The Trouble With Him: A Secret Pregnancy Romance (The Forbidden Love 3)

Austin stares at me wistfully. He raises his finger to touch my cheek softly. “We can do this, Ava, okay? I meant it when I said you aren’t alone.”

His reassurance is exactly what I need. I rest my face in his hand, allowing his comforting gesture.

“You don’t know how much I needed to hear that,” I whisper.

This is far from perfect and not how I ever imagined my life to turn out. But as I stare into the eyes of the man who is the father of my baby, I can’t help but wonder if this was always in the cards.

The Universe has a fucked-up way of aligning the stars and dealing cards.

Just how far it will test me will soon be revealed.

Ten

Austin

Ava’s pregnant.

My head rests against the wall until a page goes off calling all available staff to the ER.

A multi-trauma case is on its way. A woman in her mid-twenties and two young children—a boy aged six and a girl aged four—hit at a pedestrian stop by an out-of-control driver.

There’s no time to stop and think of anything else. The team prepares the equipment with all trained staff on standby. First, we will need to examine the patients to get a better understanding of their conditions.

When the first responders arrive, each patient is rushed to a separate team. The little girl is brought to where I stand, and simultaneously while we start examining her, the first responder is informing us of her condition.

We work busily, following protocol. The child is conscious but in obvious pain as she begins to cry. The nurse administers some pain relief, then begins the x-raying of various parts of her body.

The rush continues however, at this stage, we can see she hasn’t sustained any internal bleeding. Instead, the pain she’s experiencing is from a broken leg.

Her brother is in a similar condition, only with a broken arm. According to the report, they landed close to one another as their mother tried to shield them seconds before impact.

Across the room, the team rushes the mother into emergency surgery. There is a commotion when the nurse brings in the father and what appears to be the grandmother. The two of them weep, calling out in a panic while Dr. Hanson—who is in charge today—tries to update them on the condition of the children. Both are stable but will remain in ICU for observation. As for the mother, it is too early to tell.

Hours pass with more patients admitted but thankfully—not as serious as earlier today. Before my shift ends, a nurse updates me on the mother. She has been stabilized, and they managed to stop the internal bleeding. After seeing those two children injured, I’m grateful the mother has pulled through. I can’t even imagine being a parent and going through that.

And then, the wrecking ball swings past and knocks the wind out of me, forceful with its nature and leaving me entirely breathless.

You’re going to be a father.

My feet drag as I walk to the breakout room, time lost on me though I’m aware my shift has ended. Only an hour over scheduled time today, a record if I’m not mistaken. Inside the small area, a few colleagues have also clocked off, chatting away animatedly but stop for a moment to say hello. I’m not in the mood to converse, keeping my smile to a bare minimum.

I open my locker in a daze, grabbing my things, then close the door to see Lane beside me.

“Hey, handsome, you look beat.”

I’m unable to look her in the eye, my limbs numb and unable to move. Multiple thoughts are running through my mind, only catching up now. How will it even work with Ava and me? We aren’t together, and I barely have time to take care of myself, let alone a baby. The roster at work is so hectic, and for the last few weeks, I’ve worked seven days because we are short-sta

ffed.

Then there is the huge matter of her family. I’m dead certain Lex will hunt me down and kill me. But more pressing than that is Millie’s reaction.

After all, she is the Edwards daughter I once loved and wanted to marry.

Aside from New Year’s Eve, I hadn’t thought about the Edwards family in a long while. It was a memory I buried, and it felt like so long ago.

But then my mind wanders to the night we fucked so carelessly. I swear I placed the condom right. It wasn’t my first god damn time. I just don’t understand how we defied all odds. From a medical standpoint, how the hell was she ovulating the one time we screwed around and with a condom? I didn’t even go in bareback, not for one second.

Yeah, sure, at first, I thought it was someone else’s. Ava is beautiful, and men had always bowed down to her. But I also knew she would never make up such a lie. Ava never cared for kids, not ever voicing she wanted to settle down. Quite the opposite, she repelled commitment because she wanted to do things her way. It was a joke Millie and I often teased her about—a spinster with a vast collection of cats.