Scandalously Expecting His Child

by Olivia Gates

  She talked as she started to dress. “I’m leaving Japan within a week. So it will be before your wedding. This time when I disappear, you won’t have to worry you’ll ever see me again.”

  “Was that the original plan? To disappear without telling me?”

  She blinked up at him. His face was gripped in some emotion she couldn’t fathom. Every angle in his masterpiece bone structure jutted out more against his burnished skin, as if he was straining under an insupportable burden.

  “Telling you what?”

  “That you’re pregnant.”

  If Raiden had told her he was an alien, then flew around the room to prove it, she wouldn’t have been more stunned.

  She must have gaped at him for minutes before she closed her open mouth and tried to overcome her shock.

  “When were you going to tell me, Scarlett?”

  Slowly, carefully, as if testing her voice for the first time, she said, “Never, I guess. Since I’m not.”

  His eyes suddenly took on a faraway look. “I have been feeling it in every inch of you. The changes in your body, in your appetite, the extra sensitivity to some scents, to my touch. But I didn’t reach the obvious conclusion, because I thought you’d tell me if it was true. But you didn’t.” His eyes focused on hers again, something enormous roiling in their depths. “Why, Scarlett? Was it because you thought we’d say goodbye and I didn’t have to know?” His face drained of all color suddenly. “Or was it because it was a mistake, one you intended to...fix?”

  She shook her head, his every word making her more nauseous. “If you’re suspecting I fainted because I’m pregnant, don’t. I can’t be.”

  “Why can’t you be? I haven’t taken any precautions.”

  She raised her hands, needing to stop this before she fainted again, or vomited, or both. “You didn’t because you assumed I did. So if you’re thinking you shouldn’t have left this in my hands, that if I’m pregnant it would cause you major trouble, don’t be. I am not pregnant.”

  It was his turn to gape at her. “You’re really not aware that you are pregnant, are you?”

  “Listen, Raiden, I’m not only not pregnant, I can’t be pregnant. So stop it...please.”

  “What do you mean can’t? You are.”

  “No, I’m not.” He opened his mouth to persist, and her voice rose to a shriek to drown out his. “I can’t ever be pregnant. I had a traumatic miscarriage and doctors told me I’d never be able to get pregnant again!”

  * * *

  Raiden staggered a step back. Even the most innocuous words from Scarlett hit him harder than any of the vicious blows he’d had in his life, literal or figurative. But this blow almost felled him, when nothing before had ever even compromised his balance.

  She truly had no idea she was pregnant. She thought she couldn’t become pregnant. Because she’d...she’d...

  It made sense, explained the pervasive loss in her eyes that not even her past or their present situation explained. That was what he’d still felt her holding back from him. And he had to heal that wound that remained open inside her.

  “You were pregnant with my child?” He made it a question, in case it hadn’t been his. She hadn’t given a time frame, and it might have happened long before they’d met. Even though everything inside him screamed she’d lost his—their—baby.

  From the wounded look in her eyes, his care seemed to offend her. “You think I would have let myself get pregnant by another man? Protecting myself was the first thing I was taught in the business I was pushed into.”

  His heart squeezed and expanded at the same time. Her pregnancy had been premeditated. Out loud he still asked, “You let yourself become pregnant with my child?”

  She looked away, as if she could no longer bear looking at him. “I knew there was no possible future with you, but I wanted to at least have a part of you with me always. I had this plan that I was going to save you from Medvedev, escape The Organization and go somewhere safe and raise the baby on my own, give it the life we’ve both been robbed of. But we both know how this plan went.”

  Was it possible there was always more pain? He felt a new level of agony contemplating the incredible courage and selflessness and love it took to make those plans. It was excruciating imagining how she’d felt—the resignation that she’d never have him, the hope she’d considered the epitome of her ambitions, the determination to have a baby, alone, make it safe and loved, as she’d never been.

