Julian (The Burkes #2)

CHAPTER ONE

“Kiara Reynolds?”

At the sound of her name, Kiara looked up from the book she was reading on her phone. A woman stood near the reception desk with a warm smile on her face.

Getting up, Kiara approached her, hoping her nerves didn’t show too much.

“Kiara?”

At her nod, the woman’s smile grew. “I’m Janessa. Nice to meet you.”

Janessa led her down a hallway, then stopped by an open door. “Here we go. You said when you called for an appointment that you’re pregnant?”

“Yes,” Kiara said with a nod, clutching her hands together. “I’ve had a positive pregnancy test at home.”

Several of them, in fact. It had been hard to believe that the first one was right, so she’d taken more over the days that followed. All of them had been positive.

Janessa asked her a few questions, then had her go into the bathroom to pee in a cup. Kiara didn’t think there was any doubt she was pregnant, but she did as requested.

When she came out, Janessa took her weight and her blood pressure before taking her to an examination room. “Doctor Misha will be with you in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.”

It had taken longer than it probably should have for her to make an appointment to see a doctor.

But since she was heading towards the end of her first trimester, she knew it was necessary.

As soon as she’d realized she might be pregnant, she’d read up on what was good and what was bad for pregnant women.

Not drinking hadn’t been a problem. She hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since the night she’d spent with Julian. Consuming less coffee hadn’t been great, but she’d managed to cut back to a cup every couple of days.

There was a light rap on the door, then it swung open. A woman wearing a forest-green pantsuit stepped in. She was a beautiful Black woman with a warm smile and kind eyes.

“Hello,” she said as she approached Kiara. “I’m Doctor Misha.”

“I’m Kiara Reynolds,” Kiara said as she shook the hand the doctor held out to her.

Doctor Misha sat down at the desk and turned her full attention to Kiara. “So, you are, as you suspected, pregnant.”

Kiara nodded. “I figured it was either that or I’m dying.”

The doctor’s eyebrows lifted at that. “So where are you at with this? How are you feeling?”

“Miserable.”

“Physically? Emotionally?”

Kiara gripped her hands together. Did she dare to be honest? “Both.”

“I see.” There was no judgment in the doctor’s expression, only compassion and concern. “Why don’t you tell me a bit about the circumstances of your pregnancy?”

Kiara pressed a hand to her stomach as it gave a lurch. She breathed through the feeling, then exhaled heavily.

“I got pregnant after a night of drinking with a man who is the brother of my adopted sister.”

Doctor Misha’s dark brown eyes widened. “That sounds complicated.”

“It is.” Kiara hesitated, then said, “Can I trust you?”

“Yes, of course,” the doctor said. “Whatever you tell me stays between the two of us.”

Kiara took a deep breath and plunged in, explaining everything, glad that the doctor didn’t seem rushed. She gave all the details, without giving actual names. But apparently, that didn’t matter.

“Are you talking about Annie’s sister?” Doctor Misha asked. “Is her twin your adopted sister?”

Kiara stared at the woman. “You know Annie?”

“Yes. Her boyfriend is my brother-in-law.”

“Cole?”

Doctor Misha nodded. “I’m married to his brother, Jay.” She reached out and laid her hand on Kiara’s arm. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll reveal anything you’ve told me to anyone.”

“Thank you,” Kiara said, relieved. “I just… I’m a bit overwhelmed.”

“So you don’t have a relationship with the baby’s father?”

“No. I’m not even sure I’d consider us friends at this point.”

“How does he feel about the pregnancy?”

“He doesn’t know.” And Kiara wasn’t sure how to tell him. Or if she even wanted him to know.

“What are your thoughts about the pregnancy?” Doctor Misha asked.

“Like how it’s making me feel?”

“Do you want to keep the baby?”

Reflexively, Kiara spread her hand across her stomach. “I don’t want an abortion.”

“Good,” Doctor Misha said. “I believe strongly that there are better options for an unplanned, and perhaps unwanted, pregnancy.”

“Adoption?”

“Yes. There are lots of wonderful families willing to adopt babies whose moms aren’t able to keep them.”

“I have no reason not to keep the baby,” Kiara said. “I have enough money to support us both.”

“There are more than just economic reasons that a woman might decide she can’t keep her baby. Maybe she’s not in a good place mentally or emotionally.”

