Chapter 11
MINNIE
“S o what happens now?” Juliette asks in a hesitant voice. “That’s an insane story. I mean, your mom basically bartered you for cash.”
“I know,” I say in a wooden tone. “Not only that, but I’m preggo. I’m expecting Brad’s child, and he betrayed me. He literally called my doctor to trick me into thinking we were using contraception. But this whole time, I’ve been fertile.”
“Yeah, that is crazy,” Juliette murmurs, her hazel eyes wide with empathy. “You’ve been having unprotected sex with your stepdad. Holy shit. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever had unprotected sex in my life.”
I turn to her.
“Really? Never? Not even by accident?”
Juliette goes red as she flushes a little.
“Maybe by accident once,” she concedes. “But you know I’m seeing Harry, and it just never comes to that. We’re very careful.”
“Oh right, how is Harry, by the way?” I ask. “I haven’t seen him in ages.”
Juliette is seeing a boy with red hair whom I like a lot.
I’ve only met him a few times, but Harry’s friendly and funny, even if he’s always struck me as a tiny bit fey.
It has to do with his hands, which tend to flutter around like tiny birds when he speaks.
But what do I know? Every boy is fey next to the commanding masculinity of Brad, so my radar’s off.
Still, I’m so angry about what Brad did.
How could he knock me up on purpose? Who even does that?
And the deal he made with my mom is utterly atrocious.
In my own way, I’ve decided to take my own revenge by booking a lavish suite in the Nova Hotel as I figure out what to do next.
It’s a huge, triplex penthouse that costs five figures a night, and I put it on Brad’s black Amex that he gave me a while back.
I figure that he can afford it, and that he owes me this for his lies.
As if reading my mind, Juliette shakes her head.
“Twenty million dollars,” my pretty brunette muses, her eyes round. “That’s a lot of money.”
“I know,” I say in a grim voice. “I guess that’s how much my mom and Brad figured I was worth. Or how much my womb is worth because you know I’m basically just a surrogate in this depraved situation.”
Juliette nods. But then she speaks in a slow tone.
“I know you feel that way, but it sounds like things changed along the way, at least for Brad. I mean, didn’t you say that he proposed to you? Got down on one knee, said ‘I love you,’ and had the diamond ring and all?”
“He did,” I respond bitterly. “But it doesn’t mean anything! I mean, how can I look past what he did? It’s so wrong and horrible, and I’m ashamed, Juliette. How could I let a man take advantage of me like that? I’m so weak mentally, and I let him do it to me.”
Juliette pauses for a moment, biting her lip.
“I don’t think you’re weak, Mins. You’re strong.
You’re smart. And you didn’t let him take advantage of you.
I think you were just in love with a man, and you never suspected things would come to this.
I mean, up until you confronted Brad, you were living together happily, right?
Maybe you didn’t call it a “relationship” quite yet because of his divorce, but that’s essentially what it was, right? ”
“Yes,” I acknowledge in a bitter tone, pulling at a string on the fluffy duvet cover.
“But I had no idea that this was going on in the background. I never suspected a thing. I mean, if you had asked me at the time, I would have said that he and Joelle no longer spoke. I thought they were communicating only through their lawyers.”
“Maybe they were,” Juliette reasons. “But then Brad fell in love with you, and he realized that he was on the wrong path. He knew that he completely fucked up, and was trying to make things right by apologizing and proposing. Those are big steps.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to say yes,” I say in a bitter tone, even as my heart flip-flops painfully in my chest. “I mean, I love him. If he had proposed to me without all this bullshit, I would have said yes. I would have gladly walked down the aisle in a white dress, even knowing he was my stepdad. We would have figured it out! But the contraception deception is too much. I can’t be with a man who would do that.
I can’t be with a man who would buy my womb for twenty million dollars! ”
My friend pauses delicately.
“Well, at least it’s a huge number,” she says in a consoling voice. “I know it doesn’t make you feel better, but actual surrogates only get paid in the six figures. You’re getting marriage, a baby, and a diamond ring, in addition to your mom’s eight figure payout.”
I shake my head.
“But it’s just fucked-up. The whole situation is fucked up.”
“It is,” Juliette readily agrees. “But sometimes, a child can solve everything. People look past a lot of past grievances once a baby is born, and I think you could move past it. I mean, do you think you could move past it? You do love Brad, after all. And you’re excited about the baby too.”
“I am excited to be pregnant,” I say in a trembling voice, tears forming on my lashes.
“I couldn’t believe it after I took the home pregnancy test because I genuinely thought we were using contraception.
But there were two pink stripes on the indicator, so it’s real!
Yet I can’t forgive Brad because his betrayal hurts .
Who does that, even? To the woman they love?
He has a fucked-up sense of what love is. ”
Juliette nods, her expression sympathetic.
“He does, but he’s also been caught in an acrimonious divorce from your mom for a long time, and I think his mind was warped in the process.
But now, it sounds like he’s on the right track, and he’s trying to make amends.
He had that ring ready, and he adores you, Minnie.
Besides, what are you going to do? Live in this hotel forever?
It’s nice here,” she says in a soft voice.
“But this is no place to raise a child because it’s a hotel .
We’re not Eloise at the Plaza, and you don’t want your son or daughter to live that kind of life.
We’re normal people, Mins, and I know you want a doting father for your child. ”
That only makes me cry harder because there’s truth in my friend’s words.
I love Brad so much, and I’m actually happy that I’m expecting his child.
The thought of the alpha male’s baby growing beneath my heart fills me with joy, even if I don’t know where I’m going to go from here, or how I’m going to approach the future.
But I have to figure it out soon because Juliette’s right.
A hotel is no place to raise a child, and I don’t want my baby to grow up to be a hoity-toity spoiled rich kid who thinks everyone lives in hotels.
I want a happy, well-adjusted child, and a handsome husband who dotes on both of us .
.. and there’s only one way to make that happen.