47
I avoided talking to Rylee about the pregnancy and when she brought it up I changed the subject and after a while she stopped mentioning it. The blood tests confirmed she was four weeks along and I still had no idea how to process it.
Days turned to another few weeks as I met Jasper once a week either in Chicago or at The Drake. We would drink and he would chase women as I drank some more. Some nights I went home and other nights I didn’t and Rylee never asked me what I did or where I went. I usually ended up sleeping on the couch in my office.
My phone woke me at three am one morning just as I had fallen asleep on the couch in my office at The Drake and I sat up reluctantly and looked at the caller ID. I answered it hastily as I saw his name flash on the screen.
“Timothy,” I said.
“Hey,” he breathed sounding excited.
“What’s going on?” I asked him.
“The site’s active but it’s very hush hush almost nothing is being said on the main screen, instead it’s asking buyers to verify their identification before the bidding even starts and the photos will be sent privately,” he said.
“Shit, we need a buyer,” I said.
“Way ahead of you Lucas, I’m already registering one of my false identities,” he said.
“Why do you have false identities?” I asked him.
“Oh you never know, don’t you have a few?” he asked me.
“I do but that’s just because I’m paranoid,” I said and he laughed.
“So am I it seems,” he said and I smiled.
“Okay, let me know how things progress then I can call the team together again,” I said.
“The team, I like it,” he said and ended the call.
I looked at my watch and decided to go home. I’d be there by four am so it was no use to try and sleep now. I drove home slowly and I could hear Rylee vomiting as I walked into our room. She had a slight bump that I hadn’t noticed before. I was watching her from the doorway as she stood up shakily.
“Are you okay?” I asked her as she flushed the toilet and moved to the basin.
“I’ll be okay, I’ll ask Stella for something later when she comes by for the ultrasound,” she said after she had rinsed her mouth.
“What time are you doing the ultrasound?” I asked her and she looked at me with her mouth open.
“At noon,” she said.
“I’ll be there if you don’t mind,” I said as I started taking my clothes off.
“Really?” she asked me and she looked so shocked that I felt bad for ignoring her all this time.
“Yes, really,” I said and she smiled at me for the first time in weeks.
“I’d really like that,” she said.
I showered and pulled sweat pants on and sat down on the sofa with my laptop. Rylee walked in a few minutes later with coffee and I took it gratefully. I had the auction site open and I saw what Timothy had meant about all the secrecy.
All the previous photos had been taken off and details about previous auctions had been deleted. It now showed a registration as a buyer button where it asked for permission to validate your IP location and to take an instant photo that linked to the website. I closed the tab and sighed loudly.
“Why don’t you lie down for a bit?” Rylee asked me.
“I might as well just stay awake,” I said as I finished my coffee.
“You look tired, just for an hour or two, you’ll feel better,” she said as she looked at me.
“Okay wake me in two hours,” I said and she nodded.
I slept fitfully for two hours and Rylee woke me up as promised with coffee. I did feel better because she had stayed with me and that made me feel more guilt because I hadn’t given her the same consideration.
“I’m sorry Rylee,” I said as she walked out of the dressing room.
“For?” she asked me looking slightly confused.
“For how I’ve been acting, for not coming home every night, it’s not fair on you,” I said.
“It’s okay,” she said and smiled as I stood up and walked towards her.
“No it’s not,” I said as I leaned towards her and kissed her forehead and hugged her.
“Maybe I’ll let you take me out to lunch after the ultrasound to make it up to me,” she said with a smile.
“That would be my pleasure,” I said.
“Now go work,” she said and I laughed as I grabbed my laptop and left the room.
I worked until eleven fifty when Rylee came to get me and we walked hand in hand to where Stella waited in the infirmary. Rylee settled on the bed and lifted her shirt. Stella only smiled at me as she squirted out the gel and then started with the ultrasound.
“How are you feeling Rylee?” she asked her.
“The morning sickness is still the same, but other than that just tired and hungry,” she said with a smile.
“That’s good, I can prescribe you something for the nausea, let’s see how your pregnancy is progressing,” Stella said and looked back at the monitor.
