"We’re done, Haley. I don’t know how you got here, but I want you to go back to where you came from. I’m done with you," Seth delivered with supreme cool.
The woman’s face lost all its color, and she didn't look quite so beautiful now. Sandy found herself feeling sorry for her even though she didn’t know what was going on.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said defiantly. Then she reached into her purse and brought out a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” Seth looked at it as if it was a poisonous snake.
“A test result. I’m pregnant!”
Pregnant?
Sandy didn’t think she had heard right. She turned her stunned gaze to Seth. Even though his face had lost all its color, she could see the shock in the blue depths of his eyes.
Sandy forced her gaze from him to stare at the woman who was smiling smugly.
“Take it, Seth.” She waved the paper in the air. “See the result of how much we love each other. If you had picked up my calls, I wouldn’t be here doing this.”
The air became so stifling all of a sudden, Sandy thought she was going to faint. Her breath came in short gasps at the understanding of what was going on.
This woman was carrying Seth’s baby. How long had he been with the woman before she met him? All the while he was chasing her, was he also with this woman? Where did that leave her?
And from the way Seth was behaving, didn’t it spell guilt? Her eyes moved to him and she saw that blazing anger had replaced shock.
There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t think she would like the answers.
“Haley, I broke up with you months ago. Do you honestly want me to believe that you’re carrying my child, if in fact you’re pregnant at all?” The woman’s jaw dropped. Her eyes blazed with anger in turn. “Are you accusing me of lying? I am pregnant!” She stamped her foot on the ground. “And you’re responsible for it. Do you know why I’m so sure it’s your baby?” She flipped back her hair. “It’s because I haven’t been with any man since we broke up. I have been torn, shattered that you are no longer in my life. You can ask all our friends. I haven’t been myself.” Tears glazed the woman’s eyes. “I miss you.”
“Please don’t start, Haley,” Seth remarked in a voice as cold as ice. A shiver went through Sandy.
Tears spilled down Haley’s beautiful face. “I love you, Seth. You know that. I was shocked when you called things off simply because of a little argument.”
Seth slashed an angry hand in the air. “You know why I broke up with you. Don’t you dare pretend that you’re innocent.”
More tears poured down Haley’s face. “I’m sorry, Seth. I’ve been apologizing for the past three months and trying to get you to see that I still love you. Do not throw away all the years we’ve been together because of a simple mistake I made.”
When the woman drew forward and curved her hands around Seth’s face and he did nothing, Sandy knew that she had lost him.
What were the chances that Seth would leave a woman—who wasn’t only carrying his baby, but he had been with for years—for her? After all, they had only known each other for over a month. She didn’t think what they had shared—what she thought they had together—was enough for him to want to be with her.
Sandy couldn’t believe that she had been so foolish to give her heart to a man. For years, she guarded her heart jealousy. But with the way Seth had doggedly pursued her, she had thought he was the one for her.
How foolish of her to not only have given him her heart but her body as well. Now, she knew that he was on the rebound. She could have been any other woman who caught his fancy in his bid to forget about his ex-girlfriend. There was no chance of him forgetting her now, not when she was carrying his baby.
How could I have been so foolish?
Escape was the only thing on her mind at that moment. If she ran inside her apartment, Seth would definitely follow her and she might not be fast enough to shut the door on his lying face.
With a sob, she ran away from the couple. She would take a cab and go to the diner. Then she would cry on her aunt’s shoulder.
“Sandy!”
The sound of her name flustered her for a moment as she hadn’t expected it. And in that moment, she froze, forgetting that she was heading for the road.
“Sandy, please wait!”
She didn’t want to wait to listen to his lies. So she dashed into the road, not caring whether there was a car coming or not. Unfortunately, there was and before she could make the decision to either run back or quickly cross over, the car hit her.
Chapter 9
Hiding a chuckle, Seth watched as his brother climbed down from the tractor and strode towards him. For the first time in a long while, Malcolm was attracted to a woman and he didn’t know what to do about it. His confusion made Malcolm short-tempered, particularly as he didn’t know how to handle the woman involved.
Seth had watched the obvious chemistry between him and Jules from the very first moment they met. Malcolm hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Jules. And because his brother was still nursing a broken heart, he was fighting his obvious attraction to Jules.
Sandy had confided in him that Jules was also attracted to Malcolm, but she too was fighting it because she also had been hurt in the past.
“We should get them together,” Sandy had said in bed the previous night after a satisfying time of sharing their passion for each other.
“Malcolm will sock me in the jaw for interfering in his love life,” he had admitted and placed a kiss on her forehead.
“Jules, too, but it’s so obvious they fit perfectly together.”
Seth had sighed. “But she doesn’t belong to a ranch, does she?”
“The truth, Seth, is that Jules is desperate to be loved. She doesn’t really care where she finds it. But since she has to maintain the spoiled, rich girl status her family wants for her, she dates men of her own class. But deep inside her, Jules wouldn’t mind dating a plumber if he made her happy.”
“That’s so sweet. We really do find love in the strangest of places, don’t we?”
She had nodded with a bright smile on her beautiful face.
“Would you mind dating a billionaire?” he had asked her suddenly.
