He headed our way, smiling genuinely. When he was close enough, he held a hand out for me to shake. "Mr. and Mrs. Wesley, it’s a pleasure to meet the both of you. My name is Evan. The school sent me to welcome you."
"Yes, I was informed someone would, thank you. To be honest I was surprised when I got the position."
"Oh, don’t be. Your skills were by far the best of any of the applicants, from what I heard."
Of course, they were. Even when I'd had to doctor part of the application and the papers and certifications to go with my new identity, I was among the best when it came to tech to begin with. If I could be head hunted by a company worth millions, finding another job wouldn’t have been difficult.
It had been the dream job, to say the least. It wasn’t just any company, but one of the largest security firms in charge of most of the banking systems in the world. I'd had to start from the ground up like any newbie, but I would have made it to the top. A few years in that job, and I could have been set for life. Of course, life wasn’t fair, so none of that got to happen, because my dad went missing a few months into the job.
This was a step down from that by far, but going for something high profile was risky. I'd just have to figure out the teaching thing. Again, thank God it was an advanced class, not a beginner class. I wasn’t sure I could dumb it all down so convincingly for people who knew absolutely nothing.
"Please, let me give you a hand, you seem to be short of them. Have you ever been to London before?"
"No, I haven't, and neither has my wife. Could you just get her luggage, please? I'm fine, but she insisted she isn’t an invalid."
The school had been informed of my wife's condition, and he must have been notified because his eyes lit up in understanding.
"Of course. Here, let me help you Mrs. Wesley."
She handed the suitcase over, throwing a light glare at me. "I'm pregnant, not helpless."
"Just do what the nice man says, honey."
She gave a light growl, but followed us to the car and stood by without protesting as we fit everything into the trunk. I'd have to consider getting one for myself, soon. Cheap. Until then, I'd have to rent one. I helped Destiny into the front seat because she needed the space to stretch her legs, and I slid into the back.
"Congratulations on the baby, by the way," Evan said as he slid into his seat and buckled up. "And the job. The perfect start for a happy family, right?"
"We hope so," I muttered. It was a bit of a lie though; I wouldn’t agree to any other option for us, nothing short of happy, for Destiny's sake.
"I'm looking forward to giving birth in London; I've heard it's quite exciting."
"Oh, but it's not as exciting as Brazil. Or as exotic."
Her eyes met mine in the rearview mirror, and it was like silent understanding passed through both of us. I smiled, feeling my chest truly ease up since the doubts started creeping in.
"That's good, because it's what we want. We just want to settle down, and lead a quiet life, prepare for the new addition to the family."
Epilogue
Destiny
The quiet life was, surprisingly, boring.
After all the excitement I'd gone through, having some down time should have been nice. But after months of it, I was growing bored with it all. We lived in London, and even with all the excitement and life the city had to offer, especially at night, I wasn’t allowed to do anything.
Not that I even felt like walking anywhere, because I was bloated. My limbs had swelled a bit as my stomach grew bigger, and it hurt when I was on my feet too much. My stomach had grown so big it was a wonder it wasn’t breaking my back anytime I had to move at all.
Alex had a job, but I didn’t have more to do than wait for him. He'd promised me we'd find something for me after the baby was born, and then a few months after that, but then… what would I even do with my life?
I wasn’t as competent as Alex was. Hell, I never finished college because I was kicked out for behavioral misconduct with a professor.
He's Mark Wesley now.
But I could never think of him as anything but Alex.
I sat on the couch, my legs raised on the coffee table, eating a bag of chips. I was almost always hungry. There was no point in watching my figure, and I'd let myself go free with the food; I also found myself eating way too much junk food. I'd have to stop the habit after this kid was out of me. I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I did what I always did while at home; when I wasn’t sleeping, I was watching TV. British channels were different form American channels. The accent still threw me off. It didn’t help that Alex had programed several foreign channels, and they were all so fascinating I'd end up watching something in some language other than English most of the time.