  He struggled not to sag to his knees before her, not to beg her to forgive him for not being there for her, for being oblivious, for not giving her everything she deserved. He choked out his words. “It went spectacularly for the most part. You did save me from Medvedev, did escape The Organization.”

  “Not because my plan was masterful or anything. The one reason I pulled it off and I’m not dead is because Medvedev underestimated me and underestimated what I’d do to protect you. It was all touch and go and the price was our—” Her face seized, as if she’d caught herself in a terrible faux pas. “The baby. Now I’m unable to have any other.”

  Before he insisted she’d always call it “our baby,” before he convinced her she was already having another one, there was one more poison he needed her to purge from her system. “It was Medvedev’s stab that aborted our baby.”

  Her throat worked as she nodded, confirming his statement, her face that impassive mask he now realized she’d tailored to obscure enormous emotions and suffering.

  “They told me it was the baby that saved my life, taking most of the damage for me. But the damage to my uterus was too extensive. They told me I’d never have children again.”

  He was unable to find words to express his pain and regret and rage and frustration that he couldn’t change the past, couldn’t give of his own life and flesh to defend hers, to wipe away her scars, mental and physical. And that he couldn’t punish Medvedev a thousand times over. But he promised himself again he’d punish everyone who had a hand in Medvedev’s existence, and in her suffering, past and present.

  But now he had to dispel at least one of her agonies.

  Producing the proof from his pocket, he took her hand and placed it in her palm. “This is a blood-testing chip that our resident medical genius in Black Castle Enterprises has patented. He says it yields one hundred percent results in diagnosing a variety of conditions, one of which is pregnancy. He came to my rescue when you fainted and performed the blood test, and his diagnosis is unequivocal. You are pregnant.”

  Scarlett dazedly looked down at the credit card–size transparent plastic chip. The slot for HCG, the hormone detecting pregnancy, was a bright positive red.

  Shaking her head, she raised disbelieving eyes to him. “It must be a mistake. I—I can’t be pregnant.”

  “Antonio doesn’t make mistakes, Scarlett. The ones who made a mistake were the doctors who gave you that verdict.” When she shook her head again, she swayed and he surged to steady her, taking her by the shoulders. “We’ll redo the test just to put your mind to rest. But we always trusted Antonio with our very lives. If he’s certain, so am I. He believes you’re eight weeks pregnant.”

  Still shaking her head, looking punch-drunk, Scarlett whispered, “That’s how long ago our first night was.”

  Poignancy tightened his hands, bringing her beloved body closer. “I do have a feeling you got pregnant that night.”

  Tears suddenly welled in her reddened eyes, then flowed down her cheeks, cutting streaks into his heart. “But I saw the CT scans. The damage was too extensive. Even if I’m pregnant...it can’t be possible I’ll carry the baby to term. Or it’s even worse, and it’s an ectopic pregnancy. That would still yield a positive test result.”

  The thought that she could be right about either possibility gripped his heart in crushing dread. He ran to call Antonio.


  At his barked order to come back at once, Antonio only asked if Scarlett was awake. Raiden affirmed that, and Antonio only told him to put him on speaker.

  Vibrating with anxiety, Raiden complied, though he didn’t know why he’d asked that. Antonio was a prankster, but he wouldn’t tease him about something like this, and certainly not now of all times.

  Once on speaker, Antonio addressed Scarlett. “I assume you didn’t realize you’re pregnant? Because you thought it wasn’t possible?” Scarlett looked even more dazed that Antonio knew what both of them hadn’t known. “And now that you do, you’re worried about the viability of your pregnancy? And that’s why Raiden is working on a stroke again?”

  After Scarlett nodded weakly as if Antonio could see her, Antonio went on as if he had. “I can see why you thought that. I performed a thorough exam with ultrasound, but Raiden must have been too agitated to notice, or he didn’t recognize my patented handheld ultrasound for what it is. I did see your old scars, inside and out, and from their site and extensiveness, I can see why your doctors would have given you a prognosis of sterility. And they would have been absolutely right, if not for something exceptional about you.

