“Dad…?” His father’s eyes fluttered open.
“That’s a great sign,” the nurse murmured, and Miles tried to take heart. He reached out and took his father’s hand. His father looked up at him, meeting his eyes, and then gave his hand a squeeze.
Miles pressed his lips together, trying his best not to allow emotion to overwhelm him. “He squeezed my hand,” he reported to the nurse.
“Wonderful,” she said warmly. “That almost certainly means he recognizes you. That’s such a good indicator.”
“What do I do now?”
“Talk to him,” she suggested. “I’ll give the two of you some space. Just let him know that you’re here. He’ll find that reassuring, and that kind of thing can be very good for healing.” She smiled, rested a hand briefly on his shoulder, then turned and left the room.
Miles felt a chasm opening up in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to talk to his father. Of course he did. But this didn’t feel like talking to his father at all. Everything about it was wrong. Maybe the man in the bed recognized Miles, but Miles didn’t recognize him. This couldn’t be the hero of his childhood, the confident, capable man Miles had been so certain would never be defeated by anything.
Is it my fault? Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to that day golfing. I knew his health was in a bad place… Why did I say yes to that?
He cleared his throat. “Hey, Dad.” His father’s eyes searched his face, and Miles cast about desperately for something to say. He would ordinarily have told his father about the meeting he’d just been at, but all he could think was how poorly it had been received when he’d told his father about the BasTech deal in the first place. He wanted to be a reassuring presence, not a distressing one.
Well, he did tell me what he wants from me. I could give him that.
The thought was only half-formed in his mind when the words came tumbling out. “I did what you wanted, Dad,” he said, eyes filling with tears. “I found a nice woman. You’d really like her. And we’re going to have a baby.”
His father’s eyes grew wide, and Miles was more sure than ever that there was comprehension here. This was a clear reaction to the news that the future of the company was secure. His ploy had worked. His father was overjoyed.
But Miles was struck with a stab of dread. What was he going to do? He hoped more than anything that his father would live, that he would pull through this. But if he did, eventually it would become obvious that there was no girlfriend and no baby. There never had been. He would be devastated that Miles had made up such a story.
What if he lives just long enough for me to break his heart?
No. There had to be a solution. Every problem had a solution when you had enough money to give to it. Miles would figure something out.
CHAPTER 4
CHELSEA
“Ms. Burke?”
Chelsea looked up from the pamphlet she’d been flipping through. She hadn’t taken in any of the information printed in it. All she could focus on were the pictures of happy mothers with babies in their arms.That could be me.
She got to her feet, reaching out to shake the doctor’s hand. “Thank you for meeting with me, Dr. Montgomery.”
“Of course.” Dr. Montgomery smiled, shook Chelsea’s hand, and walked around to sit behind her desk. She straightened a few papers, adjusted her glasses on her nose, and folded her hands in front of her. “So, I understand you want to talk about conceiving using an anonymous sperm donor?”
Chelsea nodded. “I’ve been feeling like it’s the right option for me.”
“And may I ask what makes you feel that way?”
Chelsea sat up straighter, her brow furrowing. “Why?”
“Don’t worry. This is a question I ask all my patients,” Dr. Montgomery smiled reassuringly. “It’s just to make sure you’re doing it for reasons that are your own, that you aren’t facing any outside pressures. I hate to see women get into things like this because they feel as if they have to.”
“Oh, it isn’t like that for me at all,” Chelsea said earnestly, her face relaxing as she sat forward. “I’m dying to become a mother. It’s what I’ve always wanted. Nobody is pressuring me about it.”
“Not your parents?”
“No, not at all. My father isn’t even in the picture.” Chelsea was aware she hadn’t been asked for this much detail, but suddenly it was all spilling out. “I think that’s part of the reason I’m confident I can do this on my own. My mother was a great example to me of a single mother. The part I never thought of was that I could go ahead and conceive the child on my own, that I didn’t need to wait for a man.”
“And you don’t want to wait? What if you meet the man of your dreams a month after you’ve been inseminated?”
Chelsea laughed. “I’m thirty-five years old. The man of my dreams hasn’t shown up yet, and I see no reason to believe he’ll be doing so anytime soon. I can’t keep waiting around. I have to make a life for myself at some point, and this is how I’m going to do it. I’m going to have the baby I’ve always wanted and start my family before the best years of my life are gone for good.”
