Dr Di Angelo's Baby Bombshell

“Apparently you do—or at least you did. Otherwise you wouldn’t be leaving me.” As he said the words out loud, their validity reverberated through him. She had expected something from him, something he’d failed to deliver.

“You’re twisting my words. I’m not leaving you.”

“How can you say that? You’re walking away from everything we have together.”

“Not everything, Blake.” She placed her hand over her belly. “There’s one thing we have together that I won’t ever walk away from. You can count on it.”

His gaze dropped to her belly and the blood drained from his face. Darby was going to have his baby, but she didn’t want him in her life, didn’t want to be a family with him.

And then it hit him. Darby had taken him to Armadillo Lake prepared to have sex. She’d had new lingerie, a full box of condoms. Perhaps she’d already gotten what she wanted from him? “Did you get pregnant on purpose?”

“What? How can you say that? We used condoms.”

“Some of them you bought. Did you tamper with them?”

Her eyes widened with a mixture of disbelief and anger. “Are you serious? Why would I do that?”

Hurt at her rejection of him egged him on. “No doubt a lot of women would like to reap the benefits of having my baby.”

Her eyes flashed with anger. “You arrogant son of a—”

“Fine. I know you didn’t get pregnant intentionally.” Blake had had enough. He’d known sleeping with Darby had been a mistake, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. Now she wanted to cut him out of her life. “If you want to leave, I’ll make it simple. Have a contract drawn up for your half of the clinic and I’ll sign it. You want to take my baby far away from me—fine. I won’t stop you. But expect to hear from my lawyer, because I will play a role in my child’s life.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DARBY placed the last of her books into the packing crate. She couldn’t believe how quickly the past month had gone by. Yet with the anger and hurt between her and Blake, each minute had also dragged by.

True to his word, he had signed the contract her lawyer had drawn up. She was no longer a partner in their clinic. She was no longer anything to him.

No, not true. She was the mother of his unborn child.

They’d always have that connection. Always.

A tear ran down her cheek.

Although moving home was the right thing for so many reasons, leaving Knoxville wasn’t easy. When the movers had crated up the contents of her apartment that morning she’d burst into tears. She’d cried until her chest throbbed. She’d left to finish at the office, because she hadn’t been able to watch them empty her apartment.

Because her heart had been breaking.

Home is where the heart is.

Her heart was with Blake.

If he’d loved her she would have stayed in Knoxville forever, would have gone wherever he was and been happy.

But he didn’t love her.

As she had no choice, she accepted that. But if making him love her were possible, she’d fight for Blake’s heart to her dying breath.

For all eternity.

“I can’t believe you’re really going.”

Darby’s gaze shot to the doorway. “Blake.”

She swiped at her eyes, hoping he hadn’t caught the waterworks. “How long have you been standing there?”

Had he come to start yet another fight with her? It seemed as if that was all they did on the few occasions they actually spoke.