“I blame the hormones, and sometimes the broken heart.”
“Shit,” she whispered and pulled me into a hug. It was awkward at best since my belly had long since popped and it seemed to create a barrier between us. “Oh!” My friend yelped the word in surprise. “The baby moved.”
“Yeah, I think it can sense when another human encroaches on its territory, and it tries to kick them away from any food that may be in the area,” I teased.
“It’s good to see you laughing again.”
It hadn’t really been a full laugh, but I supposed my half smiles must have seemed like an improvement to everyone in my circle.
“Hey, you two,” Moreland called as he walked over to greet us. Not surprisingly, he had his son in his arms. “You want to say hello to Auntie Vi?” he asked the baby. My heart tugged, swelled, and deflated all at once and I didn’t even know how that was possible. I was supposed to be Auntie Vi all along, but I was no longer related by marriage to Moreland the way I was when Ridge was my husband. It was true that the baby would be more of a second cousin if I had remained married to my husband, but the men were like brothers, so it had been determined when Gabby found out she was pregnant that Ridge would be an uncle, and I would be the aunt. A lot had changed since then.
“Stop that,” More insisted as he held his son out to me. “You will always be family.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as I took the boy in my arms. He gurgled and grinned at me as those dark, soulful eyes stared into my own. Then he giggled, as if he knew that the baby in my belly just kicked him.
“I think…” I was about to say ‘your cousin likes you’ but thought better of it.
“No fucking way,” Moreland said as he stared at the window near the front door. I turned in time to see a blonde-haired woman run away. “Keep my son safe,” More called out over his shoulder as he ran off to chase after whoever the woman was in the window.
“What was that about?” DD asked.
“No clue.”
“Where did my husband go?” Gabby asked as she came up to us. They had gotten married the day after his ship pulled back into port. After everything that happened between Ridge and I, they decided not to wait any longer. Then again, More also missed the birth of his son while on deployment, and that had a huge impact on their decision.
“He chased after some woman,” I mentioned. Gabby’s jaw dropped and then she got ready to go after her husband when we all watched him come back through the front door.
When he got to us, he announced that he had just seen Fiona and she didn’t look pregnant at all.
I gasped. “Pregnant? Fiona’s pregnant?”
Moreland winced as did just about everyone else in the room. The only people who seemed to be in the dark about my husband’s affair partner’s pregnancy was my best friend, my parents, brother, and me.
“We didn’t want to tell you because she wouldn’t prove if it was his. That was the whole reason he let her go to Australia with him that day. She had told him she was pregnant,” Moreland tried to explain, but he made me feel worse instead of better.
“How pregnant?” DD had the wherewithal to ask when I couldn’t form words much less sentences.
“He swore he hadn’t touched her, so it had to be from the night of the party.”
“Still, that’s pretty shitty that you all knew and never said a fucking word.” my best friend shouted at Ridge’s family.
“We also know about Violet’s pregnancy and haven’t spilled the beans to Ridge, despite the fact that he should know,” Moreland’s mother snapped at DD.
“The difference is that Violet is protecting her unborn child from a horrible woman Ridge chooses to associate with. Ridge is just worried about keeping more secrets hidden.”
“He didn’t want to hurt Violet needlessly if it turned out that Fiona wasn’t really pregnant with his child. And from the looks of things, she was never even pregnant,” Moreland tacked on. “I’m sure he would have told you as soon as he knew for sure, but the bitch left Australia two months ago and disappeared.”
“That’s all well and good, Moreland, but why in the hell would you think that Ridge would inform me of anything? I’m nothing to him but his ex-wife.”
Shocked gasps rang out from the Westover family, as if I spoke against some sacred bond. I wanted to roll my eyes, cry, rage, throw things, and fucking eat cake. Damnit.
“He would have called,” Moreland tried to assure me.
I laughed then, though there wasn’t a trace of humor in the sound. “What in the hell are you talking about? I haven’t spoken to Ridge since the night of his surprise party when he came home from that scene with his assistant so fucking out of it that I don’t think he even remembered speaking to me.”
More shocked gasps rang out and I watched as Moreland’s jaw seemed to come unhinged. “No,” he disagreed while shaking his head. “That can’t be right. You mean to say you haven’t spoken to my cousin since that night? Before you divorced. Not a single damn word?”
“That’s what ‘I haven’t spoken to him’ means, Moreland. Not a single fucking word. Not a text. No emails. No smoke signals. No sign language. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.”
