Her Swedish Billionaire's Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance For Adults (10 page)

“
Smart
and sexy, just what I always wanted,” Samara had replied, and
Alison had rolled her eyes before stalking out of the house.

They’d barely
queued up the DVD before Samara had asked, “What happens if the
judge decides to let Bjorn keep the baby?”

Amy, suave
millionaire’s daughter that she was, nearly knocked the popcorn
off the coffee table. “Say what?”

“
The
hearing on Friday. It’s to take the child away from me, right?”
Amy had waited a couple beats before nodding, and Samara had promptly
dropped her eyes down to the carpet. She’d looked vulnerable
all of a sudden, not weak or small but shrinking, and Amy had worked
not to reach over and just drag her into a hug. “What if the
judge agrees? What if she gives him to him?”

“
Then
we keep doing what we’re doing,” Amy had said. She’d
leaned back on the couch and folded her hands together, forcing
herself not to turn into a total suck and suffocate the kid with
cuddles. “You have a great lawyer whose gonna fight like hell
for you and so am I and so is my family. And Alison. You’re not
alone kid.” Samara had very nearly smiled. “The name on a
piece of paper isn’t dispositive of whose kid this is.”

“
Dispositive?”

“
Conclusive.”
When Samara had shot her another funny look, she’d rolled her
eyes at her. “Lawyer word, look it up later, it’ll come
in handy someday. But my point’s just that you’re going
to be okay; we’re going to raise this kid together. And Bjorn
fucking Fredriksen isn’t going to use whatever influence he
thought he has to take it away from you.”

She was still
thinking about that conversation when Jessica Drew elbowed her, and
before she could really process it, she was on her feet at the
counsel table. Her fingertips rested on the tabletop but the rest of
her was at attention, alert and steady.

Alison
pulled in a tiny breath next to her. Samara thought it was mostly in
surprise, but the only emotion Samara really felt right then was
fear
.

“
Do
you have any comments regarding awarding full parental rights to the
defendant?” the judge asked. Her eyes rested constantly on
Samara, steadily considerate. Samara had thought she might be an ass
when they first met, but now, she knew that she was just a lady who
thought extra-hard about everything that was presented in her
courtroom. “We’re looking at the best interest of the
child here and the defendant seems to feel that that lies with him
getting full custody. Do you agree?”

There was maybe only
a second between the time Judge Rees stopped speaking and the time
Samara opened, but it was the longest second in human history. “I
know,” Samara answered, “and I don’t agree that
that is in the child’s best interest. I grew up without a
mother and I certainly would not like to subject a child of mine to
that.”

“
Very
well,” Judge Rees agreed, and even though there was about three
thousand orders of the court after that, Samara only noticed two
things for the rest of the hearing:

The
way she sat up straighter, tall and proud as she’s ever been,
and the way Alison’s entire body relaxed when she finally,
finally
ruled that mediation is the way forward.

*****

“
Yearly
income,” Jessica said. Her pen was poised, ready to fill in the
box, and she was staring her down. Like she thought she would lie or
something.

Well,
in her defense, lying was a
little
bit
of an issue. Once. Briefly.

Samara shrugged.
“Same pay grade as Alison’s,” she answered, and
everyone—Jess, Alison, and even Amy —just stared at her.

Samara could think of
about three thousand things she’d like to spend her afternoon
doing, and filling out background information on herself with the
lovely but kind of demanding Jessica Drew wasn’t actually one
of them. No offense to Jess and all, but it was August and autumn was
just beginning. They could be out enjoying the last days of summer.

Or out seeing a
movie.

Or out visiting that
rock thing at the natural history museum that Alison wanted to see
‘cause she’s weirdly into rocks.

Or anything, really,
that’s not walking through paperwork as a big happy family,
because that’s a little weird.

Dani, Jessica’s
super-cute toddler who was almost two and babbled nonsense almost all
the time, let out this weird squeal from the floor that made both
dogs, hers and Bear, jump up and run for it. Dani pushed up onto her
feet, probably to chase them, and Jessica reached out to snag her by
the back of her t-shirt.

All while staring
Samara down.

She’s
preternaturally good at this whole thing.

“
Try
again,” she said, and Samara held up her hands.

“
Why?”
she demanded, and she could see her ever-supportive and loving sister
roll her eyes as she filled out the sheet with her (real) social
security number and last hundred years of addresses. “You want
my pay stub? I’ll grab my pay stub. I’m not sure if my
cafeteria salary is even relevant considering how much money Bjorn
has—”

“
Because
that’s the problem,” Alison intoned.

“—
but
it's not all about money or who can provide more luxuries and I
refuse—”

“
Samara.”
Jess’s tone was flinty. Like Alison’s when Samara started
to ask questions about her love of changing boyfriends or when she
asked Alison if she’s sure about settling down in one place.

Dani stopped
struggling and plunked her butt down on the carpet next to Samara.
She knocked over the block tower she had been constructing and
laughed. It was an evil fucking laugh.

“
Jess?”
Samara asked.

Finally,
she cleared her throat. “Support paid for other dependents?”
she asked, and this time, she
asked
it.

Alison’s ears
got red, but Amy just smirked.

This background
checking business was surely very uncomfortable. She hoped Bjorn was
having as hard a time of it as she was.

*****

“
We
were expecting mediation. This is good Bjorn. Relax,” Demerle
told him and Bjorn did try but it was difficult. Not just because of
the stress of all this but he hadn’t expected…

Seeing the girl in
court looking all hurt and betrayed had been…difficult. He
hadn’t been expecting that. He had to admit that she was very
good at what she did; he shrugged internally. He guessed a lifetime
of practice would do that to a person. Hell, he had almost been
convinced that she was sincere.

