Page 114 of Fierce- Royce

“Do you think you’re going to get any closure until you know?” he asked.

“Probably not. But at least I can say I tried. I’ll only ask one more time and then I have to move on.”

“Are you sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the tech made a comment about the size of the babies on your side of the family?”

He’d seen her reaction over that. “I’m used to things like that. Or I thought I was. You just never know how you’re going to react until you get to this position in life. Let’s put it behind us and call our parents.”

They both did. His father was laughing and said he called it all along and was thrilled. Elise was in his father’s office so he was able to let them both know.

He heard Chloe on the phone with her mother, then there was silence as her mother was talking some more. The smile was gone from Chloe’s face.

When she hung up, he asked, “What’s going on?”

“She said Emily reached out to her a few days ago and she didn’t want to tell me but decided to.”

“Really?” he asked. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“I’m not either. But I can see that side of it too. Emily explained what was going on. That she’d told her parents who the father was finally after all this time. I guess there is a lot of drama right now and my mother doesn’t know it all, but she wanted my parents to know and be prepared.”

“Prepared for what?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. I don’t like being in the dark about these things. She said Emily told my mother to tell me when she felt I was ready and for me to reach out. She felt my mother would know what was best.”

“Does your mother know who the guy is?” he asked.

“No. So my mother is just as anxious and curious too, but she wasn’t going to say anything until after the ultrasound. She knew we were excited and she didn’t want anything to ruin this.”

He had to admit that Chloe’s parents did do right by their children more often than not. He should probably take a page from them on how to raise his child because his mother sure the hell wouldn’t have waited. She would have been causing more drama.

“Now what?” he asked.

“I’m going back to work. I’m going to be happy about the baby and let everyone know and tonight you and I can call Emily together.”

“Then that is what we’ll do,” he said.

He drove her to her office, gave her a kiss and then left to return to his office.

He didn’t like the fact that something could disrupt his life, and though he knew he could carry the weight of this, he was going to let his father and sister know too.

Chloe never said it was a secret that she was adopted or talked to Emily. She never asked him to not tell anyone.

He just hoped she wasn’t too ticked off, but something told him they might need everyone in their corner for support and he was damn well going to be there for her.

40

Come To Terms

“How was your afternoon?” Royce asked her when he came in the door a little after six.

Chloe was surprised he was home so early knowing how busy he was, but when he texted he was calling it a day, she decided to make sure dinner was done so they could eat and talk.

“It was good. I called Emily an hour ago,” she said.

“I thought you were going to wait until I got home and we could talk about this together?” he asked.

“Why are you ticked?” she asked.

“I didn’t think you’d do it without me is all,” he said.