Jodie sighed with relief and carefully rolled to her side so she didn’t pull at the intravenous tubes. Stergios had been acting strangely overprotective since they’d arrived at the emergency room. Ordinarily she would have hated how he’d taken charge and made demands, but at the time she felt too weak to do it herself. She idly wondered how he’d act if he knew this was his baby.
She needed to tell him the truth but she was unwilling to face the aftermath. He was going to be furious. This child was going to create chaos in his orderly world.
What demands would he make? That she didn’t have the baby? That she put it up for adoption? If he tried to coerce her into giving up her baby, he would discover an epic fight on his hands. The best-case scenario was that Stergios would deny the baby’s existence and keep it a secret from his family.
Jodie frowned when she heard Stergios’s steady footsteps pounding against the corridor floor. She slowly turned onto her back and stared at the open door. It sounded as if he was getting closer.
He knows. Her stomach twisted and she suddenly felt queasy. He knows about the baby. She had waited too long to tell him.
Suddenly he was there, clenching the door frame with his hands. She forgot to breathe when her gaze connected with his blistering glare.
“You are not in your second trimester?” His voice was quietly sinister. “Your date of conception was in the last week of September?”
He surged forward and she wanted to launch out of bed. He got there before she could move. Jodie wished she could curl up in a ball and pretend this wasn’t happening.
Stergios flattened his palms against the mattress. He invaded her space and she was trapped. Surrounded. Jodie couldn’t look away. She flinched when he spoke in a harsh whisper.
“When were you planning to tell me that the baby is mine?”
CHAPTER TEN
HE WAS GOING to be a father. Stergios stared at Jodie as the thud of his heart echoed in his head. His skin felt cold and clammy as his world slowly tilted. Stergios struggled to remain upright as he drew in a shallow breath. He was bringing an innocent child into this cruel and dangerous world.
Jodie lowered her gaze and turned her head to the side. “I was going to tell you.”
He doubted it. If the nurse hadn’t mentioned the due date, he may never have known. The possibility sent a chill down his spine. Jodie would have kept him from his child.
“When did you find out?” he asked in a snarl.
She swallowed hard and pressed her lips together. When he thought he was going to have to shake the truth out of her, Jodie quietly responded. “Six weeks ago.”
He gripped the side of the bed tighter as the white-hot anger spread inside him. Six weeks. The woman had plenty of opportunity to give him the news. She knew he wanted to be informed of any consequences of that night. He had demanded that she add his contact information in her phone. But she had distracted him with a lie that had sent him into a tailspin.
Jodie cautiously glanced up at him when he didn’t respond. “I was trying to find the right time,” she insisted. “The right words.”
“Or were you stalling because you were considering other options? Like getting rid of the child and never telling me.”
“No! I wouldn’t do that!” She wrapped her arms over her stomach. “I wasn’t planning to have this baby but I want it.”
His eyes narrowed on her protective gesture. Why was she trying to protect the baby from him? The rage flashed through him, burning hot and destructive, and it hurt to breathe. “Why did you tell me you were pregnant in September?”
Jodie’s cheeks turned pink and she slowly lifted her hands as if to placate him. “You have to understand.”
“Do you think I’m going to show you mercy because you’re pregnant?” His low voice shook as he struggled to remain icy calm. “You had planned to keep my baby from me. It’s as good as stealing my child.”
“No!” Jodie’s eyes filled with tears as if she’d been struck.
“You weren’t going to tell me.” He drew in a shallow breath as the fury billowed inside him. He often expected the worst in people, but he was stunned by Jodie’s treachery. “You were going to let me believe another man was the father.”
“No, not exactly.” She pressed the heels of her hand against her forehead.
“Trying to keep all your lies straight?”
She slapped her hands on the mattress. “I lied to you when I said I was pregnant. I didn’t know I was actually going to have a baby.”
Stergios leaned forward, his face inches away from hers as he bared his teeth. “Why did you tell me you were pregnant with another man’s child?”