AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
No sound came from the large-screen television. Hannah had no idea what was on or what she had watched before it. Her stomach was in knots. Her eyes were puffy. She was exhausted and still upset after the meeting with Matt earlier, but even so, she couldn’t stop thinking about him, about their time together. That he’d wanted her before but now he seemed so different.
She worried for her baby. If Matt said he would have nothing to do with them, she could provide everything her child needed currently, but money didn’t last for ever.
Life could change on a dime—she knew that better than anyone. Her family’s wealth had dried up with her grandparents. The house in Toorak was all that was left of a fortune she had never seen and even that was gone. After her parents’ untimely death while she’d still been at university, Hannah had been forced to sell it.
Still, she was confident she could be smart and plan for change as best she could.
Other thoughts had her far more anxious. What would she do when her child grew and asked her about his father? Would she lie to him or tell him the truth and watch it devastate him? He would hate Matt. Well, she would make sure he would never miss him. That Matt never got the chance to see him. She would protect her baby from him with everything she had. She would never speak his name again.
No one needed to know about how she had thought about him and wondered how he was. Or that she would sometimes close her eyes and picture him kissing her belly even when she felt unattractive—especially then.
Those were her secret thoughts, things she hadn’t even told Emma. She never again wanted to rely on a man to make her feel beautiful or seen. None of it would matter if he turned his back on their baby.
Hannah placed a hand on her belly, revelling in the little movements she felt. ‘I’ll make sure you’re loved. You will always be able to trust me, I promise.’
As if her baby had heard her, she felt a little kick and chuckled to herself, but a knock on the door shattered her quiet moment.
She padded over to her room door, pulling it open. ‘Matt.’ She wasn’t surprised that he’d been able to come up to her room without her knowing about it. There wasn’t much he could do that would surprise her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘MAY I COME IN?’
Hannah was torn. She didn’t know if she wanted to let Matt in, but she couldn’t bear to leave things as they were. She needed his answer about their baby. Fear was a powerful thing and it coursed through her. She did not know if this would be the last time she would see him. If he would reject her child. It didn’t matter to her that their best friends were together. If Matt didn’t want this baby, she would make sure he never saw her either.
‘I just want to talk.’
His voice was still calm, but he seemed tentative, so Hannah held the door open and stood aside. The hotel room had seemed comfortable to her moments ago but now, with Matt standing inside, it felt cramped, as though he took up all the space.
She moved past him to sit on the arm chair in the corner. It didn’t help the ache in her lower back.
God, this tension was going to eat her alive. She watched Matt pluck a pillow off the bed and come over to her. He eased her forward and she gasped as his touch made her whole body tingle. He placed the pillow behind her back and she could tell from the look in his eyes and set off his jaw that he felt something too. Whatever this was between them hadn’t fizzled in their months apart. But things were different now. This wasn’t a pause in reality, like his vacation had been. This was real life.
He sat on the edge of the bed, as close as he dared get without touching her, and she hated that she wished he would.
After a moment of neither of them knowing what to say, she saw him take a breath.
‘You caught me off-guard earlier, Hannah.’
She knew that. Her gut twisted with guilt, and yet she hadn’t forgiven him. His accusations still stung.
‘I’ll be honest with you, I never wanted children...’
There it was. A buzzing erupted in her ears. She’d told everyone that he didn’t want a child. There would be no reason why it would change now. What made her special enough to be the exception to his rule? She should never have come.
‘Just hear me out.’ Matt was staring at her with his assessing gaze. ‘What I wanted doesn’t matter now. If this baby is mine, I will be in their life.’
‘He is yours, Matt,’ Hannah insisted impatiently. She couldn’t help snapping but she recognised Matt was attempting to be civil. They would get nowhere if they bickered.
‘He? Do you know?’ There was a strange expression on his face—sadness, maybe wonder, or apprehension.
‘No, I just have this feeling. From the start it felt right to think of him as my little boy.’
Matt nodded.
‘I suppose it’s not a very scientific answer.’ Hannah was always logical. It had served her well in her career. Science and medicine were irrefutable, feelings entirely fallible. Just like the feelings in her first real relationship.
