Highest Bidder

Of course I wasn’t. I took the morning after pill after that one time we did it without a condom and after that, I went on the pill. So … of course, I wasn’t.

Freya

Later, I went back to my bathroom and took the test. I didn’t know what to do. I found myself walking down the road to the bus stop. I sat down, took out the test, and stared at the blue line.

I was carrying Brent’s baby.

The bus that I usually took to the office came and went. I looked at the people sitting inside it. They seemed peaceful. I put the stick back into my purse and started to walk blindly.

What was I going to do?

Obviously, I would keep it. Whether Brent wanted it or not, I was keeping it. I was so deep in my own world I jumped when my phone rang. The noise jarred me to my very soul and I quickly fished it out and clicked accept to stop the sound. “Hello.”

“I see you got bad news,” Judi Mirren said, and I was so startled I nearly dropped my phone. For a second, I was totally confused. How could she know? Then I looked around me.

“Or is it good news?” she asked.

“What the hell? Do you have someone spying on me?” I demanded.

“Of course,” she confirmed sweetly.

I was so furious I couldn’t speak.

“I can see you’re still in shock,” she said. “So, I’ll just say what’s needed. Get rid of the child. Brent will have absolutely nothing to do with it and neither will your mother, I imagine. It’s going to be an impossible pill to swallow when she finds out that her daughter has been fucking the man who killed her husband and ruined her family, wouldn’t it?”

My teeth were clenched and my hands were trembling with fury. I didn’t have to hear this. I was about to end the call when her next words stopped me cold.

“You poor thing. It must be awful to be stuck in such situation,” she crowed. “By the way, you do know he fucked me, don’t you?”

“What?” the word was torn out of me.

“I told you Brent Lucan wasn’t an ordinary man. He wanted you and you rejected him. What did you think would happen? Did you expect that he would give up on something he wanted? You’re a child if you think that. His ability to read through people is uncanny. Do you really think I closed your mother’s boutique on my own? These were his words concerning you, ‘Family is worth more to her than anything else. Close down her mother’s store, and she’ll come running to me.’”

I retched, feeling all over again as though this time I might actually spew my insides to death.

She went on, “You heard the news about his brother Liam, didn’t you? It’s no coincidence, and I’m sure you are aware of that. Erase him out of your life and move on.”

“And you?” I asked. “Are you so threatened by me that you have to monitor me so closely?”

“I’m not threatened,” she retorted. “I’m impatient. I want my lover and business partner back. The only way to hold onto such a man is to allow him to go after whatever cheap trinkets claim his fancy. Quickly wrap up this joke of an affair you have with him and send him back to me.”

Then the phone went dead on me.

Freya

I kept my little secret to myself all day.

Now it was late evening and I was in front of the stove, two sausages sizzling in olive oil, and two slices of bread toasting nearby. It had been incredibly hard and discouraging to work up an appetite for anything, as the faintest of smells triggered the most infuriating bouts of nausea.

The excuse I had given my mother as to why I was suddenly home was that I was suffering from exhaustion and I needed a rest because I had a big presentation coming up at work.

She had accepted the excuse without qualms.

She was the last person who could know about my condition. At the same time, I realized she was the one that it would be most difficult to hide it from. The toast dinged its completion so I headed over to retrieve the browned slices. Just then however, the doorbell rang. Eyeing my sausage and judging it a few minutes away from done, I hurried from the kitchen to the door. I pulled it open …

Brent Lucan was standing before me.

I reacted without thinking.

I slammed the door so forcefully shut that when he shot out his hand to block it, he winced with pain. It only took a moment for him to recover before he applied his strength behind it and with one shove I was displaced. He stepped into the apartment, his annoyed gaze on me as I retreated. “What was that?”

I quickly tied the thick robe across my body to hide the worn flannel shorts and white t-shirt I had on underneath. He was dressed in a superb dark suit and cashmere coat. “What are you doing here? You can’t be here.”

With a silence that made it hard for me to breathe, he regarded me, his gaze hooded and distant. “Why did you not answer my calls? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “Please leave. You really can’t be here. My mother will return at any time.”

My urgency however didn’t seem to hasten him. He slipped his hand into his pocket and stared into my eyes.

I glared back in response, refusing to be intimidated, but it was near impossible not to.

“Something’s burning,” he said.