Stella remained quiet as she did the ultrasound not once looking at me. She did look at Rylee a few times and I wondered what was going on because this was very unlike Stella.
“What’s wrong Stella?” I asked her.
“Is something wrong?” Rylee asked looking worried.
“There’s nothing physically wrong,” Stella said.
“Yet you can’t look at me,” I said to her.
“Lucas I think I should talk to Rylee first,” she said.
“No, it’s okay, anything you say you can say in front of him,” Rylee said and I looked at Stella intently.
“You’re now nine weeks pregnant Rylee… with twins,” she said.
“Twins?” Rylee asked smiling again.
“Are you sure?” I asked Stella.
“Yes I am,” she said and looked away again.
“Just fucking great,” I said angrily and pushed the chair back so hard that it crashed into the wall. Rylee was looking at me with bewilderment in her eyes as I left the examination room and walked out of the guest house. Hannah found me on the stairs as I headed to the bedroom.
“Hey big brother, I’m going to visit Michelle for a few days,” she said.
“Sure,” I said absent mindedly not even listening to what she was saying.
I walked past her up to the fourth floor and slammed the bedroom door closed behind me. I was right back at that point of intense anger where I could kill someone. My hands were shaking badly and I paced up and down. The door opened and Rylee looked at me questioningly.
“What’s wrong?” she asked me.
“I can’t Rylee, not now, I can’t talk to you now,” I said taking deep breaths.
“Why the hell not?” she raised her voice.
“Do you have any fucking idea what you’re doing to me?” I yelled at her.
“I don’t understand the sudden change of heart!” she said loudly.
“Twins Rylee! You’re having fucking twins!” I yelled.
“So?” she said.
“Sires don’t have twins because we can’t share power with someone else! That means that bastard you fucked in the bathroom is the father of that,” I said angrily.
“That’s not possible,” she said to me.
“How the fuck can you say that?” I yelled again.
“Do a paternity test then!” she retorted angrily.
“I would if it would make a difference,” I said to her sitting down on the bed.
“And when it shows you’re the father?” she asked me.
“It won’t, it’s impossible, and now you’ve really totally fucking screwed me over,” I yelled.
“And there we go back to how it was,” she said sadly.
“I can’t do this,” I said and stood up. I walked out of the bedroom and down to my car. Rylee stood on the patio and watched me drive away.
I drove around aimlessly for hours, not answering my phone and I finally pulled over from the highway I was on and sat in my car. Baz was furious with me and I was ignoring him too. He kept projecting her image in my mind of when I found her in the forest and right at that moment I hated him.
“Don’t ignore me halfling,” he roared in my head.
“Don’t try and force me to go back,” I said angrily.
“She’s your other half, you have to accept this,” he said to me.
“Fucking how?” I yelled at him.
“You won’t be the first person to raise someone else’s children,” he said.
“Fuck you Baz, how do you expect me to raise a human’s children that’s nothing to me?” I said angrily.
“You can turn them at the age of fourteen and proclaim them your heirs,” he said to me.
“Are you fucking insane?” I asked him.
“You’re an idiotic prick Lucas, you keep kicking her down for one mistake, never mind the fact that you screwed around after you agreed to give her a chance,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” I asked him.
“Those three days you messed around with Tessa, Joanne and Liv,” he said.
“That was before we were married,” I said to him.
“It still counts,” he said, “place yourself in Rylee’s shoes. What if one of them had turned out pregnant and Rylee was treating you like the scum of the earth.”
“It’s not even remotely the same situation,” I said to him.
“Keep telling yourself that, for the time being I’ll be in the dragon realm until you come to your senses, I have no further use for you halfling, you might as well be an idiot alone,” he said and blocked me off.
I started the car again and drove for another hour before I took an exit off the highway and turned back towards Aurora. I had been driving for six hours and I didn’t even realize how far away from home I was. My phone had died and now I was angry at myself too. It was close to two am when I parked my car in front of the garage and I noticed that neither Rev nor Preston was at home.
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