Baby Makes Five (A Multiple Birth Book 1) (12 page)

“It is what I want to do. He is right; I shouldn’t take out how I feel about him on his son. I have the card with the information I’ll give it to Dr. Sand. After I give birth, I’ll get tested. If I’m a match, I’ll donate as an anonymous donor. I don’t want him knowing it’s me.”

“Okay, whatever decision you make I am there with you once it doesn’t harm you. How long does he have, how soon does he need the marrow?”

“I know you will be there. Now would be good, but he has six months, or he dies. I hope someone donates before then. If not, I hope I could help him.”

“Me too, is there anything I can do?”

“Maybe look into seeing if there are any trials going on, or a way to get a donor sooner. Anything you can do to help I would appreciate it.”

“You are welcome. You know I’ll do anything for you don’t you?” he asked hugging her.

“I know. Think of it this way, what if it was Micah, Alina or Grace wouldn’t you have done the same thing he did?”

“Yes I would have done everything I possibly could, but I will never ask a woman to abort my child or abandon her when she didn’t. I would have been a presence in its life from the beginning.”

“You are not all men Ash, and I am fortunate that you are in my life.”

“I am the one who is lucky.”

“I am not doing this for him. I am doing it because it’s the right thing to do. I don’t want this on my conscience.”

“What did he say when you told him?”

“I didn’t. I told him I can’t and wish him luck.”

“So he has no idea…”

“No, and I want to keep it that way.”

***

Things were moving along well as could be expected for someone in her situation. She hated being on bed rest, coped up inside but had come to terms with that. Ash was her savior always finding things to keep her busy. He had even suggested keeping a diary outlining her experience through pregnancy, an idea that never occurred to her. Each day and week were a milestone for them. She had just entered her thirtieth
week, and her cervix has stayed closed since her cerclage, something they both were grateful for. The babies were healthy and thriving.

Things were going well with them. They were getting to know each other better, and each day she fell more in love with him. At times, she would find him looking at her with a smile of contentment on his face, at other times, she saw the naked hunger in his eyes.

He wasn’t the only one craving the memories of their lovemaking. At nights, she would wake hot and bothered after a steamy dream of him. She knew sex was off limits but wished he would kiss her or, at least, touch her to give her some sort of release.

His accidental touch was beginning to get hard to deal with. She was surprised she hadn’t caught pneumonia from all the cold showers she had been taking. She tried keeping her mind off the sexual tension between them by looking for baby furniture online and in the magazines he brought home.

Kevin’s leukemia was also on her mind. From what both Ash and Dr. Sand had told her, he was still on the register. Ash looked into seeing what he could do to get him a donor but had yet to find another solution, which made her sad. It shouldn’t have bothered her, but it was something that seemed to be imprinted on her brain.

“What do you want to do about Christmas?” she asked one afternoon as they played scrabble.

“I don’t know, what do you want to do?”

She looked at him curiously. “Don’t you celebrate the holidays? It’s only a month away.”

“It doesn’t bother me. It wasn’t a big deal growing up, and I was always either working or skiing. Sometimes I would spend it with Tom and his family.

She shook her head. She couldn’t imagine a child not celebrating Christmas. It was her favourite holiday. “Do you own a Christmas tree?”

“No, but I have a feeling I am about to if your look of utter shock is any indication.”

“You can’t have Christmas without a tree. It’s the best part of the holidays. My mother and I used to make hot cocoa and spend the evening stringing popcorn and decorating our tree. It was one of my fondest memories as a child. I miss that.” She said suddenly sad at the memory. “Maybe this year I’ll skip it.”

“No, you won’t. I’ll have a tree here tomorrow, and we can do all the things you did with your mother. I know it’s not the same, but it would be nice to have traditions for the babies and me too.”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“We can—”

“Have you ever thought about having more kids apart from the Beans?” she cut him off, changing the subject.”

She knew he had to know what she was doing by changing the subject. From the look on his face, she had a feeling he was going to go all out to make it a happy Christmas for her.

“Since finding out that you were pregnant, it never crossed my mind, to be honest.”

“So three are enough for you, no more kids?”

“I didn’t say that. I guess it all depends on what the future holds, what the woman in my life wants. I never thought of having a big family just maybe a kid or two to carry on my name. What about you?”

“I grew up an only child and have always wanted a big family of my own. I envied Amanda and her large family I wouldn’t mind having another one or two if I can afford it.”

“That sounds nice. Before you and the babies, I thought about having an heir. I deposited enough specimens for at least four rounds of IVF. I just had to find the right egg donor and surrogate.”

“Deposit? What are you talking about?”

“I had a vasectomy Miah.”

She was speechless. How could that be when she was pregnant with his children? “But I am pregnant if you had a…”

“I had it done after I came back from the Bahamas.”

