explained herself to the security guard, he’d made a call and she’d been allowed to come up.
Memories of the first time she’d ridden up this elevator swamped her. That was long gone, she told herself, pressing her lips together as she watched the numbers over the door of the elevator. Was it moving slower than normal?
“Just tell him and get out,” she said to the elevator. Obviously, it didn’t respond, but she felt the tug of apprehension in her stomach. Dread, she thought. Yeah, dread that he was going to tell her it wasn’t his child.
A month ago, she wouldn’t have thought that Jackson was capable of being rude or purposely inflicting pain. But after his cold, unexplained and abrupt silence, she suspected that he was capable of a lot.
Stepping off of the elevator, she turned to the left, trying to control her rising terror. He had been horrible the last time she’d seen him, but this wasn’t a social call. She didn’t want to tell him, but this was too important. He had a right to know. If there’d been any other reason for her fatigue, she would have dealt with this on her own. But…it was his baby too. Even if he kicked her out of his office, she still had to tell him.
That had been a big debate she’d had with herself last night. Should she tell him? After he’d just abandoned her without any explanation, she was inclined to simply keep the news of her pregnancy to herself.
But her parents had always taught her to do the right thing, to step up and face the bad stuff just as one would the good stuff. Life wasn’t always fair, but she didn’t have to be the person who contributed to the unfairness of the world.
“Good morning, Doris,” Melanie greeted Jackson’s assistant with a weak smile. “Thank you for allowing me to see Mr. Hughes.”
Doris smiled. “I don’t know if it will make much of a difference,” she said softly. “But he’s been a bear over the past few weeks. Hopefully, you can put a smile on his face.” With that, she opened the door to Jackson’s office and announced that Melanie was here.
“Send her in,” Melanie heard him say. But his voice was hard. Definitely not eager as it used to be when she arrived to see him at his office.
As soon as she stepped into the office, he was standing there. “I’m not going to dance around the issue, Melanie. I don’t share. If you want to have multiple lovers, that’s your option. But don’t count me in.” He moved closer. “If you ever step foot on any property owned by the Hughes family, I will call the police and have you arrested for trespassing. Do I make myself clear?”
Melanie stared into the eyes of the most amazing man she’d ever met. She’d fallen in love with him but she’d never imagined this cold, heartless person. So obviously, she didn’t really know him. She certainly didn’t recognize the stranger in front of her.
“Crystal,” she said and turned around. Her fingers fumbled with the doorknob but when he reached around her to help, she cringed away, not wanting him to touch her. Not after what he’d just said. “Get away from me!” she snapped and fumbled again with the door. This time, thankfully, she was able to get it open and she burst out of his office. Instead of taking the elevator, she rushed to the staircase, needing to get away from him as fast as possible. She couldn’t stand there and wait for the elevator. She couldn’t be on this floor where he worked and breathed for another moment.
It was a long way down the stairs since the doors to the other floors were locked. She should have thought about that, knowing the intense security that this building maintained. But she was a schoolteacher and wasn’t aware of the security measures that a building like this must have in place.
And in the end, it didn’t really matter. She hurried down the stairs, fighting back tears. Bursting out onto the street, she breathed in huge gulps of fresh air. The summer heat and thick humid air had slowly given way to crystal clear air that was still warm, but not like what the city endured over the summer months.
It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but getting away from Jackson Hughes and everything he represented. She was so hurt by the anger in his voice, the hatred and humiliation…she just ran. She ran across the ornamental cement area fronting the building. She ran down the cement sidewalk and all the way to the parking lot. Once there, she dove into her car, her fingers shaking so badly that she missed the ignition button several times.
Pulling out of the parking lot, she almost ran into another car coming towards her. After almost hitting a pedestrian, she pulled into another parking lot and burst into tears. She was furious with herself for going to him, trying to do the right thing, only to be slapped in the face.
And what had he said? Something about not sharing her? Did he consider her to be a piece of property? Did he think he owned her? And who the hell was he sharing her with? What did he think? Was he somehow convinced that she was seeing someone else?
It took her twenty minutes of crying before she pulled herself together. Wiping her tears away, she took several deep breaths and looked around, orienting herself. “Get it together,” she whispered. Pulling out of the parking lot, she made her way back home. After another batch of sweet potatoes, she sat in her big, comfy chair and considered her options. She could send him a letter, explaining her pregnancy. But he probably wouldn’t open it. She could send him a text, but he hadn’t responded to any of her other texts, which meant he had probably blocked her.
She couldn’t think of any other way to inform him that she was going to have a baby. Perhaps she could contact a lawyer who could send him official notice, but she didn’t really have the money to do that. As a teacher, money was always be tight. She’d accepted that when she’d joined the teaching profession and knew that her life wasn’t going to change. She didn’t live paycheck to paycheck because she’d bought a tiny house and saved a certain amount every month for emergencies and retirement, but that didn’t mean she wanted to spend her savings informing a man that she was pregnant.
