Bad Boy Baby Daddy (13 page)

“It’s online. Anyone could find it. I guess you didn’t know your boyfriend has done this trick before, huh?”

She narrowed her eyes and took a step closer to me.

She wanted to intimidate me, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. I was in control and she damn well knew it. I stepped closer to her too, wanting to get into her personal space a bit, and for a second, I thought I smelled alcohol on her breath, but she turned her head so quickly that I couldn’t be sure.

I needed to get her to admit that she’d lied. I already knew she’d been lying, but I needed to hear it out loud.

“Someone else will find this eventually,” I said. “I’m just the first person who went digging.”

“Fuck you,” she spat out. “No one else knows that he’s my doctor, or that I’m seeing him. In fact, after what you’ve just showed me, I guess I won’t be seeing him anymore. So to everyone else, there’s nothing to dig into.”

“Sure,” I said. I’d known she was going to say that. “But people
are
going to notice when there’s no baby. How do you plan to deal with that? Fake a miscarriage like the other woman did, right after you’ve gotten your claws firmly back in Kaiden?”

She took another step closer. “Why the fuck are you doing this?” she asked, hands balling into fists by her side. “Because you’re pathetically in love with Kaiden? It’s so fucking obvious, you know. Do you think if I’m not having his baby, he’ll turn to you? He could have any girl he wants. I mean, he had
me.
So why would he pick a dumpy, short-ass, ugly bitch like you?”

“It’s not like that,” I said. I tried to keep my tone firm, but the wobble was obvious to both of us. “I just want to do a good job for Kaiden, seeing as he’s my client. That’s all. I just need you to be honest. It’s for your own good as well. If you admit this now, it won’t be anywhere near as bad as it will be if it’s discovered by the media instead.”

“Yeah, right. Whatever,” she said, practically hissing in my face at this point. Up this close, I could see a teeny-tiny smattering of fine white powder just under one of her nostrils. Jeez, no wonder she was acting so crazily, and no wonder she’d thought she would actually get away with her godawful fake pregnancy plan. She’d probably been near-constantly high for the last several weeks, or even longer.

“Well?” I said.

“Okay then, fine. I’m not pregnant. Now let’s see if Kaiden falls into bed with you…”

She stomped from the room, cackling loudly and leaving me with my shattered self-esteem. Her words had cut deep, and even though I knew she’d just been trying to hurt me, she’d brought up all kinds of insecurities within me that I’d been worrying about since Kaiden had kissed me the other night.
Why
had he kissed me? I still didn’t know. It wasn’t like I was some gorgeous supermodel with perfect skin and hair, which was what a guy like Kaiden could easily get.

Frustrated tears pricked at my eyes, and I brushed them away before making my move to leave. I had nothing left to stay for; nothing else to say to Serra.

“Riley?”

A familiar voice sounded as I stepped out of the dressing room, and a shadow appeared before me.

Kaiden.

Chapter 12

Kaiden

“What are you doing here?” I asked Riley, confused as to what she would be doing anywhere near Serra. As far as I knew, she went out of her way to avoid her. “And are you okay?” I added.

This question was pointless. It was obvious that she wasn’t; she was damn near crying.

“What’s going on?” I asked when she didn’t reply. A thousand possibilities flew through my mind, all of them involving Serra…and none of them were good.

Riley finally began to sob, and she fell into my arms. I embraced her wholly, glad that I could finally offer her some semblance of support. I felt her body shake and rattle against me as she cried into my chest, and I gently rubbed her back, letting her get it all out.

“Come on,” I finally said, gently peeling her away from me. It would do her no good to be here—she needed to be away from the toxicity that had obviously hurt her, and besides, I couldn’t really do anything while we were stuck inside a soap opera studio with eager eyes peeping out at us from every angle. “Let’s get out of here.”

All of my good intentions to see Serra—to try and sort stuff out with her—flew out the window as I tried to comfort Riley.

She shuffled alongside me, a shell of her usual self. I saw her company car outside and got into the driver’s seat to take her home. I’d caught a cab here, so I wasn’t going to be leaving any vehicle of my own behind. I half-expected Riley to argue this decision, but she slid quietly into the front passenger seat and handed me the keys without a single word. This wasn’t right; I couldn’t stand to see her like this. I knew she had a lot on her shoulders, and I just wished I could do something to help her with some of it. I kept shooting her glances, hoping the answer would pop into my mind, but as usual when it came to her, my mind was uselessly blank.