  “You’re one of a rare percentage blessed with no scarring tendencies. This means your wounds heal almost as elastic as your intact tissues and skin. It’s why your esthetic surgery is virtually undetectable. From the current condition of your uterus, I believe you’ll carry your baby without incident and with normal activity to at least thirty-two weeks. After that, I recommend bed rest until term. Your miracle baby’s development is above average, and you’ll surely do everything so it continues to grow at the same rate, so by thirty-six weeks it should be mature enough to be delivered. I recommend C-section, which I’ll of course perform.”

  After Antonio finished his thorough medical report, he promised he’d allocate her a whole day for a total checkup. He suffered Raiden’s overwhelmed, overwhelming thanks and ended the call because he was in the middle of surgery.

  She remained staring at Raiden all through, her face a mask of shock. Then suddenly the mask cracked and the whole spectrum of emotions fast-forwarded on her face. What she’d just learned, what she’d long craved and despaired of, coming true so unexpectedly... It must be changing everything inside her, rearranging her life and expectations forever. As it was his.

  Not that the pregnancy changed what he felt, or what he intended to do. His love for her had already changed everything. The pregnancy, especially one thought to be impossible, was just an extra jubilation. And it was the least fate owed her after all she’d overcome, all she was doing to spare others what she’d suffered.

  And it would be only the beginning. She’d have love and safety and cherishing and everything that he was and had to give for the rest of his life.

  “Raiden...” She swayed again, and he caught her, swept her up in a fervent embrace and took her back to bed.

  He knew she fell asleep the moment she touched the sheets. It had all been too much for her. But now it wasn’t a dead faint that claimed her, but deep, recharging sleep. The heartbreakingly blissful smile on her lips said that.

  All he wanted was to strip both of them and fuse their flesh and go to sleep wrapped around her, enfolding her and their coming baby in his love and protection.

  But before he did that, his phone rang.

  Thinking it must be Antonio calling back to add medical advice, he eagerly and not a little anxiously answered.

  “Raiden-san, you must come to my office at once.”

  His uncle’s clipped command shot through him with dismay.

  The call was over the moment he said, “Of course.” Whatever his uncle had to say, he would say only to his face.

  In the next second, a smile played on his lips. He marveled at how everything was conspiring to come together. Numair’s discoveries had led to Scarlett’s confessions, then to Antonio’s revelation. Now, from his usually courteous uncle’s coldness, this was leading to the confrontation Raiden had been expecting. But instead of placating his uncle and taking a slap on his wrist for his public indiscretions with Scarlett the past two weeks, he’d inform his uncle he was no longer his future father-in-law.

  * * *

  In half an hour, he entered his uncle’s office, found him standing behind his desk, leaning on it, palms down. From his wiped-clean-of-expression face, and that he didn’t meet him at the door and didn’t salute him now, Raiden knew the man was furious.

  Good. It would make this easier. It was always harder giving people their marching orders when they were nice.

  Takeo Hashimoto started without preamble. “We’ve found out about your illicit relationship with that foreign woman.”

  Just as he’d figured. He was even wondering why this confrontation hadn’t happened earlier.

  Raiden regarded his uncle calmly as he took a seat across his desk. It was regretful Hashimoto would not become family. He’d been starting to feel he was truly his flesh and blood. But this was probably the last time he’d see the man. Or if he saw him again, it would be as antagonists, at least on Hashimoto’s side. Breaking his honor-bound pact would be an irreparable insult. There was no coming back from that.

  “We? You mean you’ve told Megumi?”

  “She’s the one who told me.”

  That surprised Raiden. Not that Megumi knew, for of course she’d have been the first to be made aware of his indiscretions. But he hadn’t thought she of all people would care, let alone run to her father with the information.

  “It was that mongrel Hiro Matsuyama who set this up. And now he claims this woman carries your child.”

