Save Her by Abigail Osborne (novel books to read .txt) 📗

was not the high up position she knew she was capable of, but he assured her she would work her way up the ladder.

After meeting Sam, Sophie knew he would be perfect for Flora. She knew Flora as intimately as she knew herself therefore she felt qualified to make this decision. She just had to get Greg to agree.

‘Please!’

‘But we never socialise outside of family obligations and work commitments. It would be awkward.’

‘No, it won’t. He’ll be with Flora. Then I can give you all my attention without having to worry about Flora.’ She gave him a sultry look and saw his eyes dilate.

‘Fine. I’ll sort it. Now come here, woman.’ And with that he swept her off her feet and laid her down on the floor, peeling off her clothes.

If Sophie needed a sign from above that her idea was the right thing then she was given it only a month or so later. Flora had been reluctant to like Sam.

‘It’s weird though. You’re dating his brother.’

‘Why is that weird? We aren’t related, Flo.’

It was annoying Sophie that Flora was being so obstinate. It was obvious that Flora and Sam were meant to be together. They were both trusting, gentle and had the same optimistic outlook on life. In the beginning, Sophie had engineered meeting after meeting, desperate to make them see what she could. But it turned out she needn’t have bothered. Fate was on her side once more. Flora’s battered, unreliable Corsa broke down on her way to the centre and as ‘luck’ (also known as fate), would have it, Sam was driving past and saw her on the side of the road. He gave her a lift to the centre and the rest was history.

It was going perfectly. Flora and Sam were happy. Sophie and Greg were the power couple. When they weren’t working together on securing lucrative equity deals, they were making passionate love in whichever room they happened to be in. She had everything she had ever wanted.

Until she fell pregnant.

It was the beginning of the end. Greg did not want children. Ever. They had only been together for a year and had not had any deep conversations about emotions. She didn’t even know how she felt about it, let alone how he would react. Deciding that the place where he was happiest would be the best place to tell him, she knocked on the door to his office. His fingers whizzed across the keyboard and he merely glanced in her direction, not stopping to look at her properly and what she was holding.

‘I’m pregnant.’ She brandished the pregnancy test in shaking hands, holding her breath in anticipation.

‘Oh shit.’ He stood up abruptly, his face leached of all colour. ‘But– But we were careful. You are on the pill, right?’

‘Yes, but nothing is a hundred per cent safe,’ answered Sophie.

Greg sat back down hard. His chair creaked in protest. ‘Well, we will just have to take care of it.’

For a minute, she did not understand his meaning. She opened her mouth to say as much, but he carried on talking. When it hit her, her legs weakened. She had not even considered an abortion. To be honest she hadn’t thought about anything apart from telling him. This was never something she expected to happen to her. But hearing Greg say it so nonchalantly made her feel sick. Did he even realise that there was an actual human being growing inside her?

‘I’m quite far along. I didn’t recognise the signs until my clothes started getting tighter. I’m not sure if that’s possible anymore. It might be too late.’

‘Nothing is impossible when you’ve got money. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll sort it for you.’

Sophie moved and sat in the chair opposite him. His colour had returned to his face and he flashed her a quick smile and stared at his iMac, typing away as if she wasn’t there, dismissing her as if she was a lowly intern.

‘But don’t you think we should talk about it? Discuss our options?’

He looked at her, incredulous. ‘What options? You’re not keeping it?’

‘But why not? I’m not saying I want to, but I’d like to consider it. This is a human life we are talking about.’ Tears pricked her eyes and she rubbed them away.

‘Sophie, it is a clump of cells. Nothing more. I do not want children. I thought you knew that. My work means more than anything to me and nothing is going to get in my way. I am going to make Cavendish & Sons the giant of venture capitalism and I can’t do that with a baby.’ He said the word ‘baby’ scathingly.

‘And what about what I want?’

Greg leant back in his chair, he sighed heavily. ‘I thought we were on the same page. I thought we both wanted the same things. Look, I don’t want to be a jerk, but I know what I want from life and I want a partner that wants the same things.’

‘So, what you’re saying is, I have an abortion, or we break up?’

‘Well, you make it sound so crude. There is more to it than that. I don’t want to raise a baby. Don’t you think it would damage the child to have someone in its life that resents it? If you want to keep the baby you can. But I can’t be a part of it.’

She got up and left the room.

She wandered down the hall to her office in a daze. She saw no faces and registered nothing, so lost was she in her turmoil. Sophie had never considered becoming a mother. Her own childhood had never instilled any maternal desires. For her whole life her only focus had been her own survival and making a place for herself in the brutal, suffocating jungle of a world.

In her earliest memories she was self-sufficient, looking after herself with no one to help her. She had never contemplated bringing life into the world when it was a