No, she’d tried. And failed. He hadn’t listened to her. Jackson had thrown out strange accusations and…as she sat there staring out the window into her tiny back yard, she decided that she’d done her duty. She’d tried to tell him about her pregnancy, and that was all she needed to do.
With a clear conscience, she stood up and got out the ice cream from the freezer. Ice cream solved everything, she thought to herself. Ice cream was happiness in a cold, wonderful mouthful.
Chapter 10
“No! No, you’re not inviting him!” Melanie snapped at Beth.
“But…” she stared at Melanie, then at her friend’s giant tummy. “He’s the one!” she gasped, finally connecting the dots. “He’s your baby’s father, isn’t he?”
Melanie pressed her lips together, refusing to answer. Her hands covered her belly protectively, well, as much as her hands could cover. Which wasn’t a whole lot, considering that she was more than thirty-seven weeks pregnant. She was huge! Absolutely huge! If she hadn’t had a sonogram several months ago, she would have suspected that Jackson’s twin-genes were at work, but there was only one inside of her and she was grateful for that.
“He’s not coming,” she repeated, more firmly this time. “The reception to kick off the tomato sales is for the kids.”
“Yes, but Melanie, if it weren’t for his generous donation, we wouldn’t have the greenhouses, the tomatoes wouldn’t have thrived over the winter, and the kids wouldn’t
be selling a bumper crop of tomato plants for their spring fundraising event. Face it, Jackson Hughes made all of this happen.”
Melanie emphatically shook her head. “No, the kids made this happen. They’ve all been hugely on board with this project for months. They planted the seeds. They watered the seedlings. They experimented with the temperatures and light in the greenhouses. They pampered those plants. Every child in the cafeteria ate their apples and bananas so that the compost bins could have the cores and peels. They were very careful about separating out their foods so that only the right foods were tossed into the compost material. And because of their diligence, the tomato plants had an excellent, nutritious meal of compost every few weeks.”
She took a deep breath and walked over to the center table. “The kids made this happen, Beth. Mr. Hughes only donated the money to start the program.”
“Yes, but you know we couldn’t have started it without his donation.”
Melanie didn’t care. She didn’t feel like being fair about anything. It had been a struggle to get through this pregnancy. Their baby was due any day now and she was terrified! Terrified of giving birth, even though Beth and Roy both promised to help her through it. Melanie was terrified of bringing her baby home from the hospital. Good grief, she hadn’t even finished putting the crib together! Where was she going to put her baby? She’d tried to figure out how to put the pieces of that stupid contraption together on her own, but someone, a very sadistic person, had written the instructions for crib assembly and they were impossible to figure out! Possibly because she started crying every time she walked into the nursery. Or had a panic attack and had to concentrate on breathing and calming down.
Thankfully, Beth dropped the subject and they moved on to the planning of the tomato plant sale.
Jackson stepped out of his black sedan and looked around at the school grounds. The place was mobbed with parents and…others. This crowd couldn’t all be parents of elementary school teachers. And it seemed that every one, or at least each group of people, had a tomato plant in their arms, several of them admiring the health of the huge plants.
As a man who hadn’t ever planted a single thing in his life, he knew nothing about tomato plants, but these looked to be pretty big, several of them already had yellow flowers, which he assumed would eventually transform into tomatoes. Then again, what did he know?
Walking along the street, because he hadn’t been able to park closer, he realized that several people also had brown bags filled with popcorn. So the kids weren’t just selling plants, but bags of popcorn as well? Good for them! Everyone loved a bargain and food was a huge seller.
Once again, he wondered why the hell he was here. He’d gotten the invitation in the mail, but it had simply been an invitation to buy a tomato plant grown by the local school to raise money for both their next crop of plants as well as a school-wide party – depending on how much money was raised during this spring sale.
He’d thought about teaching the kids how to calculate loan rates and return on investment. But Jackson had spurned all calls from Melanie earlier in the fall. Those phone calls had dropped off and, after her last visit to his office, he hadn’t heard from her again.
Yes, he missed her. But she’d been with another man. He’d seen her that day in her kitchen, professing her love for the ass! Then again later in the week. She’d been in the same man’s arms, her pretty head resting against his shoulder. Exactly as she loved to do with him. Or used to, he corrected.
“I have to get out of here,” he muttered to himself. He was just about to turn around when he spotted the long tables filled with tomato plants. There were hundreds of plants, and all looked pretty darn good!
And then…he saw her! Melanie! She was smiling at a woman, her smile making his stomach clench with jealousy. If it hadn’t been a woman Melanie was smiling at, Jackson might have walked over and punched the other person.
