Page 27 of Dr. Scandal Claus

My shoulders sagged and I stood and walked over to the couch. He most certainly was not a baby anymore. For eight years I'd hidden this secret from Nick and now it was going to explode in my face, thanks to that dumb reporter.

I wanted to be angry and blame this on Nellie. The parts of me that wanted to hide and hated being exposed wanted to scream and lash out at her, bite her head off and never trust anyone ever again.

But the softer, more understanding side of me knew that even though I'd told her in confidence, I'd broken her trust too. I put my entire weight on her shoulders and expected her to carry it. I took her for granted. What she did she didn't do in spite. She did it out of a deep emotion—the exact same way I'd hidden Ethan from Nick. Fear…But for her it was anger.

My phone buzzed and I took it out. I realized I'd missed three messages, all from Nellie. Two of them were sent a few minutes ago, when the broadcast was airing. This last one was just sent and I didn't want to read any of them. But I swiped to unlock and scrolled to my messaging app to read.

Nellie 12:39 PM:My God, Scarlett. I'm so sorry. I had no clue she was going to put that on TV. I shouldn't have said that. You probably hate me now. I was stupid.

Nellie 12:42 PM:I feel so awful. You didn't deserve that. I never lose my cool like that. I never tell people's secrets. I feel so horrible.

Nellie 12:57 PM:I'm so sorry.

I stared at the screen for a moment but decided not to reply. I just didn't want to get into it. I knew if I responded now, I'd be angry and go off on her. She didn't deserve that. She deserved a thoughtful response, not an angry reaction.

But Nick…He deserved so much more.

I opened the message thread I had with him and saw the last message I'd sent him. It said, "Coffee sounds great. See you soon." I sent it this morning when he offered to bring me breakfast. If I'd have known the bomb that was about to be dropped on our relationship, I'd have warned him, told him then so he had time to process before the world knew and people started talking.

I contemplated sending him a message explaining everything, but what was there to say? He already knew the reason I never called him after that one-night stand. I was a coward. I didn't want to go through the public humiliation of that scandal with him, so I hid from him. And now he really knew why. I was pregnant and all the heat aimed at him would've been shared. I couldn't do that.

My explanations would only seem like excuses. All I could do was wait for him to come around and talk to me again. And I prayed that when he did, he was calm enough to talk and not just hate me.

20

NICK

The bourbon wasn't strong enough—that or I'd just built up too much of a tolerance. This was my third glass and I felt almost nothing, but at least my heart wasn't beating as hard. I was thankful that I'd made Emily clear my schedule for this afternoon, though earlier today I'd considered going into the office to catch up on my transcripts. After getting that shocking news, I knew I couldn't get anything done. I needed time.

I brought the glass to my lips and downed it. I'd had that suspicion weeks ago. Ethan happened to be roughly the right age for my one-night stand with Scarlett. But when that thought occurred to me, I fully pushed it away. I believed in her, trusted in her as a person. She wasn't like Fiona. Scarlett was my lily of the valley, the one who came along to heal me.

My phone buzzed and I looked down at it. It was a message from Scarlett, one I wasn't sure I was ready to read. I felt betrayed, but not in the way Fiona had hurt me. This was different, because while Fiona had no good reason to side with her father and be nasty to me, Scarlett had a very good reason to keep her son a secret. My son…

Scarlett 4:17 PM:I debated whether to even send this, but I knew you'd want to know. When I saw what was happening around your life after our night together, I felt ashamed. I couldn't even tell any of my friends at the time that I'd slept with you. Everyone was talking about you in the news. And a week went by, then a month. Three months later I found out I was pregnant. Your life was absolute chaos and I couldn't Nick. I just couldn't. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you. I was scared.

Emotion started to well up in my eyes, and I locked my phone and tossed it across the table. It landed on the couch and I rested my head on the back of my recliner and closed my eyes. Her explanation made perfect sense. How could I be mad at her? My heart felt guilty for having even put her through any of that. If my life wasn't such a mess back then…

I was a billionaire doctor with ailing parents and a huge scandal. She was barely an adult with a social life and a startup she was working on. The media frenzy around that scandal alone would have tormented her, but being pregnant? She did the right thing, the best thing…

So why hadn't she told me in the past four months?

Now mid-April, we'd been together for four months. She had so many opportunities to tell me about this. The times we talked about getting her genes mapped and trying to find Ethan's father to have his done. My heart felt like it had a knife in it. This entire time, my very body could have held the key to helping diagnose Ethan, and Scarlett hadn't said a thing, not even for her own son—our son. I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

I thought Scarlett and I were going somewhere, and I thought we were going there quickly. I really felt like the reason she was drawing away from me was because I pushed her too hard; because I was ready to settle down and she wasn't.

Now I knew the real reason she was shying away. She was ashamed and felt guilty. When I told her I wanted children—a house full of them—she pulled away. Now I understood. She did it because I already had a child, and she'd kept him a secret.

But I loved her. I hadn't said as much to her, but she had to feel it. I never held back. I gave her my all, helped her, encouraged her, lifted her up. Now I wasn't sure what to feel. I loved her. I did. And I wanted a life with her, and a family. My mind just kept coming back to the secrecy. How would I ever trust her now?

I heard a knock at my door and sighed. It was probably Scarlett coming to beg for my forgiveness. I didn't think it was a good idea to talk to her for two reasons. First of all, I was drinking, and while I didn't feel drunk, I knew it would affect my emotions at the very least. And two, I hadn't had time to fully process this. Scarlett was likely going to get a side of me she'd never seen and one I didn't want to show her. She might understand it or it might scare her. I didn't want the latter.

However, I got up and walked to the door anyway. The low rumble of thunder told me the bright blue sky had shifted while I sat here stewing. I couldn't leave her standing outside in the rain. I would just have to explain that I needed a bit of space and time to think things through, and I was sure that when this all settled and I'd processed things, we could have a rational discussion.

But when I swung the door open it wasn't Scarlett standing there. It was a face I hadn't seen in years.

"Fiona?" I mumbled, suddenly feeling the swirl of the bourbon in my chest and head.

"Nicky! Baby, I've missed you…" She walked right into my house with her short, dark, spikey hair and heels three inches tall. Her manicured fingers clawed at the front of my buttondown and I stood there in shock wondering what hole she'd crawled out of.