Her emotions might be all over the place, but Kiara knew with certainty that she wanted to keep her baby. She wanted a connection with someone of her own. Someone she could love and be loved by. Someone who needed her, especially now that Angie didn’t.

“I want to keep the baby,” Kiara said.

Doctor Misha smiled at her. “Well, now that that decision is made, let’s see what we can do to help you feel better.”

By the time she left the doctor’s office, Kiara had instructions for what prenatal vitamins to buy and a prescription for her morning sickness. She also had a requisition for bloodwork. But best of all, she left with a recording of her baby’s heartbeat.

“Ready to go?” Lucy asked as they got back in the car.

“Not yet. I need to go to the lab and then to the pharmacy.”

Kiara wasn’t sure why she still needed to have a bodyguard. Her adoptive father Jim was no longer a threat, thanks to Jude’s quick thinking. However, Jude, in his role as the head of security, wasn’t hearing any of her arguments about not needing a guard.

She hadn’t argued too aggressively as yet because she still needed someone to drive her around. At some point she’d get her license, but right then, she had other things to focus on.

Once everything was done, Lucy drove back to the estate and let her off at the back door to the main house. Kiara detoured to the kitchen to grab some crackers and cold ginger ale before going to her room.

Up in her room, she took the medication the doctor had recommended, ate some crackers and drank a little of the ginger ale before crawling into bed. She was once again very tired.

Between the exhaustion and the morning sickness, Kiara wondered if she’d ever feel normal again. Both were so unlike her that she didn’t feel like herself. Was that how the whole pregnancy was going to be?

As she considered the remaining months of the pregnancy, Kiara knew she couldn’t keep it a secret for much longer. Not for the first time, she contemplated leaving the estate, going somewhere else to have her baby and raise it on her own.

However, her nausea deepened at the thought of being away from Angie.

From the moment they’d first met as children, they’d been inseparable.

But Angie didn’t need her the way she once had.

Jude was her protector now. Her motivator.

The role Kiara had played in Angie’s life had been taken away, and she didn’t know what that meant for their relationship.

Her hand drifted to her stomach. This little baby hadn’t asked to be born, especially to a single mom who wasn’t sure if she’d be a good mother.

Kiara hadn’t had the best examples of motherhood growing up, and the reality of becoming a mother worried her.

All she could hope was that since she knew what hadn’t been good about how her birth mother and Sandra had related to her and the other children in their care, she could figure out how to be different in how she mothered this little one.

Despite her tough upbringing, she knew how to love. If it hadn’t been for Angie, she might not have known that. But having her for a sister—a sister who needed her—had taught Kiara how to love and care for someone.

“It’s you and me, little bean,” Kiara whispered. “I’ll love you with all my heart, and I hope that you’ll love me too.”

She’d always hoped that one day a man would love her like the men loved the women in the books she read.

For a short time, she’d wondered if Julian could be that man for her.

He’d seemed to enjoy the time they spent together talking.

But then had come the night when, in an alcoholic daze, things had moved beyond just talking.

Kiara hadn’t been as intoxicated as Julian that night, but she’d been no less impaired when it came to the decision she’d made to allow things to progress the way they had.

Looking back now, she could see that a misguided hope that she and Julian had been forging something real had caused her impairment.

It was only in the days following that night, when she realized he didn’t remember what had happened, that the hope that he might have feelings for her had died.

It had been foolish of her to think that someone of Julian Burke’s caliber would ever look at someone like her as anything other than a passing fancy.

Having a man choose to love her had seemed to be a lofty dream even before she had a baby as part of the equation. Now, they came as a package deal, and the prospect of raising a child that wasn’t theirs might turn men off.

“You and me, bean,” Kiara murmured. “You and me.”

Kiara swallowed against a sudden wave of nausea and closed her eyes, not bothering to fight the exhaustion that drew her into oblivion.

Kiara woke with the feeling that she was going to throw up. Scrambling out of bed, she bolted into the bathroom. Thankfully, by this point, she had plenty of practice making that particular trip.

Once it was over, she rinsed her mouth, then washed her face. When she looked in the mirror above the sink, she winced at her appearance.

She looked like death warmed over. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her skin was pale, even beneath the light tan that was her natural skin color. And to top it off, her dark curls were a tangled mess.

"This is worth it," she reminded herself, gently touching her still-flat stomach. "We're going to be okay."