“Why? Was it because of me?” she asked remembering how upset he had been

when he found out, she was a virgin.

“No, God no. I was supposed to have it done, but the trip was an emergency, and I put it off. I am happy I did, or I wouldn’t be here awaiting our little miracles,” he said touching her stomach.

“I’m glad to. So why do it if you wanted, at least, one child?”

“Liane,” he said. He didn’t need to say any more she knew the whole story. She also hasn’t told him about her run-in with the other woman and has been contemplating whether she should. Now would have been a good time to tell him, but she didn’t. She felt like she was lying to him.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have let one woman destroy your chance at having a child Ash.”

“I didn’t. I made sperm deposits for that. You of all people should know by now I

don’t do things I don’t want to.”

“I know, what if your four IVFs didn’t work?”

“Then I would have had the procedure reversed.”

“Do you have regrets about having the procedure done?”

“Not really.”

“So I guess you’ll do it all over again if you had the chance?” she pushed.

“I don’t know, maybe if I had known what I know now I wouldn’t have gotten it.”

She looked at him confused hoping that he’ll expand, but he didn’t.

“If you had a choice to go back that night we met and do it all over again would you change anything?” she asked.

“Yes and no. I wouldn’t change our meeting or our dinner. I won’t even change you being a virgin, what I would change would be the way I reacted when I found out. I wouldn’t have offered you the cheque either. I am truly sorry for the way I acted Miah. It should have been a good experience for you, and I ruined it.

“Apology accepted. If I had told you beforehand of my inexperience would we be here today?”

“I don’t normally bed virgins, but that night you had me enchanted the moment you entered the room. I would have made an exception for you.”

She snorted “I doubt it.  You acted as if I had stolen the crown jewels.”

“I know. I like being in control, knowing what to expect when I get into something. I rarely do one-night stands. A man in my position has to be careful, but there was this electricity that kept me gravitating towards you. I never thought you would be a virgin at twenty-five. Had I known you were nineteen…”

“It seems like such a long time ago. Time does fly fast.”

“Yes, it does.  In a few weeks, we’ll be holding our little ones.”

“I can’t wait. We did talk about getting the Beans clothes and furniture we can work on that now. I have some ideas I found online and in some of those magazines, you brought home.”

“Okay, we can look at them tomorrow.”

“Okay I don’t want to jinx it, but nothing else could go wrong.”

“Let’s keep our fingers cross.”

She stretched and yawned getting up from her seat. “Well, I am tired, I am going to bed. Good night, Ash.”

“Good night Miah.”

He watched her go. How was he to tell her had he known they would meet again he would have thought twice about his vasectomy, that he would have enjoyed making a baby the old-fashioned way with her? He groaned at his throbbing manhood and shook his head. Why does he torture himself like this?

He went to his office to reply to some emails, at least, that’ll keep him occupied. He was getting tired of midnight cold showers. He clicked on the email from the clinic where he had his semen stored. What were the odds of him getting an email from them the same night he just told Miah about them?

What could they possibly want? He set up an automatic withdrawal for each month of storage? Curious, he opened the mail.

            Dear Mr. King,

We regret to inform you that your specimens were lost during a fire we had two weeks ago. We’ve tried making an attempt to call you on numerous occasions but couldn’t reach you. We have only confirmed three of your samples were destroyed and think the fourth may have been used by accident to impregnate another client.

We cannot confirm 100 percent that there was a mix-up. We are currently investigating and hope to get answers back to you ASAP. We apologize and are sorry for the loss.

“God dammit! How could they be so incompetent?” he gritted throwing his coffee mug against the wall.

“What else could go wrong indeed?”

“What do you mean you aren’t sure? Are you telling me that after two weeks of investigating, you still can’t tell me if this woman was inseminated with my sperm?” he asked the president of the clinic two weeks later. “You either used my sample or not. How can this have happened?”

“Mr. King we are truly sorry—"

“I don’t need your apologies. I need answers, answers you don’t seem to have!” he felt like his head was exploding. He wasn’t getting anywhere with this conversation.

“There was a new staff member, and we think that’s when the mix-up may have occurred. The recipient is eighteen weeks pregnant we’ve informed her of the mix-up. She will take a DNA test after the baby is born.”

“Great! So I have twenty-two weeks before I know if some stranger is carrying my child? That’s just fantastic.”

“I can’t begin to tell you how sorry we are. Nothing like this has happened before.”

“Sorry doesn’t make it acceptable. What’s this woman’s name?” he asked trying to contain his frustration. What was he supposed to tell Miah?

“Her information is in the envelope we gave to you,” the lawyer said.

“We are prepared to reimburse you the money you paid for storage.”

“Do you think I care about the money? I used your facility because I was guaranteed privacy and competence. You were supposed to be the best in the business; that’s what I paid you for not to have this disaster. Money can’t give me back my sample if it was used on that woman.
Do you have any idea the damage this screw up is going to cost me? No amount of money can fix it.” 