The channel I was currently on was in English, so I understood what was going on. When it suddenly broke into news, I froze for a second, wondering if I should change it. I'd been avoiding the news since we left the States. I was reaching for the remote, when the featured story caught my attention, and I was hooked.
"The woman is said to have hung herself in her prison cell late at night. A guard found her when…."
I listened with morbid curiosity. It wasn’t a happy story—not a lot in the news usually was, even though that was sometimes there—but I couldn’t stop myself from listening. And then a location was given, and a senior guard from the prison was asked to say a few words.
"… It was an unfortunate incident, but Zoe never fit in because she didn’t want to, it was not the first time she was in solitary lock up and likely would not have been the last…"
They kept talking, but I wasn’t listening anymore. The familiar name was enough to catch my attention and hold it. They hadn't given a surname, and it could have been any other woman named Zoe. I scrambled for the remote, on the other side of the couch where I'd tossed it when I went for my snack, dropping my legs off the table. I didn’t need to know.
But then there was a picture, and it was her. My former best friend, who I had set up; who had nearly gotten killed because of me and ended up going to prison anyway. She committed suicide.
Because of you.
The whisper was in my head, my words, but the voice… I almost imagined it sounded like Zoe. I knew it was probably just my mind playing tricks on me. Intellectually, I did.
But I was an emotional being to begin with, and the pregnancy hormones were no help.
"Oh my gosh." There was no one with me but the TV to hear my broken whisper, but I heard it.
My hands flew to cover my mouth as I felt tears start to flow from my eyes. I wiped them away, but more followed until I was blinded. I vaguely heard the news anchor signing off, but I didn’t pay attention to it. In my mind, Zoe was dead, and there was no one to blame but me.
When I failed to stop the falling tears, my chest tightened uncomfortably until a sob broke free. Once I started, I couldn’t stop, until heavy sobs were shaking my body. Alex wouldn’t be home for a while, and I suddenly felt like I needed to have him near.
And then the pain started.
It was paralyzing, coming from the center of my body, like I was about to rip apart. As it passed, I leaned over my stomach, hands folded protectively around the swell of it, just breathing. I choked a bit on spit, and I coughed uncontrollably, until the pain cut me off again, and I thought it was worse.
When it passed away the second time, that was when the panic set in, as some reason returned. It wasn’t pain like I had felt before, but since we'd settled in, Alex hadn't wasted time in finding me a doctor. I had been told what to expect, and how to know when it was time. I looked down, patting at the seat and my clothes frantically when I couldn’t see beyond my stomach. The area around me on the couch was wet. I sat still, the realization reverberating through me in horror.
My water broke. I'm having the baby!
The panicked thought was followed by another wave of pain, and I cried out as tears dripped from my eyes aga
in. I had been told I would be in pain, and that part had worried me. But I'd gone through a lot of pain already. I had been sure I could survive it.
I felt like I was going to die.
I came to as the wave of pain crashed, lying on my side. It was too early. I wasn’t scheduled to give birth for another three weeks or so. We'd planned to have me booked into the hospital around that time. I never expected to be by myself when I went into labor.
Focus, Destiny! You must get moving or you will be having this kid on your couch.
"No." There was no one with me, but I said it out loud anyway, firm. The baby was early, if I was forced to have it at home and something was wrong, we could lose it.
The thought had me pushing myself off the couch. The TV was still on, but I was hardly paying attention to it just then.
I knew Alex had an evening class, but I didn’t care. I knew if I needed him, he'd come running. I managed to get to the phone, but my fingers were shaking too much and I kept misdialing. I growled at myself. Keep it together. I took a deep breath and forced my hand to still the shaking long enough to make the call.
"Hello?"
I felt relief when I heard his voice, but it was short lived as I felt the telltale sign of another contraction. It wasn’t as bad as before, which was nice, but I knew it would only grow even worse.