I quickly pulled out of the parking lot, knowing that she was more likely to open up if we were far away from all that had caused her pain.

“She’s not pregnant,” she said flatly, before I even had a chance to ask her about whatever went down at the studio.

“Huh?”

The statement just seemed so random and out of the blue, and it took a few seconds to cotton on to what she was talking about. Wait…she couldn’t mean Serra, could she?

Apparently the answer to that was yes.

“It’s Serra,” she said, voice cracking slightly at this. “She faked the whole thing. I’m so sorry, Kaiden. I wish it wasn’t true. I know how excited you were to be a father.”

Inside, I broke into a million different pieces as her words registered with me.
Serra wasn’t pregnant. I wasn’t going to be a father anytime soon.

Fuck…how the hell was that possible? I’d seen the sonogram myself! And if this was true, and she really wasn’t pregnant, why had she led me to believe that she was? Some twisted attempt to get me back into her life? Or worse, some sort of publicity attempt?

The discovery weighed heavily on my heart, but I tried to hide this as much as I could. Riley was clearly hurting over her own medical situation and possible future troubles with conceiving, so I tried to be strong, just for her. Later, I would have all the time in the world to fall apart at the loss of my child…well, the child that had never really existed, anyway.

“How do you know?” I asked quietly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her looking at me, but I kept my expression stoic and my eyes on the road. If I made eye contact with her, I would fall apart, and I couldn’t do that.

“I saw her on a date with Dr. Banks. I knew it was suspicious, but I wanted proof first. I did some research on him, and it turns out that he had his medical license revoked in England for a scam similar to this one. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away, but I wanted to hear the truth from her first.”

“She told you?” I asked, suddenly fired up with rage. “She actually
admitted
it to you?”

“Yes,” she replied. “She knew it was over. Plus I think she’s drunk and high. She’d probably admit anything in that state.”

I spun the car around that instant, swerving around to the other side of the road. All thoughts of anything else flooded from my mind as anger took over. Serra had spent the last few weeks putting me through fucking hell, and now she’d casually admitted to lying like it wasn’t a big deal…and not even to me? That bitch. She knew exactly what she was doing, she knew she was destroying me, and she didn’t even give a shit. I might have been an arrogant asshole to people in the past, but shit, I hadn’t done anything to deserve all of this, had I?

Once I’d gotten used to the idea of becoming a father, I’d been so excited. Absolutely over the moon. Now that I was hearing that it was all lies, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I was so damn angry. I was sad and confused, too, but in this moment, rage was what I felt the most.

“What are you doing?” Riley asked, sounding a little scared. “Are you going back there? That’s probably not a good idea.”

“This isn’t about PR right now, Riley,” I heard myself snapping. “This is about my fucking life being ruined.”

“I know, but shouldn’t you take some time to think about it? Decide what you want to say?” She was sitting up higher in her seat now, desperate to reach out to me.

“I know
exactly
what I want to say,” I said, skidding the car up towards the studio we’d only left a few moments before.

I stepped out of the car and heard Riley running behind me as I strode up to the main building. Part of me wished she had stayed behind in the car. I adored Riley, but I didn’t want her around right now, to witness what was about to go down.

“Where is she?” I said as soon as I entered the studio. “Where’s Serra?”

I half expected her to hide from me, but she strutted out, bold as brass, clutching a bottle of vodka in her left hand.

“Kaiden…was wondering when you’d show up,” she said. She swayed towards me, the stench of booze hitting me hard. “What’s up?”

“What’s
up?
Are you fucking kidding me?” I snatched the bottle from her hand and waved it in her face. “I thought you were supposed to be fucking pregnant!”

The film crew and other studio workers began to surround us, drawn in by the drama. I didn’t give a shit about that. Even as I heard Riley trying to tell me that someone was filming our exchange on their phone, I didn’t care. Fuck them—fuck all of them. Serra needed to hear this.

“You lied. You made it all up. You were never pregnant. How the fuck could you do that to me?”

“Well, you did sleep with me. You
could
have gotten me pregnant, but I guess your little swimmers must be shit.”

I shook my head at her repulsive words. Jesus, she was messed up. She sneered a second later, plucking the bottle out of my hands and taking a swig from it.

“How drunk are you, Serra?”

