The Pretend Fiancé

Bella’s hands flew to her belly protectively. Tears coursed down her cheeks. She shook her head, darted quietly back up the stairs and started shoving what she needed into the duffel bag she’d brought from Arkansas. In went all her own things, and a few of the ones Greta had helped her choose, plus her new makeup, and the diamond bracelet he’d gotten her at a charity auction. The laptop he’d given her for her coursework. She looked with regret at the cutting edge technology smartwatch and phone he’d given her. Both could have GPS trackers in them, so she left them behind.

She wrote a letter to Harvey, just in case he cared enough to read it.

Dear Mr. Carlson,

While I appreciate your generosity in engaging me to pretend to be your fiancée, I find that I can’t continue. The dishonesty is too much for me, and I know there is nothing real between us. Seeing your family made me realize that I don’t fit in here and no one, not even the press, could possibly believe we were serious about one another. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding someone else to fill my shoes. I left them all in the closet for your next girl.

I wish you all the best in business and in life.

You may consider this my formal letter of resignation, effective immediately.

Your former employee,

Bella

She left the note on the newly made bed. There was really no point telling him in person. He didn’t care anything about her. She was nothing but an amusement while he had to pass the time as a supposedly engaged man. That conversation she’d overheard destroyed her illusions completely. Gone was the romantic hope that he could love her back, that they could end up together. The only thing left was to run before he could take away the one thing that mattered to her anymore. Her baby.

There was no question in Bella’s mind that she had to leave and quickly. If she stayed, he would find out she was pregnant sooner or later and then there would be a legal injunction or something to keep her from leaving. She’d be trapped until she gave birth, and then he’d take the baby. That family had tons of money to pay all the lawyers in the world to prove her unfit for motherhood. She had no resources, no lawyer, not even a family or a degree to show her competence. Who would she call to bear witness? Her gambling drunken dad? Or her mom who left when she was little? She had no steady job, no way to support a child. A judge would be crazy to give her a baby when it could have a more stable and prosperous life with its rich daddy and his family.

There was no way she was giving up this child. She loved her baby already. She had loved Harvey with all her heart and he didn’t want that love, so she’d transfer all that to his child. The baby they’d created together. She would love him/her enough to make up for all her bad choices, all the disadvantages of being born to ‘white trash’ as Sylvia had called her. She’d finish her degree and get a good job and take care of that child. They would have a good life together. Already Bella imagined herself rocking the baby to sleep, singing a lullaby softly. Tears dripped down her face as she imagined taking the baby to the library, checking out a book of Mother Goose rhymes to read to him.

Her tuition was paid up for her last year of classes. She just had to finish them and with a baby to take care of and a full-time job, which would be necessary—it would take a while. Unless she could sell the diamond bracelet for enough to give her a few months off with the baby and to work on her college classes. She could work through her pregnancy, save money that way, share rent with her sister, Madison. It would all work out. She just had to calm down and think rationally.

Correction, she had to

get out of here, then take time to think. She picked up the keys to the Corvette.

She hesitated over the car. She had no right to take it—it belonged to Harvey’s fiancée, which she clearly was NOT. Still, it was the fastest way out of town. She crept out the kitchen entrance, tossed her bag in the car and drove off. She sold the car in Phoenix, back to the dealer where it came from, and cashed the money order at the nearest bank. Next, she uploaded all her coursework to online storage, wiped the hard drive and pawned the laptop. She loved it, but it could be tracked just as easily as a phone or tablet.

Sitting in the airport, she bought a bottle of water and drank it, remember she’d read somewhere that pregnant women needed to drink plenty of water. She was going to start making healthier choices and this was the first step. Leaving Arizona behind and all the memories that went with it. She was on a plane to Tulsa within the hour. Thank God she’d never told Harvey she had a little sister, or that she had any connection to Oklahoma at all. If he came looking for her, he’d have nothing to go on at all.

It had only been a scam. That’s what he had told Sylvia. So Bella knew she meant nothing to him. There was no way he’d come after her or try to pursue her in any way. Her scorched earth method of leaving town was for nothing. It was sheer paranoia. He wanted no part of her. And as long as he didn’t know about the baby, he never would. How awful it would be, she thought, if he found out and then pretended to love her and want to be with her just long enough for her to give birth. Then he’d swoop in like a villain in an old movie and steal the baby away. He could go to Europe or Thailand or someplace she could never find them, especially with no money to pay detectives or high-powered lawyers. She was at a total disadvantage, getting involved with someone so wealthy and powerful.

Harvey Carlson didn’t love her. She kept telling herself that as she sat on the plane, eyes shut tightly. How different this was from their private flight to Mexico, those days on the yacht, the nights at his mansion, all of it was so far from here. This was what girls like her got for reaching too high. Pregnant and alone. But he’d never want to raise a baby with her, with an employee! Their ‘scam’ was supposed to secure him an excellent evaluation by the board, not result in diapers, late night feedings and a lifetime of love and worry. If she thought for even a moment that he’d hear her out, that he had been lying to his mother, she’d tell him the truth. But she couldn’t risk losing her child just for the tiny, tiny chance that Harvey had been serious about a life together.

Hadn’t he said he wasn’t ready to settle down? Hadn’t she heard every damning word out of his mouth in that dining room when he was talking to his brother and mom? He was much more likely to tell them the truth than some girl he hired to play a part. No Carlson infant would be raised in a trailer park, she’d heard Sylvia sniff. Well, this wasn’t going to be a Carlson infant. This baby would be a James, just like her. He would belong to her and would be the most loved and wanted child ever. He would never know that he had a father who didn’t love either of them, a man who could take him away. She wouldn’t let that happen. When the baby was old enough, she’d tell him that his daddy died in a car accident. That she’d been so sad that she’d torn up all the pictures, but that his daddy loved them very much and knew that they were a family with or without him.

No. She could never pull off a lie like that. It wasn’t right. Well, she’d deal with that when the time came. It would be years before her child would start asking her questions.

She sat on the plane, wishing she had the picture she’d taken on the hot air balloon—could it only have been yesterday? So much had changed! That one frozen moment in time when they’d been happy together, now lost forever. She was alone and pregnant and had better stop pining over a man she could never have. A man whose only possible interest in her would be to take away the baby they’d made together.

No, she wouldn’t let him ever make her get an abortion, or give her baby up for adoption, or even hand her precious child over to Sylvia and her wealthy family to be raised by nannies. She wasn’t interested in any of those options. The only option she cared about was having her child and raising the baby herself.

At this point, Bellahad no choice.

If she wanted to keep her child, then she had to run away before anyone found out the truth.

She touched her stomach. “I love you dearest son or daughter. I don’t want to take you away from your daddy, but I really don’t have a choice. I’m doing this for you. To keep us together.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. She wanted Harvey to know, even though she was afraid to speak the words, that he was the only man she’d ever loved, would ever love, for the rest of her life.

It was the worst decision she ever had to make.