"Alex, please come home. Right now!" I breathed through the pain as I spoke, only it didn’t die down immediately, getting sharp enough to make me cry out again. As my body convulsed, my fingers released the phone. I could hear Alex's voice, tiny and panicked through the speaker, calling my fake name; I wanted to hear him say my real name. "Hurry!" It came out as a sob. The line cut off, and I sank to the floor and lay on my side, curling around my abdomen in a fetal position.
It felt like hours later, though it was probably less than thirty minutes, when the door opened and I heard Alex call out my name. I struggled to sit upright so he would see me.
"I'm here." My voice was weak, but he heard, and I felt relief flood through me as he rushed over to me, taking me in his arms.
I clutched him with whatever of my strength was left. Sweat was slicked across my forehead already. But then I was pushing against him, knowing it wasn’t even close to over yet.
"Alex, you have to hurry. Get the bag from the closet first." We'd packed beforehand, when I hit the six-month mark. I was suddenly so glad for it now.
He cursed quietly under his breath, and I heard his feet stomping as he ran. He was on his way back when I felt the pain coming back. He fell next to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me back into his chest, holding me as I whimpered until it passed. Then he shouldered the bag, and carried me in his arms. I could have protested, I wasn’t light to begin with, and I had only gained more weight. But it felt like too much trouble.
"I gave Dr. Langley a call and told him we're on our way. Someone will meet us when we get there."
I nodded weakly against his shoulder, then we were outside and he was helping me into the passenger seat of his car. It was an old model he bought cheap, but it was in good repair and Alex hadn't looked for another one. He threw the bag in the back seat, then rushed around and got in, starting the car and putting it in drive.
"Are you scared?"
I huffed a weak laugh. It was a good question, but a stupid one. "It's worse than getting a period. And at least I could take drugs for that." I cut off with a wince, but the pain didn’t elevate, at least not immediately.
"Don’t fold in over yourself, okay? It'll put pressure on your stomach. I know I'm probably not helping, but try and breathe through the pain."
He sounded so calm, a part of me wanted to scream at him. No, it wasn’t much help. But the greater part of me that drew strength and peace of mind from him was so grateful to have him there.
"I am scared," I told him, when the pain grew less. "But to be honest, I'm also bored. I never looked for the quaint life. I thought of leaving this, whatever future we were building, to go back to that life of glamour, the life I had always been chasing."
He didn’t turn to look at me, and it was getting dark so I couldn’t see his face clearly. I did notice his hands tighten on the wheel, his whole body rigid as he stayed silent. It wasn’t a lie, I'd thought of it, quite a lot, and I felt ashamed of myself every time I did. Hadn't I learned my lesson already?
"You don’t have to worry. I was never going to leave you, or drag a child with me into that kind of life. And I got kind of a wake-up call a while ago."
He threw a sharp glance at me, then turned back to the road. His voice, when he spoke, was tight. "What do you mean?"
I told him about the news report, and when the pain came again, I felt the tears streaming down my face.
"It was Zoe they were talking about. She didn’t have a good relationship with her cellmate, and after a few fights, she was put in a single cell, only for a few nights. She'd been dead for hours by the time they found her."
"Destiny," he sounded torn as he said my name. My real name, that he still used on occasion. He didn’t particularly like Zoe, because she'd plotted to kill me, but I knew he felt for my pain, anyway.
Why had I ever even thought of leaving him?
It was a little late for traffic, thank God, so it didn’t take us long to get to the hospital. There was a nurse waiting for us with a wheel chair, and he called her over as he helped me out of the car. I was wheeled inside, Alex keeping pace, until he was stopped by a nurse as I was taken for prepping.
Giving birth was intense. Also, extremely painful. It took hours of pain and sweat and crying—and plenty of blood—before there was a sharp, high cry. The urgency around me lessened, and no one was telling me to push, giving me platitudes when they wouldn’t—couldn’t—do anything to make the pain stop.
