Page 22 of After-Hours Heir

And waited.

Her heart was thundering so hard she thought she might pass out.

And when one faint pink line appeared, followed by another, she felt her whole world tilt.

No.

She couldn’t…

The meeting was now in ten minutes.

She picked up her phone.

It had been months since they had contacted each other, he wasn’t in the scroll of texts anymore. Her phone off-loaded messages after thirty days.

She picked it up, typed inBaby. And there he was.

She had resisted contacting him again all this time. She swallowed hard, her throat dry.

Kid: I need to meet with you. Today. No anonymity. It’s an emergency.

What would he think about that? Would he question it?

There was no response. She walked out of the bathroom and went back to her office. She was sweating. She felt like screaming. Like throwing things across the room. Like having a literal breakdown because everything was coming down around her all at once. And she had to keep going.

She didn’t have anyone to call for moral support. Her mother would simply laugh and give her the card for a trusted clinic. There would be no discussion. There would be no heart-to-heart. And worst of all, no place for Sylvie to try to reason out what her own feelings were.

But then, with her mother, her feelings had never mattered.

That was the example that Sylvie had for motherhood.

How was she supposed to…be a mother herself?

She looked down at her phone, right as a message popped up on the screen.

Baby: We can’t meet.

Kid: We have to.

She hadn’t intended to tell him that she was pregnant over text. She only had two minutes until the meeting.

Baby: There is no “have to.” This is over.

Kid: Do you think that I have so little pride that I’m texting you because I want to keep sleeping with you? That isn’t why, you bastard.

That had been a little bit excessive. She was angry. She had trusted this man. She had slept with him. She had given him her body, and now she was pregnant with his baby, and he was acting like the one thing that might motivate her was a desperate need for him to…love her.

If only that was her one issue. Ifonly.

Kid: I’m pregnant.

There was no response.

She had to go to the meeting.

She picked her phone up and tried to collect herself as she walked into the hall.

Baby: I’m unavailable for the next hour. I can meet you after.