Page 18 of Winter Frost
“May I have a word with you?”
I followed her to the backroom. She closes the door. “I’m going to speak with you privately because this is a serious matter. Jacqueline isn’t in any trouble because nothing in her progress reports for you and your doctor’s notes indicate any discrepancies, so even if you two ended up in any romantic situation, it isn’t any of our business. You’re both well past the age of consent and you are more than competent. However, considering you have no idea where she is, it’s clear you both aren’t together, there is nothing to validate those claims.” She winks.
“Was she fired?”
“No, she quit.” She quit and didn’t come back to me. That hurts.
“Why? She loved her work.” She plays the video from the backroom, and it infuriates me. My hands balled into fists. “That bastard.”
“Calm down, Mr. Sager. He’s been reprimanded and fired. His license has been suspended. Since he didn’t commit any serious crimes, we can’t do anything else. However, I can assure you as a doctor, that’s already pretty serious.” I supposehis reputation will be ruined, which is huge when it comes to getting a new job.
“Where is Jacqueline?”
“I can’t tell you that. It would be a violation of her records and she’s already been through that. I’m sorry. No matter how much I want to assist you, I like my license.”
“Thank you. I’ll figure it out myself.” I know where to go—Owen.
The second I’m in my truck, I call Owen. “I need you to find Jacqueline.”
“About time. Autumn was losing it over here. She even went to see her.”
Chapter Eight
Jacqueline
I can’t believe this is happening. I can barely breathe. I’m on the sofa of my hotel with two pregnancy tests staring at the results.Pregnant.Twice. I can’t believe it. Of course, with a man who doesn’t want any more children. What do I do? I’m definitely not giving up my child because that’s something I would never consider. I’ve waited a lifetime for a family. Even if I have to go at it alone, I will.
My big decision is whether to tell him. Does he deserve to know the truth? He said he didn’t want any children or a wife. It’s the reason he didn’t see this relationship going anywhere with me. Hell, I was just an itch for him to scratch and a distant memory. How am I going to tell him? What am I going to do?
My eyes water and I let tears fall. I dropped my head on the floor and lay there until sleep took me.
A loud pounding on my door wakes me up. I’m on my feet, but then the room starts spinning. “Oh shit.” This isn’t good.
“Jacqueline, please can we talk?”
“Evan?” I called out, trying to get my footing. My leg is still asleep and I’m guessing my blood pressure is a little low as the room starts to spin.
“Yes, it’s me. Can I come in?”
“One minute.” I walk to the door and open it. He’s standing there, looking at me with a scruffy beard, damn. How the hell does he look sexy like that? His gray is starting to show, but it works for him.
There’s a shadow around his eyes as if he hasn’t been sleeping. “Are you okay?”
“Better now that you’re here.” I let out the tiniest laugh. So he believes, but he doesn’t know that when I left, I left with a miniature piece of him. We already had this discussion, and he didn’t want any kids.
“Evan…why are you here? I thought we’ve been over this.”
“Tell me that what happened meant nothing to you. Tell me that what we shared was just a fling.” I can’t. “Because to me you’re the world. I love you and I shouldn’t have let you walk out that damn door. I shouldn’t have let you get in that car. You cut me off when you mentioned having a baby. I didn’t get to answer because you cut me off.”
“So you were saying you wanted to have a baby with me?”
He cups my face and then tips my head so he’s staring at me in the eyes. Slowly he and succinctly, he says, “Every time I entered you all I thought about was fucking my child into you. I might have not gotten the words out, but my mind was hoping my little guys did the job. I’d been married for nearly twenty years and never had a kid of my own, so I’m not sure.”
“Whoa, slow down. Are you going senile on me? I’m pretty sure you have two daughters.” He sighs and takes my hand, leading me to the sofa. Thankfully, he doesn’t see the two tests that are on the table, but I can’t reach them either. Hopefully he doesn’t see them yet.
“There’s something I need to tell you. I would have told you sooner, but I had to explain it to Noelle and Autumn first.” He breaks the terrible tale down, every heartbreaking detail and by the end I’m in tears.
“Where are there some tissues?” He looks around and then he spots them.