Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100225 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
I was beginning to panic before. Now, I’m just a damn mess. What am I missing here? What could have changed so drastically after he asked me to marry him? “Just tell me already,” I implore him. I can’t take not knowing anymore. I have to find out what’s going on and hopefully, fix it.
“The other day while you were at the college, I had a visitor,” he says, sitting down at the breakfast bar. I sit beside him and try to still my heart. It’s running away with me right now.
“Your dad came back?”
“No…”
“My dad?”
“No,” he breathes, his head goes down as his arms go up and he rubs his hands through his hair. Seeing him like this is killing me.
“Dom, baby, you’re going to have to give me something here.”
“It was Gabby,” he confesses and my heart squeezes inside my chest. For a second, I can’t catch my breath.
“Why?” I ask, unable to get any other words out.
“She… Motherfucker!” he growls. “I can’t do this.”
“Do what? What the hell is going on, Dom? Just spit it out!”
“She’s pregnant.”
“She’s what?”
“She’s pregnant, Thea, and she says the baby is mine.”
“But the two of you haven’t been together since T found out about you and you discovered she lied. There’s no way she could be pregnant. I mean, if she is, it couldn’t be yours. So why would she come by here?”
“I…”
“Dom, how far along is she?”
“I’m not sure. She didn’t say.”
“Yet, you’re scared it could be yours.”
“Thea—”
“You had sex with her without protection?”
“I…”
“Oh, God.” I close my eyes as pain fills me. “Is it yours?”
“There’s a chance…”
I shake my head no. “This can’t be true. It just can’t. I know you. You wouldn’t have sex with Gabby after you found out what she had been doing to T. You wouldn’t do it.”
“Thea, I don’t…”
“You had unprotected sex with that bitch even after you knew she had been playing you?”
“Damn it, Thea.”
“Tell me you didn’t do this, Dom. Tell me you couldn’t be that stupid.”
“Gorgeous, it wasn’t like that. What happened, I mean.”
“Don’t call me that. Never call me that again. I want to know one thing. When did you fuck her?”
“Thea—”
“When!” I demand, my voice borderline shrill.
“It was after Kayden had Little D. The night you and I had dinner. I mean, I didn’t sleep with Gabby that night, but not too long after that night, I guess.”
“How could you do that? How?” I demand.
“Thea, you and I weren’t together,” he points out, and that just pisses me off more.
“That bitch cut your brother into pieces, playing you as a fool at the same time. How could you do this?”
“I didn’t mean to,” he responds.
A bitter laugh escapes. “Gee, Dom, what happened? You just walked by her, and your dick fell into her?”
“Damn it, I don’t have the answers to your questions, woman. I’m not even sure I actually slept with Gabby.”
“What in the hell does that mean?”
“I went to the club’s strip joint. I drank a lot that night. I’d been doing too much drinking for way too long. The whole night is a blur. I remember I had a hotel room across from the club. I remember going into the room. The rest is just fuzzy. I don’t remember calling Gabby like she says I did. I know no matter how drunk I was, I wouldn’t have promised to make her my old lady and be part of my life. I wouldn’t.”
“Then how could you have gotten her pregnant?”
“I woke up the next morning. I was hung over, bad. That wasn’t really new. I had begun using alcohol to numb my brain. She was lying beside me. We were both naked. She said we—”
“So, you fucked her, but you don’t remember it?” When he nods, my heart fills me with enough pain to destroy me. “That just makes it worse.”
I start to get up, but Dom grabs my arms. “Thea, I haven’t been drunk since I woke up that morning. I don’t drink anything harder than a beer anymore, and only have one or two of those here and there. I will never drown myself in the bottle again. This doesn’t have to change anything between us. I don’t want her. Gabby is nothing to me. She knows that. I told her that the morning I woke up. All I want in my entire life is you. What happened honestly changes nothing.”
I immediately shake my head no. “Dom, this changes everything! She’s pregnant with your baby. You’ll always be connected to her now. This child will bind the two of you together in ways that I can never compete with.”
“No, you’re wrong. The baby is separate from Gabby. You’re the only woman I want in my life. You’re the only one in my heart.”
“That baby is inside Gabby right now. Gabby will use that to her advantage. She’s going to demand you be a part of everything from here on out. There will be doctor appointments, Lamaze classes, the birth—everything.”