I only caught a glimpse of my baby, tiny, trembling and unhappy, a little bloody, before the exhaustion overtook me.
What felt like hours later, I awoke. To say I felt exhausted still would be a humongous understatement. But I was too anxious to go back to sleep. The room was different, granted I hadn't paid so much attention to my surroundings, but I could tell that much. So, I must have been moved.
Where was my baby? I hadn't heard much when the crying started, so I didn’t even know if it was a he or a she. I'd wanted it to be a surprise until the birth. And where was Alex?
At least one of my questions was answered when the door opened and he walked in. He looked haggard, but he was smiling, looking relieved when he saw me awake.
"Hey." He closed the door quietly behind him, taking wide strides across the space separating us, and he wrapped his arms around me, carefully.
I hugged him back, digging my nails into his skin, but he didn’t seem to care, and I was so glad just to have him close.
"I don’t regret it."
I hadn't realized I'd said it out loud until he pulled back, looking at me with questioning eyes. I noticed the bags under his eyes and wondered if he'd even slept. I traced my fingers under them, meeting his gaze when he caught my hand in his.
"I don’t regret anything. What I said before, in the car, was true; but I don’t want you thinking I have any regrets." I pulled my hand from his, raising my other to hold his face between them. "This is the safest I have ever been, and I would give up excitement in a heartbeat to be a mom. I wish you were there, Alex. The baby was so tiny…"
Too small to survive alone in the world. I felt a wash of protectiveness wash over me for my child, a child I hadn't even technically met yet.
"Well, I would have been, if you hadn't insisted I be left out."
I smiled at his disgruntled tone. I would have laughed, but I was too exhausted to. Of course, I didn’t want him there; in between the pain and the screaming, I would not have been in the best of moods with him there.
"Are you sure this is what you want, though? Because if you're having doubts…" he didn’t finish the thought, didn’t look at me as he said it, but I cou
ld see the troubled expression in his profile.
"Alex, I couldn’t ask for anything more."
Considering what I'd been headed for before I met him, a life as a dangerous man's slave, or death if he decided he was bored with me. Maybe prison, if he thought I made a good scapegoat, after all.
For saving me from that—though not only that—I loved Alex more than anything.
"There are the lovely new parents."
We were interrupted by a nurse walking into the room. I would have been annoyed, but my eyes zeroed in on the wrapped bundle she held carefully in her arms. I held my arms out wordlessly, and she readily stepped forward to hand the warm bundle over.
"May I present to you both, your lovely young daughter."
I got to hold my daughter in my arms, Alex sitting beside to me, his hand hesitant to touch her. Her skin was so pale the veins were visible, eyes squeezed shut, trembling slightly.
“Let’s name her Anna,” Alex said.
“Anna. I like it,” I said, smiling. "She's so small…."
"She'll grow in due time. I'm going to let you have some time to yourselves, but when I come back we have quite a bit to talk about. We gave her something, intravenous, but I will need to teach you how to breast feed, then there's the prenatal care…"
I only listened with half an ear as she spoke, most of my focus on my daughter. She was asleep, tiny hands curled into fists. I heard Alex murmur something, and then we were alone.
"I love you." I whispered the words, glancing up at Alex so he knew I meant it for the them both.
He held me closer, snuggling the both of us against his warm chest.
I wanted my daughter to have what I never had; a normal life. I was going to spend the rest of my life making sure she—as well as Alex and me—was happy.
About the Author—Roxy Sinclaire
Roxy Sinclaire writes steamy, suspenseful romantic stories as the main genre, and this includes a variety of different topics. Some of these include dark romances, action packed romances, mafia romances, and many more. She currently works in customer relations in New York City, but is trying to fulfill her passion in writing and eventually have her dream job become a reality.
Dirty Money: A Dark Mafia Romance (Alpha Men Book 1) Page 15