‘
A
child shouldn’t grow up without a mother.’

He’d almost
stood up and applauded. It was too priceless.

“
Do
I have to be present during this mediation?” he asked Demerle.

“
I’m
afraid so Mr. Fredriksen. It cannot proceed without both parties
being present.”

Bjorn sighed
internally, “I see.”

He would just have to
grin and bear it. At least he did not have to speak directly to her.

The mediator was
named Emma Dawson and she welcomed them to the mediation with polite
words and then informed them that the day’s session was just a
introductory one in which she would give them the parameters of
mediation and the way forward. She handed both Ms. Drew and Mr.
Demerle her standard list of dos and don’ts for their clients
which Samara read right away:

Do focus on your
child's needs.
Don't focus on your needs.

Do think of
custody as a separate issue relating only to what is best for your
child.
Don't discuss child support or property when trying to
resolve your parenting plan.

Do acknowledge
your child's special needs according to her age, temperament, and
development.
Don't assume there is a standard plan that fits the
needs of all children.

Do acknowledge the
other parent's strengths and bring up only valid concerns about the
other parent's ability to care for your child.
Don't bad-mouth the
other parent.

Do acknowledge
that your child needs time with both of you, in a safe environment,
developed by a parenting plan.
Don't punish the other parent by
withholding your children.

Do go to mediation
prepared with:

• A proposal
  for custody and a time-sharing plan
  

• A calendar
  which identifies school holidays, your work schedule, your child's
  activities
  

• A flexible
  and business-like attitude
  

Don't go to
mediation unprepared.

She sighed with
relief as she read because it seemed to assume joint custody at least
which was the ideal. Plus Bjorn couldn’t bring up whatever
shady details he thought he’d dug up on her. Plus there was no
way he had a schedule developed already.

“
Ms.
Dawson, my client and I have discussed things and we would like to
present you with our proposal, calendar and work schedule which you
will see is very compatible to child care,” Demerle said
pushing a piece of paper toward the judge and a copy to Samara’s
lawyer. She couldn’t believe they’d already done it. How
had they known? Bjorn avoided her eyes the entire time, much as she
tried to catch his….was he not planning to speak to her ever
again?

“
We’re
going to need time to come up with a counter proposal,” her
lawyer was saying and Samara craned her neck wanting to see what
Bjorn had proposed.

“
Of
course. Our next session will be next Tuesday,” Ms. Dawson said
as she stood up and shook everyone’s hands. Although she took
her copy of Bjorn’s proposal, she didn’t read it right
away. Samara wasn’t sure how to take that.

“
Is
it bad that we didn’t have a proposal of our own?” she
asked Jess.

“
No.
Today was about handing in the background information and setting
parameters for the way forward. That Fredriksen’s people
decided to press ahead with giving their proposal is neither here nor
there. I’m not saying we should underestimate Demerle. He’s
been in the business many years. But we can’t let them
intimidate us. Okay?” Jess was using her flinty voice.

“
Okay,”
Samara replied and sighed deeply.

She
had a sharp pain in the middle of her stomach that felt like someone
trying to poke her with a sharp object. She thought maybe she needed
to get out of her formal skirt and into more comfortable clothes
since the painkiller she’d taken hadn’t helped. Her tummy
didn’t protrude much but she felt so much heavier than she had
a few months ago. She constantly found herself supporting her back as
she walked even though she wasn’t really at the whale stage.
Heck, there was barely a bump. She figured all this stress must have
something to do with it. She walked slowly to where she’d
parked the Honda; Alison had lent it to her for the day while she
covered her shift at the cafeteria. A wave of gratitude overtook her
at the thought of her sister. She really didn’t know
what
she would have done without her.

*****

Swedish Shipping
Magnate Expecting Baby By American Woman

The TMZ headline
caught Alison’s eye and she froze. It was a slow afternoon and
the cafeteria had wifi so she’d been casually trolling gossip
blogs for celebrity scandals. She certainly didn’t expect to
see her sister on there. There was a grainy photo from the court
hearing; maybe not clear enough to identify her in the street but for
someone who knew her…

“
Fuck,”
Alison said feelingly. Bryson, one of the servers, gave her a look of
inquiry but she waved him off. Samara wasn’t going to like this
one bit. She wondered if university deans read TMZ. Today was the
first day of mediation and Samara had been nervous enough. To call
her with this news might just pull her over the edge. Alison decided
to wait until she saw her at home.

*****

“
No.”
Samara said out loud as she drew up outside their apartment. “No.
No. No. No. No. No!” she said as she caught sight of the man
lounging casually outside their door. She considered putting pedal to
the metal and just flooring it the hell out of there but he was
standing at her doorway, to her
house.
There was nowhere to run. She turned into the driveway and parked,
alighting from the vehicle as the pain in her stomach sharpened.

“
Hi
Dad,” she said.

“
Hey
Sammy. How you doing?”

“
Don’t
call me that,” Samara said wondering if she could just push
past him and rush into the house.

Chris spread out his
hands in contrived apology, “Sorry. Force of habit. How you
been girl? It's been a minute.”

“
I’ve
been fine without you in my life. So how about we just continue that
way?” she said trying to inch around him without him noticing.

“
Ouch.
That hurt,” her father said wincing theatrically. “I’m
here to help you my girl.”

Samara stared at him,
“Help me?”

“
Yeah.
You know with your…problem,” as he said the last word
his eyes drifted down to her stomach. Samara tensed. How had he
known? Did Alison tell him?!?

“
I
don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said
stiffly.

“
I’m
talking about your pregnancy and your rich baby daddy. Good one by
the way. I thought you got away from the fam because you hated
hustling…just goes to show huh?”