Chapter Seventy
Raleigh
I continue staring at the door that just closed behind him, unable to believe that he just walked out. A moment later it opens up again and hope fills me that he’s returned but when my brothers rush through the door, all three with confusion written all over their faces, I know that without a doubt that Lincoln isn’t returning.
“What happened? Why did Lincoln leave?” Ro asks as he takes the seat that Lincoln had abandoned, and curling his hand around mine in a reassuring gesture.
Tears build behind my eyes and a lump forms in my throat as I take in my three brothers, the only men that I seem to be able to count on in my life.
The clearing of a throat brings our attention back to the doctor and the ultrasound that he’s conducting.
“Doctor?” I ask, a thought occurring to me. “Can you tell approximately when the babies were conceived by the ultrasound?”
“Babies?” All three of my brothers voices blend together with the question but thankfully I don’t have to answer since the doctor does it for me.
“Yes, she’s carrying twins and it looks like you are currently nine weeks pregnant, according to measurements. Do you remember when your last period was by chance?”
Biting my lip, I hold back a giggle as I remember how frustrated Lincoln had been that I had been on my period on Valentines, and then how frustrated that I was considering how turned on I got from giving him his Valentines present.
He had told me that a little blood didn’t bother him, that he could still take care of me but the idea of it grossed me out and the thought of how much of a mess it would have made, had me turning him down.
“February twelfth was the first day of my last period,” I tell him. He puts the dates in the computer and then nods, as if the dates confirm the measurements.
“So, yes, looks like you are nine weeks today. Which means, you most likely conceived on the 26th.”
The twenty-sixth is the date that I gave myself fully to Lincoln…
“But…we used protection?” I blurt, then immediately feel myself flush with embarrassment as I feel my brothers gazes bore into the side of my face.
“Condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective at preventing pregnancy,” the doctor says, his face softening with understanding.
I just nod, knowing that he’s right and that I should have taken precautions of my own.
The doctor pushes a few more buttons and he moves the wand around a bit more and then suddenly a wooshing sound fills the room.
With wide eyes, I look at the doctor. He chuckles, and then says, “That’s baby A’s heartbeat and this,” he says, the sound stopping for a moment as he moves the wand before the same sound fills the room once more. “Is baby B’s heartbeat.”
And suddenly, at hearing our babies hearts beating, I can’t bring myself to regret what has happened in the least. I just wish that Lincoln were here to share in this moment, instead of walking out like he had.
“Wow,” Ro says, his voice soft as he takes in the image on the screen and the sound that’s filling the room. “I can’t believe my baby sister is going to be a mom.”
“I can’t believe that someone actually had se—” Ryler starts to say but quickly cuts himself off with a cough, looking wholly guilty as he looks everywhere but at me. I guess what he was going to say actually registered and he realized that right now really isn’t the time for such a remark.
“Well,” the doctor says pulling the probe out of me. I immediately close my legs, trying to keep some semblance of modesty, since he didn’t bother to ask my brothers to leave the room as he removed the thing. “Everyone looks good and everything appears to me right on track. Raleigh, I see no reason to keep you overnight but if you have any issues, shortness of breath, tightening of your chest, anything at all, I want you to come back in immediately to be seen.”
I nod in understanding and watch as the doctor and his nurse gather everything, readying to leave just as another knock sounds at the door.
My pulse speeds up, hope filling me that it’s Lincoln coming back but when Serenity pops her head into the room, her entire face alight with relief and excitement, my stomach sinks and all I want to do is cry.
I guess my brothers must have noticed my response to Ser’s arrival because Ro growls curses under his breath as he angrily begins typing out a text.
Ryler and Ryker’s faces both darken in anger and I watch as Ryl pulls his own phone from his pocket and hits dial on a number before putting it to his ear. When he doesn’t the response that he wanted, he releases a frustrated curse, curling his fingers around his phone to the point that I swear I hear the screen crack.
Ryk then does the same, only to get the same response in return and just as I think he’s going to throw his phone at the wall, Serenity pulls it from him, sliding her free hand into his and twining their fingers together instead.
I watch them with curiosity as she leans up on her tippy toes to whisper something in his ear before pulling back and cocking a brow at him. Ryker nods in response to whatever it is that she says to him, before dropping his head to her shoulder and exhaling as if he’s letting go of everything that he’s been holding back since coming to the hospital. Or maybe he’s letting go of everything he’s been holding in since they found me. Heck, maybe everything that he’s been supressing since Brady took me in the first place.
As I watch them, I can’t help but wonder what else I’ve missed because clearly there’s something going on between my brother and my best friend.
“Ser?” I mumble, a myriad of emotions running through me to the point that I don’t know what to feel.
“Oh, Ray!” she exclaims as she pulls away from my brother and closes the distance between she and I.
The doctor takes the opportunity and silently slips from the room as Serenity wraps her arms around me, smothering me in a bone crushing hug. Immediately, I break down crying, unable to hold back my sobs as she holds me tightly.
“Oh, honey. It’s okay,” she says, rubbing my back.
I shake my head back and forth, because it’s not what she’s thinking at all.
“H-he l-left,” I cry, my sobs only coming harder as I try to speak.
“What? Who? Who left?” she asks, pulling back to look at me, then at my brothers who currently look like they want to murder the man that I not only love, but who is also the father of my children.
*Oh shit! They’re his and he doesn’t even know.*
“L-Lincoln.”
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