Jealousy seared through him and…
Then he looked down.
What the hell! Melanie was…huge! She was pregnant! She was pregnant with his baby! A fury unlike anything he’d ever felt surged through him. Walking over to her, he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her away. “Excuse us,” he snapped at the other woman, ignoring her look of shock at his rudeness.
Melanie stumbled as she was dragged away from Debbie’s mother. They’d been having a perfectly nice conversation about math tests and grades and…then her upper arm was gripped painfully. A moment later, she’d been pulled off to the side, almost tripping on the uneven pavement of the sidewalk. Strong arms caught her and held her safe, but when she looked up into the furious silver eyes of Jackson, she knew that she wasn’t safe. She was in grave danger.
“You’re pregnant!” he hissed.
It took Melanie several moments to process everything. Jackson was here? He was here! Damn it, he was here! After months of not hearing a word from him, he was here? Why was he here? The last time she’d gone to see him, to tell him about her pregnancy, he’d told her never to contact him again. He’d told her that he’d call the police and have her arrested for trespassing!
“What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed.
Jackson’s hand sliced through the air. “Never mind why I’m here, why didn’t you tell me that you were pregnant?”
Melanie covered her protruding belly with her hands, as if she could protect her unborn child from his wrath.
“Get away from me!” she hissed and jerked her arm out of his grip. “And I’ll issue the same threat to you that you gave to me the last time I spoke to you. Go away. If you come near me again, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. Perhaps a restraining order would also be appropriate,” she warned. With that, she turned around and waddled back to the plant sale, trying to dismiss Jackson from her mind.
Not an easy task when he was so big. Not to mention, he loomed over her.
“Oh no! You don’t get to walk away from me like that! I need an explanation!”
She turned around slowly, knowing that her center of gravity was off with her baby so big. “Jackson, you don’t get an explanation. I came to you back in the fall to explain. But you threatened me. You told me to leave you alone.” She leaned forward slightly, wanting to be just as intimidating as he was. But that was hard to do when she was more than eight months’ pregnant. Not a very intimidating package, she knew. “You don’t have any rights, Jackson! Wish granted. I’ve left you alone!”
His eyes sparkled with fury. “That was before I knew you were pregnant with my child!”
She pulled back. “Really Jackson? Is that where you’re going with this?” She poked him in the chest. “You accused me of cheating on you! You said you didn’t like to share! Now you’re claiming that this is your baby?” She shook her head, furious with him. And she clung to that fury like a lifeline because it was so much better to be angry than scared. Melanie was sick of being scared, of wondering how she was going to raise a child all by herself.
“That’s my child!”
She didn’t agree or deny it. “How do you know?”
Jackson glared at her and Melanie wondered why she was saying things like this. Of course it was his child. She’d never been with another man since meeting Jackson Hughes and all she wanted was to throw herself into his arms.
But she’d gone down that pathway once. She wasn’t going to believe in him again. She couldn’t trust him. He’d thought she’d been with another man and hadn’t had the decency to talk to her about it, to confront her so that she could defend herself. Nor could she imagine where he had gotten the idea in the first place.
“Go away, Jackson,” she said and turned around.
Pain slashed through her pelvis and she cried out, gripping the tree as she bent over.
“What’s wrong?” Jackson demanded, coming to her side. Was this another trick? Was she playing him?
He looked down at her as she bent over, noticed that her face was white, even her lips as she bit them.
She only shook her head, causing the loose bun of silky hair to tumble down around her shoulders. “Go away,” she whispered, then turned her head as another slice of pain slashed through her body.
“Mel, this isn’t good,” he warned. When she started to tumble, he caught her, lifting her up into his arms.
Others were starting to notice that Melanie wasn’t doing well. Several mothers rushed over. “What’s going on?” one of them demanded.
Jackson tried to swallow the panic that threatened to choke him. Looking down the street, he tried to find someone who could help him. Help Melanie! “I don’t know. She stopped and then bent over in pain.”
The woman nodded. “I’m an obstetrician. I’m calling an ambulance. It sounds like she’s going into labor.”
Jackson heard the words and a sick feeling hit him. “I’ll meet the ambulance on the way to the hospital.”
The doctor nodded as she started talking on the phone. She grabbed Melanie’s wrist and walked with Jackson to his car, speaking to someone on the other end of the line. The doctor was saying something about pulse rates and placental ruptures. Jackson wasn’t sure what that meant, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t good.
“Move faster,” the doctor ordered. “Put her in the back seat of your car and I’ll be next to her while you drive.”
Jackson didn’t argue. He popped the locks on his car and settled Melanie into the back seat as gently as possible. Word had gotten around and some of the parents had cleared a pathway for him to get out, stopping traffic both ways. He peeled out of the parking lot, tires squealing as he raced down the road.