AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And all I can do is breathe through the ripping pain that cuts through my womb.
This is it.
There’s no putting this genie back in the bottle…
CHAPTER25
WILL
It will take too long for an ambulance to arrive, so Zara insists on driving Olivia to the hospital instead. I’m blank and out of words as we get her to the car, my own mind conspiring against me as I try to register everything that is about to happen. I’m about to become a father, and I asked to have no part of it.
Lilian was right. The regrets are quick to rear their ugly heads. And they sting so harshly… I don’t think I can live with this awful sensation for the remainder of my existence.
“Will! I need your help!” Zara hands me the car keys as we make our way through the parking lot. “You’re zoning out, man!”
“Sorry, I just didn’t see this coming,” I reply.
“Nobody saw this coming,” Olivia blurts out. “But you don’t have to be here. Zara, you can drive, I’ll just lay on the back seat. It’s okay… Thank you…”
“Don’t be stupid,” Zara replies, then gives me a hard look. “Time to make up your mind, Will. This is it, the point you knew was coming. What will it be?”
I stare at her as she helps Olivia into the back seat of the car, then comes back out to stare at me harshly. “I’m sorry,” I manage.
This is it. She’s absolutely right. For too long, I have denied that this moment would ever come, but Zara, much like Lilian before her, was able to see into my future better than I ever will. It’s not exactly over for Olivia and me. That NDA was just a dent in what we could really be. A decision Olivia took to protect me when I didn’t even deserve her care and affection.
I can still make this right.
All that money I stand to lose with the stocks… it feels so incredibly insignificant as I listen to Olivia’s gasps and ragged breaths. I’ve been going about this the wrong way, punishing myself before I’d even committed the worst mistake yet. Right now, right here… I could turn and walk away. Then, everyone who knows what I did would remember me for being a failure in every sense of the word. But the billions I’d make in the stock market would… would be frickin’ worthless.
I’ve already made billions through hard work and dedication.
What a fool I’ve been, to let myself get blinded by this… this rush, this chase for more. I can still change the world. I can untether myself from the company’s stock market fluctuations. I can stop giving a damn about every speculation out there and just focus on what I might still have, in the end. Those billions that will fly out the window mean nothing as Olivia cries out in pain, making my heart squirm in my chest and my stomach tighten.
She’s having our child.
I’ll make more billions. I’ll work harder, longer…
“I’m driving,” I tell Zara.
She smiles, drunk with sudden relief. “Glad you figured it out.”
“Get in and stay with her,” I command, my consciousness awakening as I get behind the wheel and turn the engine on. “Hold on, Olivia,” I shout. “I’m taking you to the hospital and I’m not leaving you ever again.”
“OH, GOD, it hurts so much!” She sobs and turns over on her side.
I catch a glimpse in the rearview of Zara gently caressing her hip. That is one hell of a baby bump… sometimes I wonder if she’s carrying more than one, but I have resisted asking anymore pregnancy-related questions lately, not wanting to twist the knife any further. I’ve done so much damage simply because I’ve been afraid.
“Hold on,” I say it again and kick the car into gear.
The drive to the hospital is frantic but short. I know all the side streets and alternative routes in this city. I grew up on these streets, after all. I’ve walked them, night and day. I drove cabs and delivery trucks before I got my chance to work in tech. My life was anything but easy. I have tasted poverty and luxury alike… yet none of that matters anymore.
Olivia’s got my heart and our baby on the way.
This whole time I’ve been lying to myself. That’s gonna stop, now.
Every sharp turn, every screech of the wheels, every desperate horn and tight slide through traffic gets a gasp out of Zara, since it’s her car I’m racing and potentially crashing if I’m not careful. But I manage to pull up outside the ambulance bay just in time for a couple of nurses to come out with a mobile gurney after Zara called ahead to let them know we’re coming.
“Olivia MacArthur,” I say as they help her onto the gurney. “She’s in labor.”
