Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight
Kelley was mad at her, furious actually but he still got her settled into the front seat of the SUV and loaded her luggage into the back. A black man came running towards them and Milana shifted in her seat and lowered the window. The man's eyes held worry for her and that pissed Kelley off even more.
“Jerome.” Milana smiled as she took the man's hand in hers and Kelley watched the exchange wondering what the extent of their relationship were.
“Where you going, Milana?”
“Home.”
“This the bastard?” Jerome asked as he glanced at Kelley.
He clenched his jaw and looked at the man leaning on the doorframe. Milana’s cheeks colored lightly and she smiled at Jerome. “Thank you for everything, Jerome. I’ll never forget your kindness. You were a friend to me when I needed one badly.”
“You take care and call me if the bastard needs an ass whooping,” Jerome said as Kelley finally started the car.
They drove in silence for about ten minutes, merging onto the highway before Kelley finally relaxed just a tad. “You’re friends with a thug?”
“He looked out for me and in that neighbourhood, it was a good thing,” Milana said.
Kelley nodded his head. He still didn’t like the rough neighbourhood she’d let herself live in, pregnant no less. “How did you end up living there?”
She turned to look at him, disgust in her eyes. “With no access to my own money, I didn’t have much choice. The job I had paid minimum wage and it was only on weekends, so I had to make it work.”
“If I’d known you were pregnant I would have looked for you,” Kelley said, not acknowledging the money part. He already felt guilt for his role in where she'd ended up.
“If I had a choice I never would have told you.” Milana's voice was firm and Kelley knew she meant every word.
Kelley’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel and he had to resist the urge not to say something cruel. There were many things he wanted to say but he let it slide. He was going to be a father, in a month or so.
Sylvie.
His hands tightened around the steering wheel again. He’d have to tell her now. This was a huge fucking mess. He had a pregnant wife and a girlfriend. ‘Fuck my life,’ he thought.
“I’m sorry, okay,” Milana said after another half hour of silence.
“You’re just sorry you had to call me! I did nothing wrong here and the fact that you think it’s acceptable to do this to me!”
“You did nothing wrong … are you insane? I saw that video of you with that woman, you and your sick friends watching her!”
“I never touched her! It wasn’t my best moment, I’ll admit that, but it had to be done, to put her in her place. If you’d watched the whole video, you’d know that! But instead you ran away like a fucking coward!”
"For all I know that's how you kept yourself entertained while I was stuck on that damn island!"
Kelley's gaze snapped to hers, his anger reaching new levels in an instant. "That's what you think? That I was off fucking other women while fighting for our freedom as a family? You're not the victim here, Milana!"
Milana’s face changed to surprise and she looked down at her lap. Kelley glanced over at her but couldn’t see what she was looking at. “What?”
“My water just broke,” she said as she turned to look at him, her face pale.
“We’re half an hour away from Yorkdare Bay. Tell me when you have a contraction,” he said and sped up considerably.
Kelley weaved through the cars on the highway with his hazards on and five minutes later Milana’s face contorted with pain as she let out a muffled groan and clutched her stomach. Kelley took his phone from the cup holder and dialed a number.
“Drummond, I'm twenty minutes from the hospital. You need to get a gurney downstairs,” Kelley said and ended the call.
Kelley’s phone rang and pinged but he ignored them all as he concentrated on the road. Milana was breathing hard and when she cringed her face in pain again, Kelley realized that they didn’t have a lot of time.
Kelley parked the SUV in the ambulance zone fifteen minutes later with Milana’s contractions five minutes apart. She’d screamed in pain with the last one and Kelley rushed out of his car as Ulrich and two nurses came through the emergency doors with a gurney.
Milana was pushed into a room and Kelley pushed his way through. People tried stopping him but Ulrich allowed him entry as he started examining Milana. Ulrich asked questions and Kelley tried to answer them the best he could, but he didn’t know when she ate last, how much she weighed or any information on the baby.
“Kelley, the baby’s in distress. I’ve called the OB on call and we’re prepping her for surgery. When did you find out she was pregnant?”
Kelley raked a hand over his hair. “Today.”
Ulrich nodded and then he and the nurses disappeared with Milana through the doors leading up to the surgery suites. He was shown to the waiting room upstairs where the doctor would be able find him after the emergency c-section. Kelley sent a text to Steel, asking him to buy a car seat for a new born and to bring it to the hospital.
Kelley answered his ringing phone twenty minutes later. “Mason.”
“What the hell’s going on? Steel’s struggling to reach you but he’s in the downstairs waiting area with the car seat in his car.”
“Milana’s in surgery and she’s pregnant. I’m waiting upstairs. Steel has a spare key for my car, let him install the car seat and then he can go. I’ll call when I know more,” Kelley said.
“Shit … we’re on our way,” Mason said and ended the call.
Kelley finally sat down on a chair and he worried. He had no idea how worried he should be. Was there a chance that one of them wouldn’t make it? Even though he was spitting mad at Milana, he didn’t want her to die and he definitely didn’t want his baby to die.