“I don’t care about statuses, you should know that,” she had replied, snuggling closer to him.
“You should go and tell Sandy everything.”
Malcolm’s voice cut into his thoughts. He had been about to tell her everything last night but then she had received a phone call from Aunt Karen which had lasted for a long time. By the time she returned to bed, he had fallen asleep.
“Why do you say so?” he asked his brother whose face was like that of a storm cloud.
“Because her friend will spoil her mind towards you. She has already started,” he explained ruefully.
Seth couldn’t hide the grin that crossed his face.
Malcolm placed his hands on his hips. “You think this is funny?”
“Why don’t you ask her out already?”
“What are you talking about?”
Seth’s grin widened. “You know you want to. You could take her to the restaurant where you told me to take Sandy. It’s really nice.”
“Shut up!” his brother rasped angrily.
Seth chuckled.
“I’m serious, Seth. Go and tell Sandy everything. I overheard something when I went to her shed a short while ago.”
Rubbing his hand across his jaw, Seth asked, “And what were you doing in the shed?”
“I went to… oh, shut up!” Malcolm said with frustration. “She doesn’t belong here. Even if I wanted to ask her out, she would take me as a small-town fling and dump me the minute she returned to Chicago.”
Seth shook his head. “You don’t know that, Mal. You’ve got to try. According to Sandy, she’s a sweet girl.”
“She’s not that sweet,” Malcolm countered with exasperation. Then he went on to
tell his brother what transpired in the shed.
Although, Seth wanted to laugh at his brother’ discomfiture, it was the part about Sandy thinking he cheated on her that got to him.
“I see you’re not smiling anymore,” Malcolm said with satisfaction.
“Oh, shut up,” Seth remarked with a frown on his face.
Malcolm laughed.
Grinning, Seth added, “At least I’ve passed the stage you’re in presently. And, I’m sure I want to be with Sandy. What about you?”
Malcolm frowned. “Oh, shut up.”
Seth laughed and then fell into step beside each other. Since it had become imperative that he talk to Sandy about Haley, Seth hastened his steps. He could only hope she would forgive him for keeping it from her earlier.
Chapter 10
How could she have been so foolish? Seth had lied to her, deceived her about the reason for the accident and her memory loss.
Tears ran down her eyes at how she had foolishly allowed him back into her life. What tore her to shreds was the fact that she was the one who had instigated the whole thing. No wonder she had sensed the difference in him. No wonder he kept going outside to receive calls and followed her everywhere. She had thought it was sweet and protective of him. She hadn’t known that he wanted to avoid her recalling her memory.
How long did he think she would have lived in limbo? Had he been hoping that she would never remember?
Sara frowned and her stomach dropped when she remembered that the stunningly beautiful woman—dressed in a very short dress that left nothing to the imagination—was coming up the porch steps in strappy heels. Her long legs, sky-blue eyes, carefully made-up face and flowing silvery blonde hair intimidated Sandy in no small measure. She felt short and fat beside the leggy blonde.
Hastily, she wiped away her tears. She wouldn’t give the woman the satisfaction of knowing that she had cut her like a knife with her presence.
“I take it that you remember who I am,” the woman said with icy coldness when she reached her.
Sandy cocked her perfectly shaped eyebrows and nodded.
"Where's Seth?" Haley asked with abruptness.
"I don’t know," was all Sandy could say. She wished the woman would go away so that she could pack her things and return to her apartment.
Suddenly, the woman savagely threw at her, "You think you've won, don’t you? You think Seth is all yours, right? Well, let me tell you, he will never be yours. He will come back to me! All this”—her thin hands waved around the ranch—"is just for a short while. So enjoy it while it lasts, because very soon, he will show you the door and you will go back to the gutter where you crawled out from and belong, while I take my rightful place beside him with his baby." She placed a hand across her stomach and smiled smugly.
Sandy was visibly stunned by the woman. How pathetic! She couldn't imagine making a fool of herself over a man the way Haley was doing at the moment. Granted, she couldn’t deny that she still loved Seth even though he had hurt her badly. But if he was the one doing the dumping and not her, which could well be the case, she wouldn't go about disgracing herself in a bid to get him back.
It would hurt—cut like a knife—but she was not the type who would spend days weeping into buckets and buckets of ice-cream, stalking him all over the place or confronting his present girlfriend. It reeked of despair and she guessed it was because Haley was pregnant. If she truly was.
"You know…" she began, ignoring the look of pure hatred in the eyes of her unwanted visitor. She wouldn’t allow her to see that her presence was hurting her terribly. "I've been trying very hard to understand why you can't move on. For God's sake, woman, have some self-respect!"
Haley flinched as if she had hit her. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth curled into an ugly frown.
"I don't get why you can't let go and move on," Sandy continued, "The man has obviously moved on. Why can't you?"
"Because he's my meal ticket, you fool," her rival vehemently said, “Without Seth in my life, my modelling career is worth nothing! Being the arm candy of a very handsome and wealthy man boosted my career for two years. I had contracts here and there, but word got out that he'd dumped me and the calls stopped coming because I’m not really that good at what I do. I'm facing bankruptcy as it is."
