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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MERIDAAWOKEINa vast empty bed.
Today their brief honeymoon ended and Ethan returned to work. They hadn’t really left the bed, apart from brief trips to the fridge or to shower or bathe together.
It was just after six in the morning and there was a feeling of decadence in her even before she opened her eyes. There were rings on her finger and between her legs she was tender and she was Ethan Devereux’s wife.
And a mother-to-be.
She lay on her back, and that flutter she had felt on her wedding day was back. Her hand cupped her stomach, but there was nothing she could feel with her hand.
Unsure of what to do, Merida got out of bed. On the rare occasions she’d half dressed over the past day or so, it had been in his shirts. Her wedding dress still lay on the floor, but she rescued the pale silk slip she had worn beneath and put it on.
This was home.
Not that she knew the address.
Merida wandered around.
The view was stunning. From every window there was a picture-postcard view of Manhattan but she had no real idea of where she was.
Ethan disorientated her.
Not deliberately—she got that. But from the day they had met he had upended her world like a snow globe and she kept waiting for the glitter to settle.
She came to the kitchen, which looked like something from a magazine—all gleaming appliances and in the centre a huge black wood table.
It was as male as a kitchen could be.
She opened up the fridge. There were some of the platters he’d had sent in from Barnaby’s that they had made good inroads into, and there was a carton of juice and some milk.
She poured some juice and then settled down to read the huge influx of messages on her phone, from friends clearly surprised by the wedding.
And not just old ones.
Reece was suddenly terribly gushing, and even Anton, who’d been furious with her when she’d left the show, had sent his congratulations and a cryptic message.
I get it now.
Merida frowned, not really understanding, but then it dawned on her—Anton now understood why she was keeping the baby. Because it was Ethan Devereux’s.
It rattled her, and Merida swiftly swiped to the next message.
It was from Naomi, asking that she call her, and adding,I hope the press hasn’t upset you too much.
And so, of course, Merida went straight to the news.
They’d avoided all that yesterday, and simply spent the day in bed, but today the real world was creeping in.
Devereux Gold!
She looked at a picture of herself and Ethan on the court house steps and read the little caption about the bride wearing gold and how much the colour suited her.
It wasn’t actually said, but the implication was clear. They were calling her a gold-digger.
She read on a little, about her ‘failed acting career’, and wanted to dispute what was said. But there was nowhere for her to do so, and she clicked to the next headline.
A Very Sudden Wedding