  This straight-out flabbergasted Raiden. Had everyone realized Scarlett was pregnant before they did?

  But he asked his uncle the question relevant to him. “What does Hiro have to do with any of this?”

  Hashimoto looked at him as if he’d dropped a hundred points of his IQ. “He brought her to that ball, where he pretended to honor your and Megumi’s engagement. But he only did so he’d put that professional seductress in your way.”

  Dread zapped through Raiden. Was it possible Hashimoto had found out about Scarlett’s past identity? No. He couldn’t have. But why would he say that about her if he didn’t?

  Sitting forward, he picked his words with care. “She’s a humanitarian worker, and she’s Hiro’s best friend. How did you come up with the theory that Hiro threw her in my path so she’d seduce me? Why would Hiro want that anyway?”

  “Because he covets Megumi,” Hashimoto barked. “He not only wants to stop your marriage, but he needs to do it with a scandal big enough that the ensuing disgrace would make it impossible for us to aspire to another worthy match. Then I’d be forced to accept someone like him as a husband for her.”

  This was yet another surprise. Raiden hadn’t detected that Hiro was attracted to Megumi. But then, in the only time he’d seen them together, he’d been busy thinking that Hiro was besotted with Scarlett.

  But now that he replayed that ball in his mind, he could see the whole thing in a new light. Hiro’s aggression toward him had been over Megumi. And Megumi’s agitation had been over Hiro.

  Those two were in love!

  That must be why Megumi had told her father about him and Scarlett. So he’d break off the engagement and she’d be free to be with Hiro.

  God, how blind had he been?

  But at least no real damage had been done. He’d call Hiro after he broke things off with his uncle, telling him to rush to make a huge bid while the man was most open to compensatory offers. Even from someone he considered socially abhorrent.

  For his uncle’s sake, Raiden hoped he’d accept Hiro right away. His snobbery, though socially dictated, was starting to grate. If he exercised it on Hiro now that he realized there was mutual love involved, he’d show him his dis
pleasure. He was sure his uncle wouldn’t like to see his displeased side.

  “So you just found out?” he asked.

  “Megumi first told me three weeks after the ball.”

  Raiden’s eyebrows shot up. That far back? The only way Megumi could have found out when he’d still been discreet was through Hiro. Being close to Scarlett, he must have noticed her sudden change of schedule, and all the other telltale signs of a woman being regularly, ferociously loved. Hiro could have also had a report of their garden house meeting and put one and one together. Maybe he’d even followed them to cement his deductions. As for how he’d realized Scarlett was pregnant, she did have all the signs for someone who was looking.

  He sighed. “What kept you silent all this time?”

  Hashimoto’s dignified face darkened with disapproval. “At first you were discreet, and I thought you’d indulge in this woman for a while before settling down to a life of respectability with my pure daughter. Then you started getting careless, letting our partners and rivals see you flaunting that loose woman everywhere, taking her home with you for all to see. It’s two weeks away from your wedding and I’m sure I just pulled you out of that woman’s arms.”

  Raiden sighed again. “Yes, you just did.”

  “Is it also right you’ve impregnated her?”

  The idea that hadn’t sunk in fully yet, of Scarlett carrying his baby, a miracle baby by all accounts, spread his lips with its intense delight. “That is absolutely right.”

  Hashimoto looked at him in such horror, as if he’d just watched him cut off his own arm. “Don’t you realize the magnitude of scandal this will cause?”

  Raiden nodded calmly. “It won’t be as bad as you think.”

  If he’d married Megumi, then had an illegitimate child with Scarlett, that would have been the stuff of permanent social stigma for the Hashimotos. But breaking off the engagement, even at this late date, for his pregnant gaijin lover... That would only be the stuff of malicious gossip. The most the Hashimotos would suffer would be a period of social ridicule. As for Raiden, he’d leave Japan, never to return. His exit from the scene would soon douse the scandal.