“That’s impossible,” Ridge’s dad murmured. “He loves you.”
“He has a funny way of showing it,” I countered.
“You have to tell him about the baby, it will change everything,” Gayle told me. Her eyes were wide and she looked pale, as if my admission shocked her somehow.
“No, I don’t. You all know why I won’t do that. As long as Fiona is in his circle, he can’t know about this baby.”
“Well, she already knows about your pregnancy now. She saw you,” Moreland countered.
“And?” I questioned. “Do you really think she’s going to tell him something that might drive him away from her?”
“That’s just it. He is not with her. If she thinks he doesn’t know about your baby, she might use it against him. She could do something crazy, like…”
I had already thought about what a desperate woman might try to do if she claimed to be pregnant when she really wasn’t and she found someone who was pregnant with his child. I shivered at the thought. It was why I had been so protective of my pregnancy to begin with - not that I realized then that she might concoct a plan to off me and steal my kid. Now that it had surfaced and seemed like a potential outcome, I couldn’t face the people who had kept crucial information from me.
And I was done.
“I need to go,” I whispered to DD. She heard me and held everyone else off while I took off out of the bar. All my presents remained behind, unopened because we hadn’t gotten to them any more than we got to the cake.
“Wait up!” I turned to see Drake. My little brother had run after me, obviously making it past my best friend somehow. “I want to come with you.”
“I thought you hated me?”
“I never hated you. I was angry at the whole situation - at both of you - for a while, but mostly, I’m just sorry that I wasn’t there for you. I know this has been awful. I can’t believe he never came back, never tried to convince you to stay. And now, what More just said in there. That woman might be having his baby.”
“Apparently not, since she doesn’t look pregnant,” I reminded Drake.
“Yeah, well, whatever. It’s still not fair. You are actually pregnant, and he doesn’t know because the asshole didn’t care to know.” Well, that was blunt. True, though. “Besides, I’m worried that bitch might come after you, so I’m going to stick to you like glue from now on.”
“You have school in the morning,” I reminded Drake.
“Whatever,” he blew that off. “Someone can trade off with me then. Better make it DD or Dad. Not sure anyone else can be trusted.”
“What about Mom?” I asked.
“Hate to break it to you, Vi, but she wasn’t shocked in there the way Dad was when Moreland dropped the crazy bitch baby bomb on you.”
“You think she knew?”
“I think she’s way more involved in your marriage and divorce than anyone thinks.”
“That’s not ominous,” I mentioned as I drove us toward my apartment.
“The whole damn thing is pretty fucked, Sis.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Chapter 19
Ridge
“Have they found her yet?”
It was the same question that always greeted me in the morning when Nancy made her way into my office with a sealed bottle of water for me. She used to bring me a black coffee every morning until the clever woman picked up on the fact that I wasn’t drinking them. I explained to her why I refused to drink something another person poured and she had lost all color and then crossed herself.
It was not a fond memory, as the pity came next. I threatened to fire her if she looked at me like that again, and Nancy, being the professional she was, snapped out of it, gave a nod, and then asked, “Have they found the bitch yet?”
“The answer, as always, is no.”
