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“I’m fine, and you?”
“Good.” He glances toward the door to Dr. Brown’s clinic. His whole demeanor reeks of impatience. “Shall we?”
Resentment wells up inside me as I follow him in. Why did he bother to come if he can’t wait to leave? There are no points for showing up. We sit in the waiting area, waiting for our turn. We are next to each other on the couch, but we do not touch. It saddens me that we have come to this when less than a month ago, we were supposedly deeply in love.
“Mr. and Mrs. Martin,” the receptionist says. “Dr. Brown will see you now.”
If I weren’t so miserable, I’d laugh and tease Alec about being referred to as Mr. Martin. Instead, I walk stiffly, leading the way to Dr. Brown’s office.
She smiles warmly when we enter and greets us like old friends. “We’re getting closer to the finishing line,” she says. “How are you feeling?”
Like crap. “I’m okay, thanks.”
She follows it up with more specific questions, and then it’s time to go to the examination room. Alec is quiet, and even Dr. Brown notices.
“New dad jitters?” she asks him gently.
“No, I’m fine,” he says in a tone that doesn’t invite further questions.
He stays out of the examination room and waits for me in the office. When I’m done, I rejoin him, and after making an appointment for the next visit two weeks from now, we leave together.
Outside, I can’t wait to say goodbye and go our different ways. Not that I have any illusions as to how my evening will pan out. I’ll probably heat last night’s dinner, sit in front of the TV with the volume turned to mute, and think about my life. Or what’s left of it.
Alec comes to a stop and faces me, which forces me to turn to him. “I thought your boyfriend would have brought you. After all, he’s going to be our child’s stepfather.”
My jaw slackens. “What are you talking about?”
Alec narrows his eyes. “Don’t pretend you’re innocent. Peter told me everything. How you were the ones who tried to sell the surrogacy story to the press.”
“Are you insane? I didn’t do any such thing, and I admit I did find out what Peter had done, but that was after he had done it. He was trying to get me to give an interview, but of course, I said no. Unlike you, I’m honest and have a sense of right and wrong. You, on the other hand—”
“Peter lied to me?” Alec says in a slow, deadly tone.
“Lied to you about what?”
Alec takes a deep breath. “I came to your place two weeks ago and found Peter.”
“Peter moved out,” I tell him. “He’d probably forgotten something.”
“He told me that the two of you are getting married and that you and he were responsible for trying to sell your story to the press,” Alec says.
I’m going to kill Peter. I swear I am.
“Asshole,” Alec mutters.
“You believed him?” I asked softly. “You actually think I’m capable of such treacherous behavior?”
Alec momentarily dips his head and then raises it to meet my gaze. “I’m sorry to say that I did.”
It hurts to know that he would believe that of me.
“Why did you go quiet on me, Ivy?” Sadness reflects in his eyes, which makes my heart beat wildly. Does it mean that he cares about me? Oh, God. I don’t want to give myself false hope or set myself up for disappointment.
I focus on the question. Why did I go silent? I swallow hard and search for the right words. “I found out that you only proposed to me to save your precious clinic, and don’t lie to me.” I say the last half of the sentence fiercely.
“I don’t lie,” he says. “And yes, I admit that I hurried to propose to you so that if the story of the mess-up with the surrogacy came out, our union would discredit it. But note what I said. Hurried. It was still in my plans to propose to you, Ivy.”
He looks so honest, and everything he says makes sense, but I’m scared. What if he’s playing with me? I can’t bear to have my heart sliced into two again.
