Page 128 of See You Maybe
“I’m sure you want children, and I do too… I just don’t think it will be possible without intervention and even then...”
Declan suddenly turned, and scooping her up, he pulled her into his lap, enveloping her in a tight hug. “Fuck, Petal.”
Olivia could feel him shaking and that set the tears free. “I’m sorry. I should have told you I wasn’t on birth control. But what’s the likelihood, that after actively trying, the few times we?—”
Declan’s voice was ragged when he said, “You didn’t know?”
“I don’t have a diagnosis or anything. I was in the process of setting up appointments for tests when I found out about Kyle’s other girlfriends. There wasn’t any point then.”
Declan wiped the tears off her cheeks, his face raw with pain. “I assumed you knew.”
The hairs on the back of her neck rose. “Knew what?”
Declan closed his eyes, and when they opened again, they glistened. “Kyle had a vasectomy. It’s in his medical records.”
Olivia felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from her body. She went cold and then flushed red hot. She tried to make sense of what Declan was telling her. “Kyle had… why would he do that?” She shook her head. “How do you know?”
“At the meeting… where I took control of Armstrong… From your reactions to him, I suspected something was wrong. I had him investigated.”
“You got his medical records?” Olivia screeched. This wasn’t happening. Kyle couldn’t have… He wouldn’t. All the nasty things he had thrown at her, taunting her with what he claimed his doctor said. No one could be that evil.
But Kyle was.
She had been the one who pushed for a baby, but Kyle never said he didn’t want one… Did he have the procedure so he could sleep with as many women as he wanted without worrying about getting someone pregnant?
“I think I might be sick,” she whispered.
“I’ve got you.” Declan pulled her close against his chest and stroked circles over her back. “I’m so sorry, baby. I thought you knew.”
Olivia felt like she was drowning as sobs wracked her body. The sheer cruelty of Kyle’s actions took her breath away.
Declan held her, murmuring against her hair. When her sobs finally subsided, he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.
“I hope I killed him,” Olivia snarled against Declan’s chest.
“I hope you didn’t.” He held tight when she pulled away. “I was rather looking forward to it.”
After a minute, Olivia asked the question that was hammering in her mind. “Would you mind? About possibly not being able to have babies?”
She felt a heavy sigh run through his body. “There is no reason to believe you can’t get pregnant, Olivia, but I love you, not your reproductive system. If it happens for us easily, then I will be overjoyed, and if it doesn’t…” He shrugged. “There are other options if we decide we want our family to be bigger than the two of us.”
Our family.
“Are you sure?”
Declan pulled back and caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to look up at him. “I meant what I said before, Olivia. I never should have let you go twelve years ago, and I will not make that mistake again.”
The intensity in his eyes made her whole body warm. “Good. Because I’m not letting you go either.”
“What are you doing?” Declan frowned at her as she emerged from the closet wrapped in a towel.
Olivia paused as she reached for her sweat pants. “Getting dressed?”
“No.”
“No?” Olivia lifted her brows.
“You have the flu. You need bed rest.”