"Wow!" was all Sandy could say. She couldn't imagine depending on Seth for her livelihood. She was prepared to work and be her own woman rather than wait to get approval from her boyfriend. Besides, with frugal living, Haley ought not to be broke.
She was definitely one of those females who spent lavishly, thinking Seth would marry her and she would live in comfort for the rest of her life. Was Seth even the marrying kind? He hadn't ever given any indication that he wanted them to go to the next level. And that would never happen now because she wanted to have nothing more to do with the lying bastard.
And what was Haley talking about, Seth being wealthy? The ranch was doing well but she didn’t think she could classify him as wealthy.
Sandy suddenly realized that Haley was still talking and blushed. The blonde lady was still going on and on about how she needed Seth in her life because of the baby they were expecting.
"—a wealthy and brilliant neurosurgeon. My child would have it all. If only you would let go of him.”
“Excuse me, what are you talking about?”
Laughter suddenly burst out from the woman’s throat. Sandy was thrown aback.
Haley’s mouth curved into a mocking smile. "That’s right. He told me that he didn’t tell you his real identity."
"What… what do you mean?" Sara stammered.
Haley laughed again. "You haven’t realized he’s playing a game with you?"
"What game?"
She lifted her hand. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you haven't deduced by now what's going on? Anyway, since you’re slow, I'll spell it out for you."
Sandy swallowed thickly, with her heart in her throat, scared of what Haley would say.
"Seth isn’t a rancher. He’s a neurosurgeon."
Sandy shook her head. “What?”
"You gullible fool. Seth decided to take a well-deserved break because he had been working so hard. He took our breakup so badly, he came here on leave. Surely you’re not so foolish—does Seth in any way look like a rancher?"
Sandy felt her stomach churning.
"It can't be. No, it can't." Her voice was a mere whisper.
"Wake up and smell the coffee, you fool. He’s a very wealthy man who didn’t want you to know anything about him because you’re simply a fling to him. He has been playing you. He has been having fun at your expense.”
Sandy willed her tears not to fall as they gathered in her eyes. Haley wouldn't be given the satisfaction of seeing her tears. Gathering all the strength in her body, she gave Haley a false smile. She didn't care if it looked fake.
“And you want such a man back?” She shook her head. “You’re so pitiful.”
Haley screamed at her like a banshee. “I love him, okay? He’s not just my meal ticket, okay? I confess that I love the man. Losing him has opened my eyes to how I truly felt about him. At first, I thought it was just about his wealth. But not being with him these past months made me understand how much he had come to mean to me.”
Sara was dumbfounded when the woman instantly started weeping.
“I’m not the bad person that you think I am, Sandy. I came here to bitch about you being with him, but I can’t. I was with Seth for two years because of his money, but I didn’t realize that I had fallen in love with him in the process. Finding out that I was pregnant made me so happy, but with you in the picture, he will never come back to me. Can’t you let him go for the sake of my baby? Please?” She grabbed Sandy’s hands with tears pouring down her face.
Sandy was so shocked at the change in Haley, she wondered if the woman had multiple personality syndrome. “Please excuse me,” Sandy said, and jerked her hands from the woman’s tight grasp.
She didn’t w
ant to give her tears free reign for fear that Haley’s personality would change again. The woman might turn mocking again.
Sandy rushed back into the house and flung herself on the bed when she got to the enormous room she shared with Seth. The tears she had expected didn’t come. Rage was what consumed her, not despair. She had been a fool for Seth!
A thought crossed her mind, however. Could Haley be deceiving her? Trying to create a wedge between her and Seth? The multifaceted woman would do anything to get Seth back. There was only one way to find out if Haley was telling the truth.
A few minutes later, Sandy yelled and threw her phone against the wall.
Haley was right after all. Seth was a very successful neurosurgeon who owned his own hospital where he did charity surgeries for children.
Despair clung to her when he saw a picture of Seth and Haley looking happy together.
But why didn’t he divulge this part of his life to her? Did he think she was like Haley, a gold digger? Or maybe Haley was right after all. She was nothing but a fling to him—a holiday fling.
Seth was more or less a billionaire. And where did that leave her?
"Oh, God, I've been sleeping with a stranger," she groaned.
It all made sense now. When he had spoken to the three witches at the diner the day he covered for her, he had been telling the truth. He was definitely a neurosurgeon with links to celebrities. He most probably also owned a yacht and other luxury properties. While she was just a small-town girl who owned a diner and an art degree.
The calls he repeatedly took and the time he’d had to travel showed that he had gone to attend a charity dinner in Boston. The pictures didn’t lie
And he never breathed a word of it to her.
"I'm such a fool." She sniffed back her tears.
If she tried to pack her things now, he might come back to find her. The best thing to do right now was to sneak out of the ranch without being seen. She thought of going to inform Jules of her plans. But walking to the shed and back might just be her undoing,
Wiping away her tears, she rose from the bed. Just then, her phone started ringing. She was tempted to pick up the call when she saw that it was from Seth. She wanted to yell unprintable names at him but it wouldn’t mean anything.
Just Stay With Me Page 6
