How can I dislike the body that made my children?
This body made two perfect babies. It might not have been my eggs, but it was my uterus and my breasts that nourished them. I couldn’t find fault with that.
Someone tapped on the door. I glanced at the clock.
“We still have ten minutes.”
“I’ll see who it is,” Kelly said.
A second later, she was standing at the partially open door explaining that, “The bride isn’t supposed to see the groom before the ceremony. It’s bad luck.”
“Just give her this,” Nicolas’ voice said.
Kelly walked over to me a second later, a worried look on her face. She held up a plain envelope. “From Nicolas.”
An irrational fear burst through me, turning my vision dark for a second. But then I remembered that this was Nicolas, not some flighty douche bag I might have dated in college.
I grabbed the envelope out of her hand and pulled out the thin piece of paper inside.
“It’s the DNA test results,” I said.
“Already?” Kelly asked, already up-to-date on everything because, well, she was my best friend. Nothing happened in my world that I didn’t text her about. “What does it say?”
I shook my head as I read over the sheet of paper. “I don’t know. I think it says that the babies are Aurora’s. But we knew that.”
Kelly moved up beside me and read the paper over my shoulder. “No,” she said, gesturing at a column at the top of the page. “It says that Aurora Parker is not the mother.”
Sure enough, those words were typed at the top of the page. And next to that it said that a second DNA sample was a perfect match.
“I don’t understand. I thought they were only testing Aurora’s DNA against the babies.”
“Who else would they test?” Kelly asked.
I shrugged. I had no idea.
“How could they not be Aurora’s? She told me about the process, how much it hurt when they extracted the eggs from her fallopian tubes.”
Kelly shook her head. “This says she’s not related to the babies.”
“But it’s not possible.”
I went to the door and wrenched it open. Virginia was standing there, an uncharacteristically anxious look on her face.
“When you came to my house, I told you I knew who my daughter was. Nothing she did or said ever surprised me.” She studied me for a long minute. “But, the first time I saw those perfect babies, I knew Aurora had finally stooped to a new low. Low enough that she surprised even me.”
She took me in, standing there in my wedding dress. “You were just trying to protect Nicolas, and I was hurting so much that I wanted to punish everyone but myself for the child I raised and lost. But I think it’s time I finally accept who Aurora was and stop hurting people she already crushed.”
“Mrs. Davis,” I began, not sure where I was going with my words. However, she stopped me, placing a hand on my arm.
“Aurora set you up. She never intended to be a mother to those beautiful babies. She was going to use them to ruin Nicolas, and to hurt you in the process, an innocent young woman who only wanted to help her mother.” Virginia looked away, tears of shame filling her eyes. “She never donated eggs. Those babies…they’re yours, child.”
I shook my head. “There were embryos. Aurora and Nicolas were there when they implanted them…”
“No, child. My attorneys spoke to the doctor in question. He admitted that he didn’t do anything he told you he was doing. He simply put you on a course of fertility drugs and then introduced Nicolas’ sperm to your system. You got pregnant quite naturally—if a little clinically. And those DNA tests prove it.”
I shook my head, but she wasn’t finished.
“I arranged for a test on blood leftover from tests you submitted to when you first agreed to this process. The tests are undeniable.”
“They’re mine?”
“They’re yours.” She smiled softly at the wonder on my face. “Congratulations. They’re perfect.”
She turned and began to walk down the hall.
“Mrs. Davis?”
She paused then turned to look at me.
“My mom is gone,” I said softly, “and Nicolas’ mom is gone, too. Those babies could really use a grandmother.”
She stared at me like she couldn’t quite believe what I was saying. And then she smiled, the first smile I’d seen that actually touched her eyes.
“I’d be honored.”
***
Nicolas and I spoke our vows fifteen minutes later, Vivienne asleep in my arms and Cole nestled restlessly in Kelly’s. They woke and wanted to be a part of the ceremony, and we couldn’t say no.
Nicolas brushed a piece of hair out of my face as he bent to kiss me.
“I love you,” he whispered, “Mrs. Costa.”
Tears filled my eyes as I stared at him. All the choices I’d made these past few months flowing through my mind. If mi mami hadn’t gotten sick, if I hadn’t volunteered to be Aurora’s surrogate, if I hadn’t opened that door on that hot Texas summer night….
Thank God for random choice.
~ End ~
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HIS: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Part Three) Page 7
