Chapter Seven
1000 Words
DAMIEN'S POV
I called James at six in the morning.
He picked up on the third ring, already awake. "This better be important."
"Olivia's pregnant."
A long pause. "How long have you known?"
"Two days."
"How long has she known?"
"Three months."
Another pause, longer this time. "She hid it for three months and you're only finding out now. Think about what that tells you, Damien."
"I know what it tells me."
"Do you? Because from where I'm standing, a woman doesn't hide a pregnancy for three months unless she's already decided the father isn't safe to tell." He exhaled. "What are you going to do?"
"I asked her to stay in New York. To give me a week to figure things out."
"Figure what things out exactly?"
"Emma. The surrogacy. All of it."
James was quiet for a moment. "I told you Emma was a problem. I told you eight months ago. You didn't want to hear it."
"I hear it now."
"What changed?"
"Ethan told me Emma said Olivia was only here for the money. She's been talking to my six year old, poisoning him against the one person who actually helped him." I stood at the window. The guest house was dark. "And Olivia confronted her yesterday apparently. Victoria confirmed it."
"So Emma's been working against Olivia this whole time and you handed her the keys to your house." James didn't say it cruelly, just plainly. "You need to deal with that before you deal with anything else. You can't ask Olivia to stay while Emma is operating in your blind spot."
He was right. I didn't want to untangle what dealing with Emma meant. The surrogacy contract was signed. The pregnancy was ten weeks along. Catherine's baby, in every biological sense that mattered to me eight months ago when I'd agreed to all of it.
I wasn't sure when it had stopped mattering the same way.
"I'll call you later," I said.
"Damien." His voice stopped me. "Don't wait until she's gone to figure out how you feel. You have a pattern."
I hung up and went to find Emma.
She was in the guest house, boxes half unpacked around her. She looked up when I walked in and smiled like everything was normal.
"I was going to make coffee. Do you want—"
"Did you tell Ethan that Olivia doesn't care about him?"
Her smile stayed in place. "I told him that people in paid positions sometimes have divided loyalties. I was trying to protect him from getting too attached."
"He's a child. You don't get to manage his attachments."
"I'm his aunt. Catherine was my sister. I have every right—"
"You have the right I give you. Nothing more." I kept my voice level. "You've been going through Olivia's things. You knew about her loans, about Portland. That's not concern, Emma. That's surveillance."
"I was looking out for this family."
"By undermining the person helping my son heal?" I looked at her directly. "I've been blind to what you've been doing. I'm not anymore."
Her composure slipped slightly. "Damien, whatever Olivia told you—"
"Victoria told me. And Ethan. And I should have seen it myself months ago." I looked around the half-unpacked room. "The guest house renovation stops. You're not moving in."
The silence was sharp.
"The surrogacy contract—" she started.
"Remains as it is. That's Catherine's child and I won't undo that. But your involvement ends at the surrogacy. You don't move in. You don't have access to Ethan outside of supervised visits. And you don't speak to Olivia again."
Emma stood very still. "You're choosing her."
"I'm choosing my family. Which includes a child she's carrying that you knew about and decided to use as leverage to push her out faster." I moved toward the door. "My lawyer will be in touch about amending the surrogacy agreement's cohabitation clause."
"She's leaving anyway. You know that."
"Maybe. That's between us." I stopped at the door. "You're Catherine's sister and I'll always respect that. But what you've been doing in this house isn't love. It's a calculation. Catherine would have hated it."
I left before she could respond.
Olivia was on the couch with her laptop when I got back inside. She looked up warily.
"I talked to Emma," I said. "She's not moving into the guest house."
Something moved across her face. Not relief exactly. More like disbelief. "What?"
"The guest house renovation is cancelled. She'll have limited access to Ethan going forward." I sat down across from her. "I should have dealt with it months ago. I didn't see what she was doing."
"Or you didn't want to."
"Or I didn't want to," I agreed. "Because dealing with Emma meant dealing with everything she represented. Keeping that connection to Catherine open." I leaned forward, elbows on knees. "I've been holding onto Catherine so hard that I stopped seeing what was actually in front of me."
Olivia closed her laptop slowly. "Damien, this doesn't change what you said that night. You called sleeping with me a betrayal."
"I know."
"That's not something I can unknow. And my baby can't grow up in a house where their father thinks their existence is a mistake."
"I don't think that."
"You did four months ago."
"I was grieving and I was cruel and I was wrong." I held her gaze. "I'm not asking you to forgive that tonight. I'm asking you to believe that it's not how I feel now."
"How do you feel now?"
The honest answer was complicated and I didn't have a clean language for it yet. "Like I've been sleepwalking for three years. And things are becoming clear."
She studied me for a long moment. "You still have five days."
"I know."
She opened her laptop again. Conversation over.
But she didn't call Portland. I checked later, going through nothing I had any right to check, and hated myself for it, but she hadn't called.
- Writer
