Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“You are not marrying him!” he shouts, and Carter now shakes his head.
“I’m not marrying him,” I say and then look over at Carter who glares at my father. “But we are having a baby.” I just say it, and my father shoots out from his chair. Carter springs up also, and I spring up, standing in the middle of them, the fast motion making me queasy. “Can you both calm down?”
“How can you do this?” He looks over at Carter.
“I am not going to apologize for having a child,” Carter says.
“What about her finding you in bed with a whore?” my father shouts, and Carter just looks at me.
“I never slept with her!” Carter shouts. “Never even touched her.”
“Lies!” my father shouts. “You are a liar.”
“I’m a lot of things, but a liar isn’t one of them,” he says softly, and then I hear my mother suddenly sobbing, and we all look over at her.
“My baby is having a baby,” she says and then looks at my father. “Our baby is having a baby.”
“I know, sweetheart.” His tone changes, and he grabs my phone and leaves the room.
“Well, that went well,” I say to Carter who is just standing there.
“I never, ever touched her. Not even a hair on her head.” His voice is husky. “After she left, I burned the bed on the beach.” My mouth opens in shock. “You have to know. And as much as I want to forget that moment, you have to know,” he says and then looks up and starts to say something, but my father returns, and you can see that he had tears in his eyes.
“I’m sending a plane for your mother. She wants to be here for the doctor’s appointment,” my father says, and I shake my head.
“I’m going with Carter,” I tell him. “It’s just us for the first one.” My father stares at me. “I love you, but you know that it’s the right thing to happen. No matter what he did to me.” I look down, and the tear comes, and I wipe it away. “It’s still his right to be there if he wants to.”
“I want to,” he says, coming to me and putting his hand on my back. “I want to be there as much as she’ll let me.”
“You better not fuck this up,” my father tells him. “This isn’t a game.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he says, and then he looks at me. “I will not fuck this up.”
I nod at him, and when we leave my father’s, I sigh in relief. “I’m happy that is over,” I tell him, and he opens the car door for me. He doesn’t say anything, and right now, I’m so tired I can’t even think. When he gets in the car, he looks at me. “What?” I ask him.
“You’re beautiful,” he tells me, and I don’t answer him. I just look out the window and stop myself from overthinking it. I’m the mother of his child; that is the only thing I am to him right now. It’s really the only thing I have left to give him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Carter
“Are you nervous?” I ask her, looking over at her. It’s been ten days since she told me she’s pregnant with my child. Ten days since I realized I loved her even more than I did before. Ten days since I’ve started to breathe again.
“A little,” she says, and she flips through the pages of the magazine. I’ve been with her every single day. I am trying not to get her so annoyed she tells me not to come back or stops seeing me.
Every morning, I take off from the set and drive over to her house with a ginger tea to help with her morning sickness. Then I rush back, and we go through things. I set up to have food delivered to her work and also snacks during the day. The minute I’m done on set, I call her and show up with dinner. Every night when I get home, I sit in bed wishing she was with me and that I could hold her in my arms. So far, she hasn’t pushed me away and told me not to come back, so I’m going back.
“Erin Crest.” The nurse calls her name, and she gets up, and I follow her into the examine room. An examine table sits in the middle of the room. “You can change into this.” She hands her a hospital gown. “But first, I need a urine sample.” She hands her a plastic cup. “I will be in shortly.” She nods at us and then turns to walk out of the room. Erin goes into the bathroom and comes back with the gown on and holding the back closed.
After a knock on the door, the nurse comes back in. “You can sit on the table,” she tells Erin. She walks to the little stool and then steps up to sit in the middle of the table, leaving her feet hanging. “I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. When was your last menstrual cycle?”