The older man nodded.

Ash grabbed the envelope and walked to the door. “You better hope it wasn’t my sperm that impregnated her, because after I am done with you. There won’t be anything left for you to screw up again.”

“We understand—"

“I doubt you do. I paid a handsome fee for this,” he said gesturing around the room. “You don’t want to see the wrong side of me.”

How was he supposed to tell Miah another woman may be carrying his child? He didn’t want someone else carrying his child, and he knew this was going to complicate things. They were making such progress in their relationship. “Dammit!”

He walked back to his car as if the devil was chasing him. When he got into the car, he ripped open the envelope and emptied the contents onto his lap. He briefly scanned the information and tossed it on the passenger seat.

He leaned back and closed his eyes. All he saw was her. Her smile, the way her face lit up when one of their babies kicked. The sound of her laughter and the way she looked at him as if he could do no wrong. His heart jackknifed. How could he be so foolish? Why didn’t he see it before? “I’m in love with her,” he said in wonder.

She had thought everything was going well with them. They had gotten the biggest Christmas tree she had ever seen and had spent two nights decorating it. He had even kissed her under the mistletoe, albeit it was a chaste one. A kiss she hadn’t expected and had re-lived for days. Then things changed. He began to distance himself from her.

The past two weeks has been a puzzle to her. For every forward step forward it seemed like they took two steps back.  When he wasn’t locking himself away in his office, he was off to London or New York for business meetings. He had stopped traveling when she had hit the twenty-six-week mark in her pregnancy so he could be closer to her should something happen.

She wanted to understand what had changed to make him start traveling again.  Was it something she had said? She spent the past two weeks going over each conversation they had and couldn’t figure out anything out of the ordinary.

Was he seeing someone she had wondered and thought better, surely he would have told her? “Oh mom I wish you were here helping me through this,” she said crying softly. “I miss you so much.”

“I can’t Tom. How can I look her in the eyes and tell her another woman may be carrying my child?”

Miah halted at the half-closed door to his office shocked at what she was hearing.

She was rooted to the spot her feet unwilling to move. Her body suddenly became hot. Tiny prickles of fire were coursing through her, and she was sure tiny black-and-white stars were dancing before her. She leaned against the wall for support trying to figure out what to do next.

“I know, but I don’t see the need to tell her now,'” he paused “You are right I’ll tell her after I get back.  I’ll be away for a few days, when I get back I’ll talk to her. Thanks, buddy.”

At the sound of the phone being placed in its cradle, she found the strength to walk to her room. Tears were scalding her cheeks. The more she wiped them away, the more they flowed. Her chest constricted, and her heart pulsated. She could barely breathe so she took deep breaths, but that made things worse and caused her to hyperventilate, which sent her into a panic.  She fumbled across the room for the paper bag her prenatal vitamins were in and breathed into it.

Her heartbeat gradually slowed as she took what felt like her last breath. She collapsed across the bed drained resting her palms on her growing stomach. “Just five more-week little ones and we’ll be in the home stretch,” she whispered shakily. She was going to leave and move back in with Amanda. She’ll pack when she had enough strength to sit up.

“Miah…Miah honey?” Ash called knocking the door.

She didn’t answer she turned her back to the door and closed her eyes when he opened it.  She felt him standing over her before he sat on her bed and caressed her cheek. It’s been almost a year since the Bahamas, and she still felt him whenever they were in the same room. The zing was still there. He still excites her.  It took every inch of willpower; she had not to slap his hand away. He sat for a few minutes before he kissed her forehead and left.

She tossed and turned all night then gave up the pretext of sleeping around three a.m. No matter how hard she tried. She couldn’t help replaying what she had heard. She laid in bed all night coming up with different scenarios, but nothing seemed to make sense.

“Surely there had to be a logical reason for what I heard,” she spoke to the empty room. He had said he had gotten a vasectomy when he returned from the Bahamas was she already pregnant with their child when she met him? Her head ached from lack of sleep and an overactive mind. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths trying to clear her mind and get some sleep.

The next day she calmed down a bit from the night before. She’ll wait until he gets back then ask him what was going on; it was the adult thing to do. With that thought, she managed to fall asleep.  The beeping of her cell phone woke her from her sleep. She moaned and rolled over pulling the pillow over her head.  Her phone beeped again “Ugh,” she said grabbing the phone and looking at the screen she had three text messages. The first two were from Ash.

Arrived safely will call you later. Miss you already xo.

p.s wish I were having breakfast with you and the beans :(

She smiled. There was a logical explanation. She looked at the other message and frowned. She didn’t recognize the number. She opened the message and instantly regretted.

Do you know where he is or who he’s with when out of town? Don’t be fooled by his charms.

