CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance - Iona Rose (which ebook reader .txt) 📗

aware, now more than ever of how much it was needed, especially by my baby. So I began to eat.

I turned to glance through the barely covered glass wall of my room and saw Tracy with her phone to her ear as she paced the corridor over and over. When she was done, I watched her go still, her eyes lowered to the ground and it made me feel so incredibly guilty. I had forced her here at such an early time, and she had also chosen to take the day off from work.

She turned then, so I put my bowl of fruit down so I could tell her to carry on with the rest of the day, without the concern over my welfare. The look on her face though the moment she returned to the room struck me with alarm. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

For the longest time, she stared at me, and then she released a deep breath.

“Tracy,” I called.

She pulled a chair to my side, and took her seat.

“Stop it. You’re scaring me.”

“Don’t be,” she said. ‘There’s nothing wrong... kind of.”

I let out a deep breath. “I’ve already had more than enough surprises to deal with for the month. I don’t need anymore.”

She stared into my eyes, and I saw that her lips trembled slightly. “I called Carter,” she said.

My face fell. “What?”

“You were wrong, Leah.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? Why would you do that? Did you tell him?”

She was unmoved by my annoyance. “He’s not the one you saw at his door,” she said, her voice hard. “That was his twin brother, Andrew. You mistook him for Carter.”

I froze, the announcement jarring me into a stupor. “What?” I breathed.

“Carter’s on his way right now from Minnesota.”

My mouth fell open. “How could that—how could he have a twin?”

“He never mentioned it?” She asked.

I thought hard. “He’s mentioned having a brother, but they’re estranged because of the split between his parents. They’ve been out of touch for…” The shock came once again, and hit me with the force of a boulder. “He has a twin?” My voice shook.

She nodded.

I buried my face in my hands.

Hours later, my hands were still wringing until I was sure I was going to peel the skin off my bones.

Tracy had refused to go home, choosing to stay with me until he at least arrived.

He would be furious, the cold accusing gaze that he would rightly have for me already vivid in my mind’s eye. It terrified me, but what I prayed for once again was his mercy.

Why was it so easy for me to dismiss him? Despite all he had been to me so far, and how much he had showed me just how much I meant to him.

“Was I completely wrong?” I asked, only vaguely aware that Tracy was still in the room as I stared restlessly at the door.

She held my hand. “Anyone else would also have been shocked, and hurt,” she consoled me.

“My fault,” I told her. “I should have had more faith in him. Allowed him to explain himself. He knows as well as I do, that the situation would have been resolved there and then if I had even as much as called his name. His brother would have known that I was referring to the wrong person. Things would have been sorted out. But instead I ran… like I have… over and over again, when it comes to him. And he knows that. And he is going to be furious.”

“You can’t know that he will be furious,” Tracy said. “He was the one that contacted me to check up on you.”

“He contacted you, not me!”

“Well, he did try, didn't he?”

I shut my eyes, my heart sinking. “I wouldn’t know. I shut off my phone.”

“You both will be fine, just explain it was a mistake and one you’re truly sorry happened,” she said. “You’ll pull through this, especially for your baby’s sake.”

“I’m weakening his trust in me. That’s what I’m terrified of. That he’ll lose faith in me.”

“Well, this is a chance for a new start… with him. Apologize, but with all your heart. He’ll hear you.”

Just then, I sensed a movement in my peripheral vision, and my head snapped towards the glass.

There he was.

Dressed in his usual formal attire‒a pin striped two piece, with a crisp white dress shirt underneath, rolled up to his elbows.

The very sight of him made my heart twist with an unbeatable pain, at the man I kept taking for granted. My resolve to grovel was immediately locked into place, as he pushed the door open and came into the room.

His eyes were on me, and they were sunken. Whether it was with exhaustion, disappointment or loathing, I couldn't tell.

I deserved all three.

Tracy immediately rose from the chair so he could take a seat by me.

Instead, he broke his gaze from mine. “Where’s her doctor?” he asked.

Tracy shot me a glance.

I nodded to her and she moved.

He went with her, my heart going with him as they exited the room without another word.

Groveling… wouldn’t get me out of this one.

Chapter 39

Carter

I was conflicted as I watched her.

I stood away from her door, but positioned myself in a way that gave me a clear view of her.

She sat in a sullen silence, her head lowered and seemingly deep in thought.

I didn’t know what to feel.

On one hand, my heart burned with malice that she’d kept her pregnancy away from me, and for so long. She was now almost two and a half months along, so that meant that she had most likely been aware of the baby even before I’d arrived in Indianapolis. Maybe it was why she had fallen sick and taken the day off when I’d first arrived here. Maybe that was why she had initially tried to push me away.

My head was swirling, and I didn’t know where to begin.

I heard approaching footsteps and lifted my gaze to see it was Tracy.

She wore a