“I better get this food up to Ciara before she gets too hangry,” Ronan grumbles, and I laugh.
“Tell her I’ll come and see her in a bit.”
He grins. “Oh, I will, don’t you worry. I’m pretty sure you’re scheduled to take the next shift.”
“Make sure she’s eaten, then, because I don’t want to deal with a hangry pregnant woman.”
Ronan chuckles under his breath as he disappears upstairs.
I take the envelope with me into the kitchen to make my morning coffee.
While it brews, I drop into a chair and stare at the unopened envelope.
Could this be something from college?
It can’t be. My family home is listed as my address there.
Oh, God. Could this be Sean’s doing? He doesn’t seem like the sort of guy to send me documentation. He’s more of a body part in a box kind of guy.
So, I swallow my nerves and open it up.
Inside is a thick stack of papers, all glossy and crisp, and when I slide them out onto the table, a hugeLever Industrieslogo stares back at me.
It’s the induction packet for my internship. The one I accepted before I found out I was pregnant. I’d completely forgotten that I emailed over all of my details to Human Resources after I accepted and that I put down Kieran’s penthouse as my current address.
I run my fingers through my hair, swallowing hard.
If I’m being totally honest, I haven’t thought about the internship once since the moment those two lines appeared on the test. I’ve been so caught up in how a baby would affect Kieran that I hadn’t given it much thought to how it would affectme.
I flick through the packet, feeling sick.
This internship represents my old life, the one where I had ambitions and goals. But now that I’m pregnant, with a Sullivan no less, the reality that I have to leave that life behind hits like a punch to the gut.
My hands tremble as I pull out the schedule and read through the orientation details, thinking about how much of a struggle it was going to be balancing the internship alongside senior year.
Adding a baby to the mix makes it completely impossible. There’s no way I would be able to juggle it all, even with Kieran’s help. And if he chooses to walk away?
Well, there’s the decision made.
Every page feels like a cruel reminder that my life has changed forever, and that nothing will ever be normal again.
I’m so lost in my head that when my phone vibrates in the pocket of my sweats, I startle, almost dropping the induction packet on the floor.
With my heart thundering in my chest, I pull my phone out and groan when Oscar’s name is flashing on the screen.
I haven’t spoken to my brother in weeks, not since Kieran and I got ‘married’ in Vegas. I dread to think what he would do if he found out that I not only betrayed our family by marrying a Sullivan, but that I’m now carrying a future heir to the Sullivan empire.
The phone continues to vibrate in my hand, and I fight the urge to ignore it and pretend that that side of my life no longer exists.
But curiosity is a slow burn that I can’t ignore.
What if my Uncle Rion is planning a move against the Sullivans and Oscar is calling to warn me?
Before I can talk myself out of it, I slide my thumb across the screen and hold the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Riley… I didn’t think you were going to answer.” There’s a softness to Oscar’s tone that immediately makes me tense.
“Well, I did.”