Miah text back asking to whom she was speaking with and how they had gotten her number, the only reply she got was a picture of Ash entering what looked to be an apartment with a pretty brunette and three words.

A concerned friend.

After studying the photo for ten minutes, she made a decision she was getting out of his home and moving back to hers. She needed clarity.

***

Ash was seething. He had called the house as he got off the plane only to be told that Miah had left the house yesterday for her old apartment.  He didn’t understand why she would risk her and their babies lives. He had tried calling, but she was not answering her phone, either she was asleep or avoiding him.  He would rather think she was sleeping since it was nine p.m, but he wasn’t sure anymore. When he had spoken to her two days ago, she had sounded aloof, he had put it down to her being uncomfortable in her last few weeks of pregnancy.

He got to his car and redialed her number hoping that she would answer as he maneuvered the car into traffic.  He was going to her apartment and take her home, whether she likes it or not.  Her phone had ringed three times before she answered. He’d woke her.

“Hello?” she answers her voice full of sleep.

“Kate told me you’re not home that you went back to your old place,” he said without greeting through pinched lips.

“Hello Ash, nice hearing your voice,” she said sarcastically. “Yes, this is my home.”

“We had a deal, what’s going on Miah?”

“A lot. You promised no more traveling until the babies came, but that didn’t stop you from going back on your word.”

“I know, I couldn’t avoid this—”

She exhaled deeply “it's fine. I know you have a business to run,” she sounded sleepy and tired.

“Then why are you not at our home?”

“Your home. I needed to be with someone I can trust.”

Silence greeted her.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked in the voice, he used on others that had them cowering with fear. It didn’t seem to have any effect on her.

“Just what I said, I know about your other the baby.”

“What other baby, you aren’t making any sense.”

“Now you are insulting me. I heard you on the phone with Tom. You got someone pregnant and didn’t want to tell me.”

He inhaled deeply, “Miah how much of that conversation did you hear? Because that’s not what happened. I haven’t slept with anyone since I met you.”

“There’s no need for you to explain. We aren’t in a relationship, who you sleep with isn’t my business,” she said.

“Look I am coming over. We need to straighten this whole mess out.”

“No! No, go home, Ash. I am tired, and you sound tired as well.”

“Miah, listen to me. You know I’ll never do anything to hurt you or our babies. Let me explain,” he pleaded.

“Tomorrow Ash, I can’t listen to your lies when I am this tired. Goodnight,” and she hung up.

“Dammit!” he shouted in the empty car throwing the ear piece across the seat. He should have told her weeks ago when he found out about the mix-up, or even before he had left to try to convince the woman to have a DNA test invitro.

“Three days I was gone, and everything is tumbling down around me.” He was so occupied that when the car behind him sped up and bumped him. He didn’t have enough time to react. He hit the brakes on the icy road, but not before hitting the car in front of him. Everything played out in slow motion before him as he watched the speeder hit another car that caused it to skid and rolled over.

He got out of his car and ran to the one he hit. “Are you okay?” he asked the shock driver who nodded eyes forward looking at the disaster ahead.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins. He ran toward the car that the speeder hit without thinking. What he saw made his blood run cold. A mother and a child of about four stuck in their seats. Thank god they were both wearing their seatbelts.

“Hang on I’ll get you both out,” he said getting down on his hands ignoring the icy slush.

“Help my son,” the woman cried urgently blood matted her hair and face.

He nodded “are you hurt?”

“No, my son is he okay?” she asked frantically.

Ash looked at the boy who seems to be in shock but okay. He didn’t have any bruises that he can see. “Are you okay sport, anything hurting?”

“No, I want my mummy,” the boy began to wail.

“It’s fine baby. I'm right here. This nice man is going to take care of you okay.”

Ash crawled through the broken window and unsnapped the belt catching the boy before he can fall. “I’ve got you,” he said carefully avoiding the broken glass. He was happy the child had on his winter jacket. When the boy was safely out, he handed him to one of the waiting bystanders before going back to his mother.

“My name is Ash. What's yours?” He asked her calmly trying to take her mind off the pain she may have sustained.

“Vanessa…Vanessa Hunt, is Cory okay?” she asked in a panic.

“Yes, he’s with someone who is taking care of him. Vanessa, I want you to tell me if you’re hurt anywhere.”

“M-my foot, it’s stuck. I can’t move it,” she said her voice weak.

“Okay, I am going to come in and try to help you. The paramedics are going to be here soon.”

“Okay,” she said closing her eyes.

“Vanessa I need you to stay awake.  I need you to help me out here,” he said making his way to her, shards of glass piercing his palms. He winced but kept the focus on the young woman. He needed to keep her occupied.

“Are you married Vanessa?” he asked assessing her.

“Yes.”

“What’s your husband’s name?”

“David.”

“Okay, I’ll get you out of here so you can go home to David and tuck your son in.”