Page 41 of CEO's Baby Scandal
“What if he accepts the baby, Eve? What if he wants to get married and he’s really in love with me?” My question made her grow quiet. She studied my face, her expression changing. I saw hatred, then sympathy, then anger, then compassion. She walked over and sat next to me.
“Marrying a man because you’re pregnant with his child is not a good idea. You know how many women have done that and regretted it?” She wrung her hands in her lap and continued. “Emily, I’m trying to stick up for you, help you. You know? Youcan’t marry this guy. He never cared about you. If he had, he’d have called to find out where you were… what you were doing. He hasn’t even called once, has he?” Her eyes bored into me, slicing through my soul. Her words were not a genuine question, but an accusation, and a correct one at that.
“No, he hasn’t,” I replied, chin down.
“Can’t you see? Mom might have her own ways of trying to take care of you, and I admit she’s a little over the top sometimes, but we both care. Me and Mom. I think you should come live with me for a while. We’ll clear out the baby’s room and you can bring your bed. It will be good for you. You won’t have to stay with Mom and Dad. You can find a job here in the city that fits your degree better. Please, say you will?”
My stomach rolled again, and I shook my head. “No, Eve. I have to do this my way. Okay? I am going to show everyone that no matter how difficult it is, I made my bed and I will lie in it. I’m not going to mooch off anyone. I’m going to be my own person.”
I smoothed my hands down the front of my yoga pants and stood. “I think I need to eat something or I’m going to throw up again.”
Evelyn stood in a huff, angry with me for refusing her invitation. “Alright, well don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s going to be impossible.”
She led the way to the living room that still smelled like vomit, but Charlotte had gotten the mess mostly cleaned up. Evelyn stormed to the door and opened it, turning back over her shoulder to say, “I think you’re making a mistake.” When she left, she slammed the door behind herself. I stared at the wet floor, soggy from Char’s attempt to clean.
“I’m sorry she’s like that, Em.” Charlotte dropped the rag into the bucket of water she was using to clean the carpet and picked up my pills from the spot on the floor where I’d dropped them. “Take one and eat something.”
“Char, I’m a wreck. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I am so upset. I feel like Daniel will never speak to me again, and it’s not that I don’t want to do this by myself. I can. I just want a family—my family. I want him.” More tears came, and I didn’t stop them.
“Then call him,” she said. “Tell him. Just get this over with so you can feel better.”
She was right. Ripping the bandage off was the only way now. I sat down at the kitchen table and took my phone out of my purse, dropped on the table as I walked in. I opened my contacts and found Daniel’s name and pressed call. The phone rang several times and went to voicemail, but I didn’t want to leave a message. I wanted to hear his voice, so I called again. This time, it went straight to voicemail, no ringing. He had shut his phone off.
The only thing worse than not knowing was knowing that it was not good. He’d never have turned his phone off like that if he wanted to speak to me. The only thing I could think was that he was upset with me for not calling all weekend. He had every right to be upset with me. I didn’t leave a message either, because all I could do was cry now, and I didn’t want him to hear me crying. I put my phone back in my purse and folded my arms on the table, collapsing over them.
I felt hopeless. I couldn’t do this without him.
28
DANIEL
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I didn’t even bother looking at it. I just reached in and held the power button down until I felt the double vibration in rapid succession indicating it was powering down. Michael and I hovered over the paperwork for our biggest banking client. Their attempts to build a new office building for their corporate office move to West Loop was being held up in zoning and they weren’t happy. As their lawyers, it was our duty to push things like this along, but it was frustrating the hell out of me in particular—especially given it was a Sunday afternoon and I was in the office instead of sitting by my pool sipping lemonade.
“The damn zoning board didn’t approve the application. They said it didn’t arrive by the deadline for this month’s zoning committee.” Michael rifled through a few of the papers scattered on the conference room table and folded the map back to look. He found the application which I’d had Emily file weeks ago. The time stamp on the document, done downstairs with the notary, indicated it was completed on time. I pointed to that time stamp.
“Look…” I shook my head. “Was it Cheryl? Is she the one who told you this? Because I’ve had trouble with her before.” I sank into the chair behind me and rubbed my forehead. “You’ll haveto call the board first thing in the morning to iron this out. The papers were faxed in on time.”
Michael stacked the forms up into a single pile and grumbled a bit. I knew Emily had done a fantastic job on these, though he wanted to pin the screw-up on her. I checked her work every single day to ensure it was being done well. She hadn’t made a single mistake, at least not where her work was concerned.
“Well, I think we need to check the fax records, anyway.” He folded the map and stacked it with the other papers, then shoved them all in his briefcase. “Because there is a chance that you signed off on the paperwork, but she never did the faxes.”
“Olivia does the faxes, not Emily,” I snapped, scowling at him. He really had it in for her, and it aggravated me. “I wish you would let up a little.”
Now that we’d been over every file, I pulled my phone from my pocket and turned it back on. Michael locked his briefcase and set it on the floor, but he stood there and shoved his hand in his pocket, staring down at me with distaste. “Dan, you don’t really have room to talk. You thought she was so amazing until she up and filed a lawsuit on you.”
“She didn’t file a lawsuit. Her sister threatened one. Get that part straight. And her work has been impeccable, stellar even. She’s the best assistant I’ve had.” My phone vibrated as notifications of more missed calls came in, though I didn’t check them yet. I was too upset with him.
“Well, come tomorrow morning, we’re letting her go. We have a very straightforward reason—she hasn’t shown up for work in days. You got a half-assed excuse from Olivia about her being sick, and then you got an email stating she’d be out of town.” Michael’s head shook like a bobblehead dog on the dashboard of an old Volkswagen van. I wanted to smack him, but I knew he was right. She had missed quite a lot of work and had no real excuse for the absenteeism.
It didn’t feel right, though, firing her for this. She hadn’t filed a suit, and for all I knew, her sister had only made threats. Emily had been down for weeks, depression, maybe. I’d seen her apartment, the conditions she lived in. She needed this job.
“What if we move her? Make her Grace’s personal assistant instead of mine? I can take a few weeks off work, work from home. Let Emily adjust to somewhere else.” The very fact that I was still pleading for her job should have revealed to him that I had feelings for her. It cut me to my core to think that she’d be on her own in this huge city, fending for herself. It didn’t matter that she’d played me. Love was blind, and I guess so was I.
“I can’t believe you still stand up for her, Dan. She got you to sleep with her and she’s threatening a lawsuit because of that. She hasn’t attempted contact with you for days, right after the suit was threatened, and you still care.” He sighed and shook his head again. “You really are a glutton for punishment.”
“It’s called love, Mike, and if you ever loved someone the way I loved Emily, you’d understand.” I looked down at my phone, needing a distraction. The notifications were from Emily. Two missed calls, zero voicemails. My heart sank. She had tried to call me and I'd ignored it. Michael would tell me to ignore her anyway, but I’d done it inadvertently. If she had called, I’d have answered, and this argument would be about something different.
“Look, I get it. You care about her, which is why Grace and I are going to chip in out of our profit sharing to get her a nice severance package. It should keep her going for six months while she finds a new job. Alright? But you can’t just let someone who threatened to sue continue working here.”