“If you could give me a few moments to rest? I trust Tonya, and I’m sure you’ve all done the best you can to get word to Xavier in his meeting so that he can get here soon. Whatever we need to know, you’re right, and we need to hear it together. As a family.”
Just let us actually be one. I can’t live if he runs.
The doctor nodded. “Señorita Gaines, trust me. We’ll do everything we can to care for you. This hospital has a glowing reputation in obstetrics, and we’ll work our hardest to make sure you’re protected and cared for.”
She felt the first bit of warmth begin to banish away the goose bumps surging over her skin. It was the only good news she’d heard all day. Then a cruel voice reminded her that if she didn’t have Xavier to help her, there would be no way to afford the medical care she needed.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Dr. Díaz asked.
Sandra forced herself to smile. “I will be as soon as Tonya slips back in and Xavier is here. Until then, I’m going to just nap.”
Or try to.
“See?” the doctor practically crowed. “You have good maternal instincts already. Nurses, let’s go,” he said, as the women followed him out.
Sandra sighed and leaned back on her pillow. Her eyelids were too heavy to keep open, and she surrendered herself to the encroaching depths of sleep. Even though she’d already passed out earlier that day, all the stress and fear was working its way through her. She couldn’t deal with any of it, and part of her just wanted to go home.
A few minutes later the door creaked open, and she smiled before opening her eyes. The heavy tread of feet told her that it wasn’t Tonya coming back into the room. It had to be Xavier. She had to make him understand that they could make it, that it would be hard, but that they’d be a great family.
“Xav?” she asked and then frowned when she saw it was Javier instead.
His green eyes seemed almost to burn with his anger, and she flinched a little at the way he had his fists balled at his sides. “I wanted to believe in you.”
“I don’t understand,” she started, but he cut her off.
“I think you do. I passed by Tonya in a corner of the hallway. I overheard the conversation she had with your mother. You’ve known Xavier all along for months. Did you plan all of this?”
She shook her head and sat up as best she could, even with the lightheadedness working its way through her system, rendering her weak. “What? No! How do you plan for sextuplets?”
“But
you planned to meet him again. To work for him and then get deeper and deeper into his life. To be so enmeshed that you’d be an obvious and eventually legal heir to the Villalobos fortune.”
“Never.”
“Then why did you hide everything, Sandra?” he said, emphasizing her first name and gesturing to the file on the foot of her hospital bed. “You hid so much, so how can Xavier or I know what’s real and what’s a lie?”
“Okay, I did meet him earlier at my old job, but I didn’t know. He said his last name was Clifton. There was no reason for me to think he had anything to do with your company.”
“Perhaps, or perhaps you’re savvy and came up with a plan to get your chunk of a three-billion-dollar fortune.”
“Do you know how crazy that sounds?” she shouted, wincing when her head started to pound.
“No crazier than you hiding who you really were and how you knew my brother. No crazier than what his last long-term girlfriend, Tina, tried to do to this family.” Javier shook his head. “I wanted to believe in happy endings so badly. My brother has been shat on before, kicked so hard that I never thought he’d get back up. For so long he was a semi-recluse, trying to hide himself and stay out of the limelight.”
“That explains a lot.”
“But then you come along and it’s like the light was turned on inside of him again. I had my brother back, and now you’ve turned out to be nothing but a liar.” Javier sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I’m going to make you a deal.”
“What?”
He pulled a checkbook from his pants pocket. “I’m going to write you a check for six million dollars. It’ll be a great start on caring for your children.”
“They’re your family too!”
“You seduced Xavier under false pretenses. Lied to him for months. The way I see it, Sandra, you’re a gold digger who has anything but his best interest at heart. After Tina, he barely could trust again. When he finds out what you did, he’ll never want to speak to you again. Now, take this money, go home to the States, and lie to some other family. We’re full up here.”
He finished scrawling out the check and set it on her lap. She burst into tears and avoided touching it, as if it were a smoldering coal that would burn her to nothing if she even grazed its surface.