I spin to my wife and tuck her against my side. “Perfect timing. Mother was just saying it’s our sacred duty to expand the Falcon line. Insists we start immediately. Isn’t that right, Mother?”
On a huff, my mother storms off, unwilling to play along.
“She didnotsay that.” Ingrid coughs, as if the words get stuck in her throat. “She was warning you, wasn’t she? Telling you it would be unwise for us to even try.”
I nod, my chest tightening as my mind betrays me with an image of Ingrid’s belly swollen with my child. “But I’ve always been notorious for disobeying her. If I were you, I’d run. Now that I’ve been ordered not to do that, I’ll likely do it sooner than we planned.”
“Guess it’s a good thing I’m on birth control, then.” Ingrid giggles. “Can you imagine?”
Epilogue
Ingrid
Two Years and Six Months Later
Darius walks into the office and stops short, his gaze locking on the piles of tissues scattered like evidence across the desk. “What’s wrong?”
The question slices through me, but I can’t bring myself to answer. My throat tightens. I don’t want to say it. We’ve had a plan—one we’ve clung to, refined, believed in. For nearly three years, it’s been solid. And now, what’s eating at me tears a hole straight through it.
First item on our list as newlyweds was me graduating. I enrolled in one of Switzerland’s top universities, crushed it, and graduated just this summer. Top of my class, might I add. My husband was so proud of me he whisked me away for five sun-soaked days where the only thing we studied was each other. It was perfect, exactly what we needed.
When we returned, I slid into my new role and began running his office. Love the man, but he needed an officemanager who took no crap—mainly from him. Not a problem. I was already a pro at managing him. And now that we work together, I get to see him every day. Even travel with him, because the man travels a lot—part of the business he’s worked so hard at building.
The new plan was simple: get the business in order. Build solid teams. Lessen the travel. Shift Darius’s role from constant motion to steady leadership. All of this is expected to take a few years.
Great plan. Solid.
Except now I’m about to toss a wrench straight through it. Blow it out of the water with something neither of us saw coming. It’s not that I’m worried about whether we can do this; it’s more about timing. And if I’m being honest, our families.
Not just his mother—the queen of crazy—who’s gotten her way so far about us not producing children. Trust me, if I’d been ready after the tantrum she threw at our wedding, I’d have tossed my birth control into the trash and dared Darius to knock me up. But at twenty–almost twenty-one—I wasn’t ready. Marriage was already a leap, but after almost losing him, there was no way I was turning him down when he’d asked.
Marrying him was the smartest and easiest decision I’d ever made.
Now I’m twenty-three and Darius is about to turn thirty. Even though we’re older, and not really ready, we had better get there soon.
“Ingrid?” His voice is low, his knees hitting the floor as he searches my face.
I pull out another tissue and blow, dab my eyes, and just spit it out. “I’m pregnant.”
His whole body stiffens. He swallows hard, like he might throw up, then pastes on the fakest of all smiles and lies through his damn teeth. “That’s… great.”
“No, it’s not.” I toss the tissue onto the growing pile and grab another. “The timing sucks. This wasn’t part of the plan. We had a solid one.”
Standing, he tugs me to my feet, sits in my chair, and settles me on his lap. His arms wrap around me, cradling me against his chest. We sit there in silence for several minutes.
Then his voice breaks the quiet, “You want the honest truth?”
“Yes. Even if it’s hard to hear.” I run my finger along his arm. “I can take it.”
“It’s unexpected. Terrible timing, really. We just picked up five clients. Each one a nightmare who’s going to give me a headache.” His lips land on the crown of my head, and he snickers. “But on the bright side, this will royally piss off Mother. She’s been pleased with herself thinking I followed her advice about never reproducing. I look forward to telling her. Can’t wait to see her face when she realizes I’ve gone rogue.”
I close my eyes and imagine Geneva’s lips puckered up, frowning. “We should tell her right away. Can I call her? Break the news?”
Darius slips his phone from inside his suit pocket, scrolls to her name, and dials. As it rings, he sets it on his desk and puts it on FaceTime.
On the third ring his mother picks up and her face fills his screen. “Tell me you’ve come to your senses and left her.”
I roll my eyes and try not to scream. Better to let her choke on her own smugness first.
