CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Bran
Every time I’d been with Anne since the dinner where I proposed our deal, there had been subtle shifts in how I related to her.
When I’d taken her to the condo on the beach, something had been off about her. I could sense a distance.
Normally, I wouldn’t have given a shit. We had a deal. She’d agreed to it, even making her own demands, and signed the contract.
But there was something about her that had me wanting to let her out of the deal.
When she first talked about lying to Harper, I was angry. They saw me as a bogeyman and it fucking hurt. In that moment, I wanted tell them both to fuck off. If they couldn’t see how much I cared for Harper, at how seriously I took the responsibility my parents put on me to look out for her, then fuck ‘em.
But then Anne did something I’d never in a million years think she’d do. She took my hand and spoke to me gently. Almost like she understood.
You carry so much of your past with you, Bran, that you don’t know how to live in the present.
I didn’t understand what she meant. Wasn’t wanting a child living in the present, looking toward the future?
Maybe she meant the duty I felt toward Harper.
Confused and pissed, I decided to give up on Harper and Anne. If they wanted to be left alone, then fine.
Once out the door, I headed to the beach, feeling like I needed to breathe. How had my ordered world come so undone? How had loving and caring for my sister turned me into a bad guy? Was I overprotective?
Probably, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t had a reason. Harper could have been kidnapped and killed by her stalker.
Did she really think I’d ignore that when I had the means to protect her? How was it that Anne didn’t realize that?
Again, Anne shocked me by joining me on the beach. We had another exchange that didn’t make sense to me, especially when she started laughing when I told her I wasn’t going to lighten up.
By then, I wanted out of the deal. I wanted to stop feeling like I was an unreasonable bad guy. But I didn’t want to send Anne back to that dump of an apartment scraping by. So, I’d give her two million dollars. If she was smart, she’d use it wisely until she could find a better job or start her business.
I agreed to be your surrogate and that’s what I’m going to do.
Her words echoed in my brain. I’d felt certain she’d take the money and run. But she hadn’t.
Why the hell not? And why did the fact that she was going to stick to the deal fill my chest with a lightness?
She moved into the condo the following week. I offered to refurbish it for her, but she said she liked her furniture and didn’t want any more handouts.
While she still pushed back against me at times, for the most part she was less contrary. She appeared to take her role as surrogate seriously.
She had her health checkup and only rolled her eyes once when I demanded to be there with her. She was eating right and taking the vitamins the doctor advised. She started tracking her ovulation cycle, texting me each night with a joke gif of barren land with tumbleweed rolling across it to indicate she wasn’t yet ovulating.
At first, I was annoyed because I knew she was making fun of my need to be an active participant in my child’s life. After a few days, I started to see the humor.
Once she settled into the condo and had Harper and Lane over for a housewarming, I insisted that she move into my place. I’d given her all that she asked for to create her cover and now it was time she met my end of the deal.
It still irked me that she felt Harper would hate her if she knew about our deal. I was sure Harper would find it nuts, but to think of Anne’s actions as a betrayal really said something about what they thought of me. It wasn’t good.
Based on what I’d learned about women’s cycles, I knew Anne should be starting to ovulate in the next week or two. I wanted her in my home and settled before we did the procedure.
Finally, she packed up the things she wanted on a daily basis to move into my place. She arrived with several designer bags. From a distance, she looked like a woman of wealth. Everything she wore and carried were top of line.
But as she came closer, I could see they were worn or fading, and out of style. It was a reminder that she’d once lived in the lap of luxury.
She’d lost a lot and I imagined it was more than the money.