The CEO's Secret Baby

#2 - Pregnant!

Elaine

"This—this is not possible." My lips trembled as I stared at the man in front of me. "Please check again, doctor." I shoved the lab test results back at him. I had a fever and needed him to prescribe meds that would help with that. Not what he was telling me.

"A blood test result is usually accurate, Miss Murdoch," the man insisted. "You are pregnant."

Pregnant!

The word rang loud in my head, the doctor's positive expression echoing it, but I refused to believe it. I refused to accept it because that would mean that my life would forever be bound to him. The mere thought of it brought a bitter taste to my mouth.

I couldn't be.

I shook my head. "E—Even then, will you check it? Please." I curled in on myself, my arms going to my middle. But they'd barely landed when I pulled them back. I couldn't touch myself there. Even when I didn't believe that I was pregnant, I couldn't.

"Please?" I wiped at a stray tear. Damn it. I was done crying. I'd done enough of it the past month.

But reminding myself of that didn't help at all. Another tear dropped, followed by another, and damn the doctor for looking so concerned—because the moment our eyes met, I couldn't hold back anymore.

I couldn't even if I wanted to.

Everything was an absolute mess— worse than a mess.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Huh?" I blinked through the tears.

"This is obviously a huge surprise to you," he smiled. "So why don't you take a moment and just breathe then we can talk about it if you like."

It was more than a huge surprise and I didn't want to talk about it. What I wanted—needed was for him to take the bloody test results back, redo the test and present me with fresh results. Negative results.

But even as I stared at the man in front of me, not really seeing him, I knew the universe had won again. Taking a thousand tests wouldn't change a damned thing. The result would be the same each time.

Pregnant.

And I would still be terrified.

"Breathe, Miss Murdoch."

I inhaled deeply, letting it all out on a slow exhale. "I'm pregnant," I echoed the doctor's words with a nod, hoping saying it out loud would make it less terrifying. It didn't. Instead, my heart only raced faster the more I thought about it.

"Here is the thing," the doctor spoke, thankfully interrupting my spiraling thoughts. "This is pretty early in your pregnancy. Meaning you still have some time before you have to make any hard decisions—"

"Decisions? I'm keeping her...or him." I blurted, cutting the man off, surprising us both with my words.

At the doctor's beaming smile I shrugged my shoulders. "I mean if I am really pregnant, he or she will be mine so it's just right that I keep them," I stated, my resolve sounding fiercer with each word. I would be that kind of mum that was so different from my own who abandoned me to grow up with strangers when things got had.

"Oh my God, I'm going to be a mum." I croaked out, eyes going wide, my chest tightening. Suddenly the walls were closing in on me, sucking out all the air. I needed out. "Are we done here?"

The doctor gave me a meaningful look before scribbling something on a paper. "This is a doctor friend of mine. Call her."

I swiped the piece of paper, mumbled my thanks and practically ran out of there. The air in the hallway was not enough and I certainly didn't appreciate someone walking up to me, wanting to talk.

"Babe, it's me," they said when I tried to evade them.

"Jade?" It took me a moment to remember my best friend had brought me in and had been waiting for me.

"Oh Elaine..." She pulled me in, leaving me to melt into her embrace, grateful she was here.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, barely keeping it together.

She smiled at me. She wouldn't ask. At least not yet. Instead she held me tighter.

"Gosh, I needed that," I sniffled, wiping away more tears.

"Of course you did and I was only too glad to share my gift." Jade smirked. She'd declared herself the world's best hugger. In her defence, there was really something extra soft, comforting about all her hugs.

"And do you know what you need apart from hugs? And because I deem it fit for today? A mountain of all the wrong foods we shouldn't be eating." She looped her arm in mine and started pulling me along. "Today will be the dreaded but thoroughly enjoyed indulgence day, complete with the biggest tub of ice cream ever."

It sounded great and on any other day I would be all in, but after the doctor's visit I wasn't sure I should be indulging in anything so unhealthy.

"I should probably tell you that I can't—"

"Ta, ta, ta, ta." Jade shoved a finger in my face. "We do not use that cursed word. Can't is for sissies."

I laughed at the stupid slogan we'd come up with in high school, realising it was the first time I was doing it since getting the news that I was going to be a mum. It was so like Jade to ease the burden. "Then I guess I'm just going to be one because I'm pregnant and I'm pretty sure that means eating all the right stuff."

"Wait, you are what?" she squeaked. Very little shocked her and I would have laughed at how weirdly she gaped at me if only I didn't break down all over again. I melted into her, taking all the comfort she was offering. I didn't know what I would have done if she weren't here.

"Did the doctor really say you can't, though?" she asked once I had calmed down a little, mischief lacing her tone.

I let out a teary laugh. "Well, he did say I had time before I needed to make the hard decisions."

"My treat then," she grinned, then pulled me in for another hug. "For what its worth he or she is going to be beautiful and Aunty Jade will spoil them rotten starting now."

She was happy for me and I knew her optimistic self thought I could do it. But it wasn't that simple.

"What am I going to do, Jade?" I sighed, leaning back on the seat of my best friend's sedan that had seen better days.

"I don't have a job. God, I don't have a career." Everything had gone poof because I had been stupid enough to think fairy tales and princes were real. "How am I supposed to take care of a kid? I can barely take care of myself." I pressed my fingers against my temple, trying to keep my head from spinning. Everything felt too much, too big, too impossible.

"You could come and work with me," she said simply. "I know its not much, but it's something. And it may not make you a big shot reporter as you've always wanted, but at least you'll be doing what you love alongside me," she made a dramatic gesture towards herself before saying, "Your awesome best friend."

I shook my head. "I haven't touched a real camera in years and I suck at selfies."

"You suck at selfies, yeah, but you gave this city girl a shot and nailed it. Photography is like riding a bike—once you start, it will come right back."

I had nailed nothing. My dream as a reporter had washed away like water under the bridge, never to return. I had come back pregnant. And raising a kid alone would definitely not be a piece of cake.

I reached for the car stereo and hit play, hoping the music would drown out my thoughts.

Jade stayed quiet, her fingers tapping against the wheel like she was debating whether to push or let me be. I felt Jade's gaze while I stared out at nothing in particular.

"So you know I love you—" she began as she drove off.

"Just spit it out already." I mumbled knowing whatever question she was about to ask would put me on the spot and that I would probably not like it.

"Are you going to tell him?" We had agreed not to talk about Grayson—not after I narrated what had happened and the fallout that followed. He made sure I would never graduate or work as a reporter again. She'd promised to castrate him if they ever met. "I mean, this changes something right?"

My jaw went tight at her question. "Why, when to him, I was nothing more than a piece of ass he could pay for?"