Page 87 of The Fiancé Hoax

And I would never be able to forgive myself.

Surely there was something we could do.

Looking down at the white page, I realized my hand was shaking. I closed my sketchbook and put my drawing supplies away. I wasn't going to get any more work done today.

I locked the doors and left through the front entrance. I longed to call Lauren and spill my guts to her. But she was visiting her parents in Seattle for a week. She’d just arrived there today. I didn’t want to intrude on her family time.

I walked on the sidewalk slowly, the late afternoon sun beating down. My favorite sandwich shop was two blocks away. A dry turkey sandwich was about the only food I had an appetite for at the moment. I decided to pick up sandwiches for Cooper and the girls, then head home. It might be nice to have an easy meal so we could focus on damage control the rest of the evening.

Cooper and I could brainstorm ideas to deal with Drew noticing the ring off my finger. Surely, we could come up with something to avert disaster.

There had to be some hope left.

On the next block, I passed a French restaurant. Normally, I loved the food from that place. But today, the rich, buttery aroma made me feel sick.

Really sick. My stomach churned, and a wave of nausea rose through my body.

I gripped my stomach and hurried to a trash can on the street. Lifting the lid, I bent over and vomited.

What the hell is happening to me?

I stood up, feeling woozy. Humiliated and hoping no one had seen me, I replaced the lid on the trash can, which was thankfully lined with a sturdy trash bag. I hurried down the street, wanting to escape.

When I reached the sandwich shop, I went straight to the restroom to rinse my mouth out. My heart was still pounding, and I felt light-headed.

I bought a soda and sat at a table to sip it slowly. The carbonation helped to settle my stomach a bit. But I could hardly think straight. My mind and emotions were caught in a whirlwind.

Was that stomach bug coming back? The one that had made me and the girls so sick?

But it wasn't just today that I had felt weird. For a few weeks, I had felt nauseous off and on. I had lost my appetite.

I kept thinking it was stress. After all, there had been so many big changes. Getting closer to Cooper and the girls, the magazine interview, changing almost everything in my store. And with the custody trial coming up in two weeks, it made sense that I had an upset stomach.

But is that enough to make me miss a period?

I gulped at the sudden awareness. I hadn’t had a period in months. Life had gotten so busy that I hadn't given it a second thought.

But it had been a really long time. In fact, I couldn’t remember having a period since moving into Cooper’s house.

Shit.

The longer I sat in that sandwich shop, the stranger I began to feel.

I rushed out of the store and crossed the street. I could come back later and buy the sandwiches. Right now, I urgently needed to get to a pharmacy.

My hand shaking more than ever, I paid for a pack of pregnancy tests. I hurried back to my boutique, unlocked the door, and went to the bathroom.

As I peed on the stick, I scolded myself for being silly.

Of course I wasn't pregnant. I was on birth control. This was just a moment of panic.

I set the stick on the counter and set the timer on my phone for two minutes.

In just a couple minutes, this would all be over. Then I could go back to dealing with all the other emergencies in my life. I certainly didn't need a pregnancy on top of everything.

I looked at myself in the mirror, noting the dark circles under my eyes. I wasn't getting enough sleep.

Once I finished launching the expanded children's section, things would calm down. We'd find a way for Cooper to keep custody, and all our lives would go on as normal. The way they had been before.