She shrugged, and I continued to press her.

“Tell me, Serra. I want the truth, and I want it now. Why did you do this? You’ve spent the last few weeks telling me and the media that I got you pregnant, and I’ve been made to look like a dick by everyone, and for what? Just to hurt me? You knew how excited I was to be having a kid.”

“Oh, don’t be so pathetic,” Serra replied. “Do you know how you sound? Like a fucking girl. Yeah, I lied. There’s no baby. So if you want one so badly, why don’t you go and try it out with your boring, fat-assed PR bitch? She seems pretty desperate to jump on your tiny dick.”

“Oh my god…” People were starting to exclaim their disgust at Serra’s awful behavior. She was obviously too high and drunk to care, but she’d just admitted everything in front of the entire film crew, and she was on the fast track to getting herself in some serious trouble, especially seeing as someone had been filming the entire exchange on their cell phone.

Thank god for technology these days, right? Sometimes it was a curse, but in times like this it was a blessing.

“Don’t ever contact me again,” I said before spinning on my heels and walking away. Confusing emotions poured me through in what felt like a deluge, and I didn’t even know what to think. I was sad, but how could I really be sad about a baby that had never existed? I hadn’t really lost anything.

So why did it feel like I had?

I stepped outside into the warm mid-afternoon air and sucked in a few deep breaths. It was a shit situation, but at least it was over now.

Riley’s soft voice spoke out from behind me; an angelic tone in the abyss of misery I was currently stuck in. “Should we go home, Kaiden?”

I turned to face her, trying to smile but failing miserably. “Yeah,” I replied. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

We drove back to Riley’s apartment in silence, aside from the odd directional instruction from her. My thoughts churned around and around in my mind, but they didn’t come to much of a conclusion. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go from this moment. When I’d thought I was going to be a father soon, my future had seemed scary but certain.

Now nothing was certain.

“It’s just here,” Riley said a moment later.

We pulled up outside a modest-looking apartment building; the sort of place that made mine look ridiculous and over the top. I felt a little ashamed of my extravagance at that moment, and I wished I’d stuck closer to my roots. I wished I was still the person who lived next door to Riley, and I wished I’d grown up to be the kind of person she could truly respect.

I wished so many things when it came to Riley.

“Come on up,” she said. “We could probably both use a drink.”

I glanced around as we walked into her apartment, drinking in the homely setting where Riley lived. The neat layout, tasteful furniture, shelves of books and framed photos on the walls seemed just like her, and I spent a moment wishing I’d done the same with my place, decorating it with love instead of money. I’d allowed the idea of prestige to consume me when having my home decorated, and that was stupid and fake, unlike Riley. She was the real deal.

A bizarre tension started to fill the room, unsaid things and unanswered questions swimming around us both. I had no idea what to do, so I walked forward and grabbed Riley’s hands, holding them tightly to my chest.

“I’m sorry about all of that,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry I acted like that back there.”

The statement was so small compared to the reality of the situation, but I didn’t know what else I could say other than that I was sorry.

“It’s all right, I’m sorry too. I know you must be hurting. I guess I’m mainly just sad because she actually has the chance to have children if she wants, and she uses that to punish others. I’ve basically just had all of my fertility choices stripped away from me, so now I’m a bit lost, and it makes me so mad that she could use you like that.”

I wrapped her into my arms again, and she snuggled into my chest.

We stayed like that for a while, trying to calm ourselves and comfort each other, and something suddenly occurred to me. It was probably a completely crazy plan, but if Riley was up for it, I was willing to carry it out.

Hell, I was more than willing.

I took a deep breath before speaking. “Riley, I have an idea,” I said slowly, still trying to find the right words to explain my thought process to her. “This is gonna sound completely nuts, but hear me out. The doctor told you that you can either have a baby right now and then get the surgery, or you can get the surgery right away and just use a surrogate later in life…is that right?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Well, I know you’d much rather have your own baby, rather than use a surrogate. So I could help you out, we could…”

She looked up at me with an expectant look on her face as I trailed off for a second.

“Go on,” she said, eyebrows knitting in confusion when I didn’t speak again right away.

My mind was still all over the place, and deep down, I knew it was probably unwise to even
think
this, never mind say it out loud, but my dizzy confusion made it seem like it was actually going to be okay.

I took another deep breath and finally spoke up again.

“Why don’t we have a baby?”