AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shifted uncomfortably, and his eyes left hers to meet mine. “Sorry, Lola. I forgot you were here.”
I waved away his apology. Him forgetting I was anywhere in this city suited me just fine. “So why didn’t you go to the party?” I sipped at the bitter red liquid in my glass, eyeing them both over the rim of my glass.
And there it was again, that look between them. I hated that look. No one who ever wore it had good news to tell me, and I knew instinctively that my roommate was going to be no different.
“Tell her babe.” Jax reached down to brush his lips against her forehead. “But I got to go.”
“Yeah, I know, ring me, ok? Let me know what happens and if...well, you know, if any of you need me.” She smiled weakly at me, apologising with her smile for almost saying the devil's name in front of me.
“Is Dion ok?” My voice came out croaky, and I cleared my throat into the back of my hand. I’d meant for it to come out strong. To show them once and for all that they didn’t have to walk on eggshells and never mention his name. That I was totally fine. I gave them a goofy grin, and it cracked on my face. No one was going to buy my act. Not when I didn’t buy it myself.
“Dion is…” A loud vibrating sound echoed through the suddenly quiet room. Jax dug his phone out of his pocket. “Fuck, I got to go.” One last kiss and he was already heading out the door. His hand lifted in a farewell wave aimed in my direction. The sound of the front door slamming bounced off the walls, but neither of us jumped.
We didn’t speak either, not until the throaty roar of the car speeding away from the curb echoed around us.
“Chance must hate driving a car, being a biker,” I said when the silence became too much.
Elodie just stood there and stared at me. “Look, I wasn’t sure I should tell you and Jax said...”
Slowly, I lifted the wine to my lips, sipping at it as I studied her and waited to carry on.
“But we are friends and I don’t want any secrets between us.”
I waited, sipping the whole time.
And she waited as well, gauging my reaction with her eyes.
“Dion’s… Well, shit, this is harder than I thought it was going to be.” Self–consciously, she ran her hand through her wayward curls, fluffing them up where the rain had flattened them.
“If he’s dating someone or anything like that, I am totally fine with it. We were only together one night and...”
Elodie took a step forward, her heels sinking into the fluffy cream rug. “It’s nothing like that, Lola.”
“Then what?”
“Isla had her baby tonight by emergency c–section and…I just thought you should know.”
I choked on my wine. Spilling the red liquid down my chin and all over my favourite creamy throw. It would stain, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. The baby had come too early. Months too early. “God, is she ok? And the baby?”
Elodie looked at me like I had just surprised her. Did she really expect me to think of myself and not that innocent baby? I was many things, but heartless wasn’t one of them.
“The baby is fine. A bouncing baby boy, all eight pounds of him.” She lapsed into silence.
“Eight pounds,” I repeated dumbly, because the maths didn’t add up. “The baby was…he was full term?”
“Yes,” she answered quietly, and just like that, my safe little world imploded.
If Isla had carried her baby to term, that meant everything written about me in the papers months ago was true. It meant Dion was the father, and I’d slept with him when she was carrying his child. The thought made me sick to my stomach. I clamped a hand over my mouth.
“Is Dion…is he…?” I lifted hopefully desperate eyes to her face.
“I don’t know, Lola. But it looks like it.”
DION
“You look like a goddess, Isla.” In front of me, Tate bent down to kiss Isla’s pale cheek.
She lifted her face to him with a tired sigh. Only this time, it was because she was actually tired and not because she was being a bitch. It was always hard to tell with Isla, though. The girl was an ice queen, if ice queens had sultry tans and dark flowing hair – which, according to the popular animated movie, they didn’t. But then sometimes even the big names got it wrong. Although if they had based their frosty heroine on Isla, the movie would have been very, very different.
