A BABY FOR THE CEO

CHAPTER 1

EMMA

The tenth shrill scream comes from my lips as I close my eyes, trying to control or have some sort of control over the pain I am feeling right now.

I close my eyes, biting my lips hard, not caring when I feel the burning and the taste of blood in my mouth.

All I want more than anything is for this absurd pain to end at once because I feel like I am about to pass out at any moment. That's when I think about how reckless I was nine months ago, after a drunken night out.

But I repeat for the second time that now is not the right time to try to feel any regret, and as hard as I try, I can't regret what that night brought me.

“Try to breathe; the baby will be here soon, Emma!”, I hear my friend's voice from beside me as the nurses push the wheelchair. I am being wheeled into the delivery room.

A night of hot s*x earned me an unexpected pregnancy from a stranger. It was my first time, and I gave my own body to someone I had never seen in my entire life.

To say it was good is an understatement, but here I am today, about to give birth to my first child, a single mother, and not knowing anything about my baby's father other than a single name.

Alex.

A new scream makes me bite my lips harder. Feeling the tears streaming down my face as I am carried down a long corridor of the maternity part of the hospital, I repeat a new sequence of breathing and sobbing with each new contraction.

I touch my belly, covered by the dress I am wearing, thinking that at some point tonight I will meet the little face of my beloved baby.

“Oh my god!”, I grunted, squeezing my best friend's hand for some support.

"You can do it, Emma! Let's meet our, Benjamin."

I nod my head, almost screaming at the nurse who is pushing me in the wheelchair to go faster. I am out of patience and feeling extreme pain, but my heartbeat seems to stop when my eyes fixate on a person.

This can't be happening, God!

It's him!

The unbearable pain of feeling my child being born seems to fade for a second when I see none other than the man who is the father of my baby.

Time seems to freeze around me when I see him talking to the receptionist at the hospital counter. He looks exactly like the handsome man I met that night.

I don't blink when the nurse asks the people in front of us to excuse me; I grab Coral's hand, and just as I am about to say that finally the miracle has happened, my expectations are shattered in a few seconds when something unexpected happens.

He can't see me, but I see that when a woman in a long dress approaches holding a baby in her lap, he smiles broadly before taking the child from the woman's lap and holding the baby, visibly moved.

My eyes fill with tears again as I still watch the scene a few feet away from me. The pain of my heart breaking into a thousand pieces is greater than anything right now.

I sob, my vision clouded by the tears that run uncontrollably down my face.

He has a family...

We finally arrive in the delivery room, and I am in pieces because everything is piling up inside me, with so many emotions that it seems I won't be able to take anything else today.

“He is here...”, I whisper to myself as the birthing procedures begin.

I can't go on with this alone, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Coral also enter the room after she sanitizes herself properly.

“He is here...”, I whisper again when her hand holds mine.

“Who is?”

“Alex. He's here.”, My words are interrupted when a new wave of pain sweeps through me completely.

I cry out more and more, feeling that I can't do it, that I'm not able to do it like I thought I was.

“Come on, your dilation is at the ideal size, and I can already see the baby, Emma!”, I hear the doctor's voice somewhere in the room.

I closed my eyes, groaning in pain and feeling my heart break like never before. Somewhere inside of me, I knew that he would not come back to me and take on the baby as his son.

I always knew we wouldn't have a romantic tale when he found out he had a child in this world, but I wished every night that my baby could have the chance not to grow up without a father in his life.

He already has his own family, and I'm sure he doesn't need a woman showing up out of nowhere and saying that the baby is his.

“We need the pushing to start; go ahead, Emma!”, Still crying, I nod my head, doing what they are instructing me to do.

I feel completely weak, but I need to do this; I need to finish this, so I can finally meet my darling son.

I don't know how much time has passed, and I don't even know if I have any strength left in my body. My vision is cloudy, and my eyes seem to want to close completely at any moment.

Furthermore, I have the thought in my head that I am dying, but a loud cry makes me open my eyes and try to focus on what is happening now.

“Congratulations! You are a beautiful, strong boy!”, I lift my head, seeing the reason for my happiness in the nurse's arms.

I cry more now as she approaches with my son in her lap. I find strength from somewhere when he is finally placed in my arms.

“Welcome to the world, Benjamin...”, I whisper, crying, feeling my friend hug me.

I close my eyes, hugging my baby, who is still crying in my arms, and I am fully aware that it will be just him and me against the world.

After a few hours already in the room and nursing my son for the first time, I tell her what I saw earlier, and she stares as she hears everything.

I know perfectly well that it was not my mind's imagination, and I was able to verify this when my friend went to the reception seeking more information and said that she was related to the couple with the baby.

She found out that I had become pregnant by none other than Alex Laurent, one of the most important CEOs of the financial world in all of America.

I have had a baby who is the son of one of the richest men I could have ever imagined. My baby is the son of the heir of a very well-known subsidiary company, and this shakes me up even more.

“From now on, it will be just you and me against this world, son.”, I say this with tears in my eyes, caressing the few strands of golden hair of my baby, who is looking at me with his big blue eyes.

Just like Alex's.

“Nothing will happen to you because Mommy will protect you always and forever,” I whisper with my eyes closed, kissing the baby's soft skin.

I will be a young single mother raising a child completely alone, and only with the help of my friend will I risk getting in Alex Laurent's way ever again.

Furthermore, I would rather have a job that pays me poorly and support my child with the little I will earn than run after a married billionaire who will surely humiliate me with the excuse of the belly button.

It will be just him and me against everything.