Pregnant for my sterile billionaire

4

Griffin stepped into the dining room, and tension filled the air. Kimberly sat at the end of the great table, her serene smile pasted on as Perri had prattled away beside her. She shifted the mashed potatoes a little more his way, helping him pick up another bit, but she was a thousand miles away, the words of Griffin from last night replaying over and over again in her head.

"You have to know the truth about your son's father."

What was he insinuating? She had tried to believe some sort of weird drama, but her unease just would not leave her head. Every time she looked at Carter, there was a flicker of doubt-smaller but still there.

Muted at the head of the table, Carter wasn't himself. There was no spark to reach his eyes, none of that slick social veneer that should have glazed over all cracks around him. Kimberly watched him make excruciating small talk with his father about the family business.

Opposite her, Griffin was lolling in his usual loose-limbed pose, a wolfish grin spreading across his face as he darted a look between Carter and her, and she would have sworn that there was a shine of triumph in them.

"Everything okay, Kimberly?" Griffin suddenly asked in the hum of conversation.

All the eyes swung to her. She smiled: "Of course. Why wouldn't it be?”

Griffin leaned forward, setting his elbows on the table. "You've just seemed preoccupied. Something on your mind?"

Carter's fork hit his plate loud enough that all eyes went to him. He shot a warning glare at Griffin after clearing his throat. "Can we not make dinner awkward, Griffin?"

"I'm just being observant," Griffin returned innocently, though his smirk said otherwise.

After dinner, Kimberly lingered in the kitchen, pretending to tidy up as her thoughts swirled. Griffin’s behavior had been strange all evening, his words carefully chosen to needle both her and Carter.

She didn’t hear Carter enter the room until he was right behind her.

“Kim,” he said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. She flinched slightly, and he frowned. “What’s going on? You’ve been distant.”

"I should be asking you that," she said, wheeling on him. "What's going on with Griffin?"

Carter’s face went dark. "What are you talking about?"

Kimberly folded her arms over her chest. "He's just been acting weird. Throwing weird hints, uttering stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense. Last night, he even threw in something about Perri's dad-

"Enough," Carter cut in; the grave interjection, "Griffin's just looking for agita as usual. Don't let him get to you."

"But what if there is something I'm supposed to know?" Kimberly pressed, her voice shaking.

"There's nothing," Carter said shortly.

Kimberly looked up at him for reassurance and found defensiveness instead. It ran a shiver down her spine. "Why are you getting so worked up if there's nothing to hide?"

Carter let his breath out; his hand raked through his hair. "Because he's trying to destroy us and our entire family, Kim. Don't give him the satisfaction."

Kimberly didn't say anything. Something inside of her did feel off.

It wasn't until later that evening that things finally came to a head. Dessert was taken in the sitting room, but though the hours were passing, the time felt every bit strained as ever. Kimberly sat upon the plush sofa beside Carter, Perri on her lap, nibbling along the edges of a cookie, utterly unaware.

Griffin stood by the fireplace to swirl the red liquid in his wine glass-a self-satisfied smile on his face, a bit too comforting.

"Dad," Griffin said coolly casually, "have you already made those changes to your will?"

Hilary frowned, apparently taken by this rather sudden question. "Not yet. I plan to soon, though. Why?”

“Oh, just curious," Griffin said, bright and chipper with the sharp device attached to him. Sipping his wine, he let it rim his lips as he pressed them shut before starting to speak in a now very low tone of voice: "Just so selfless, to let go of seventy percent of that fortune in return for you simply having a grandson-the reasons being your motivations-it brought me to wonder. "

“What do you mean, Griffin?" Hilary snarled; his voice had taken up a hint of irascibility.

Griffin leaned over and set his glass on the mantle before swinging to face the room. "I'm just trying to determine if all these nice people have been informed about little Perri here."

The grip Kimberly held Perri in tightened as a shiver of apprehension surged through her. "Wh-what are you insinuating?”

Griffin didn't break his stare, the smirk spreading in his lips. "I'm talking about the fact that Carter is not Perri's biological father."

The room erupted in a mix of gasps and shock murmurs as Kimberly spun her head, refusing for her brain to compute those words. "What?"

"Griffin!" Carter shouted on his feet. "Enough!"

"Is it?" Griffin returned, voice even but slicing. "Because I think Kimberly deserves the truth. Don't you?”

Kimberly's voice shook. "Carter, what is he talking about? Perri is ours. I gave birth to him myself."

Carter's jaws shut tight, silence as heavy as a book unsaid.

"Oh, he knows it's the truth," Griffin said, stepping closer. "But here's the kicker, Kim. You didn't cheat on him. You just didn't know who you were with that night."

"What are you talking about?" Kimberly asked, her voice rising.

Griffin’s face finally softened then, almost as if he had taken pity on her. "You don't remember, do you? That night on your honeymoon. You thought you were with Carter, but you weren't. It was me."

Kimberly felt the floor get knocked out from beneath her. She shook her head, refusing to believe it. "No. no, that's not possible."

"It is," Griffin said, his tone almost soft now. "Ask Carter. He'll tell you.”

A fugitive glance came in and alighted on Carter, rigid, ashen-faced. "Carter, please. Tell me this isn't true".

Carter opened his mouth, and nothing came out. Silence cracked between them like a chasm.

“Carter, say something,” she yelled at him but he remained silent with his head bowed.

Kimberly sprang up clutching Perri tightly to her chest as tears blinded her side towards the door.

"Kim, wait!" The shout finally caught up with Carter and Kim didn't slow for anything.

She spun on him, voice shattering. "You lied to me. Both of you. How could you do this?"

"I did not mean for this to go this way," Carter yelled desperately.

"But it has happened!" she screamed on in anger and heartbreak on them, against both of them. "You've betrayed me, use me like some object, both of you!"

Griffin went further in a low-pitched tone of voice, "Kimberly you got to understand, you deserve much better than that."

She gave him a glance of pure and utter loathing. "Don't you dare act like you cared for me; you're no better, no different from him."

With that, she ran out into the night, clutching Perri tightly in her arms. The cool air slapped against her face but had little effect on the building storm inside.

She was shaking down to her fingertips as she snapped Perri into his car seat. There were tears streaming down her face as she whispered into the darkness, "Just us now, Perri, just us."

She hauled herself onto the driving seat, her mind in torture, and fired up the motor. The estate dissolved on the rearview screen, but she couldn't shake this agonized heartache that had begun there, clung and gagged her.

All that really mattered was that she got out-there-somewhere, anywhere-but no closer to that house than that man was to any area of her nightmares to relive. Not anymore.