Chapter 35
Sadie
After my phone call with Gabrielle, where she practically had to talk me off a ledge, I wandered Central Park for a good hour, lost in my thoughts.
The heavy, hardcover book with the glossy cover sat in my purse like a weight.
The words written inside making it even heavier as I walked along the lake.
I hadn’t opened it up again for fear of what I might read, but also because I knew I had to talk to Jeremiah.
Next to the book lay a small stack of ultrasound pictures. The irony of the contents of my purse was enough to make me laugh or cry. Both of which I had done in the course of today’s events.
Gabrielle had a point when she told me that I deserved to give him a chance to explain.
People can write anything these days and get it published, truth or not.
In the press or in books. While this man, Anderson, claimed it was a true story, Gabrielle pointed out that there were always two sides. If not three. Or more.
I found an empty park bench along the water and took a seat, my feet screaming in the patent white heels that now felt suffocating. The arches of my feet were sore. I would have to invest in a good pair of flats because heels and pregnancy would not pair well for much longer.
I stared out at the water, smooth as it reflected the overhead scattered clouds that were now stained pink and purple with the setting sun.
I took a deep breath and tried to push out the words that played over and over again in my brain, telling me that I might not know Jeremiah at all.
Just as he had said he might not know me just hours earlier.
I heard his words sound through my aching head.
Shit, I hardly know you.
Likewise, I thought.
It was foolish to think I had learned everything there was to know about him in such a short time.
Maybe it was because everything had moved a mile a minute with him, from the very first night I met him and slept with him, to our continued affair in the office, to being pregnant with his baby.
Everything had been a whirlwind that I had been trying to keep up with.
We both had. In the craziness of it all, we’d been able to find those moments where we really saw each other. But I clearly hadn’t seen everything.
I watched as a mother duck waddled into the lake, the water rippling outward as her baby ducks followed warily behind her.
Each one dipped a tiny, orange webbed foot in before swimming out to follow their loved and trusted leader.
It would be so cute if I weren’t questioning everything about bringing a baby into the world, especially now that I was learning the true colors of its father.
The sun dipped lower behind the buildings, the glass windows reflecting back to one another as if in a quiet conversation.
I knew it was time to head home, if that was what it even was.
As settled in as I had grown to be living with Jeremiah in his fancy penthouse that overlooked this very same park, there was something in the back of my mind whispering that it could all be taken away.
It could be temporary. Maybe it was fear from my previous relationship, or maybe it was the fear of the unknown with a man I had been falling for in a way that was foreign to me.
I had never been this free. This reckless. This passionate.
But I wasn’t the old Sadie anymore, and I had to face Jeremiah head-on.
I picked up my purse, slinging it over my shoulder, and walked toward the exit of the park.
Fifteen minutes later, I stood before the towering glass apartment building.
I took a deep breath before heading through the open door.
I thanked the doorman as always, but stopped short when I saw Jeremiah by the elevators.
He leaned against the wall in the same suit from earlier.
Had he been waiting for me?
My eyes fixed on him, meeting his, desperate to read his thoughts from across the room.
I didn’t see where I was going and walked straight into someone.
Apologetically, I began stammering apologies before looking up.
I sucked in a breath when I realized I was face to face with a man I had seen before.
In fact, his face was plastered on the cover of the book in my purse.
I tucked my purse carefully behind me in slight embarrassment.
“Well, hello there,” he said, his voice a near purr as his eyes wandered over me.
“Hi,” I said, my voice catching slightly in my throat.
He was just as handsome as he was in the picture on his book, if not more so in person.
He was tall with a slim build, wearing a charcoal suit and a black shirt that matched his eyes.
As dark as his eyes were, they danced in delight as they caught my own, capturing them in his trance.
“I’m Anderson. Anderson Bradley,” he said with a smile that crept across his lips as he held out his hand.
“Sadie,” I said, shaking his outstretched hand lightly.
“You live here?” he asked, glancing around the lobby casually as he ran a thumb casually over my knuckles before letting my hand go.
“I do.” It came out more as a question, wondering if I should be giving a stranger the details of where I lived. I quickly glanced behind him and saw Jeremiah watching our interaction from afar. I wondered what he was thinking based on the stoic expression on his face.
“Well, I might just have to move in for the chance of running into you again,” said Anderson with a playful grin.
I felt my cheeks turn pink, and a tinge of guilt for the color he was putting on my face with his charm when Jeremiah was just across the lobby.
I laughed softly and shook my head, letting his flirtation wash over me.
I hated to admit it, but it felt nice to be admired by someone so light and easy.
He was a stark contrast from the brooding Jeremiah I had left in the town car earlier today. The one who waited for me now.
“Ahh, that’s a laugh I could hear every day.”
“You’re a real charmer, aren’t you?” I asked, raising a brow.
“Only when I’m with the prettiest girl in the place.” He shrugged. “Seriously, you’re glowing.”
I bit back a smile, remembering the glow was very well from being pregnant, but without saying so, I accepted the compliment anyways.
I could have mentioned the baby. Should have.
But my body had felt so foreign to me lately, like it wasn’t my own.
Even though Jeremiah told me how beautiful I was and showed me with how he couldn’t keep his hands off me, having a handsome stranger tell me I was pretty was a boost in my confidence that I didn’t know I needed.
I glanced past Anderson again and saw Jeremiah get into an elevator, the gold doors closing.
I furrowed my brows slightly. He wasn’t going to wait for me.
Was he still upset about our argument earlier?
Or because he missed the ultrasound? Or was he upset about me talking to Anderson?
Either way, I felt my annoyance creep in that he would leave me here.
“Something wrong?” asked Anderson, his eyes following my gaze to where Jeremiah had stood moments before.
“No, nothing.” I managed a weak smile. “I must be going now though.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Sadie,” he said, his voice smooth as the jazz song that played softly through the overhead speakers.
“You too,” I said, walking past him toward the elevators. I could feel his eyes on me with every step I took.
Upstairs, when I opened the door to the apartment, I found Jeremiah pacing the living room with his hands behind his back.
His suit jacket was tossed on the couch and his white button-down was messily untucked.
His brows were drawn together under his disheveled hair and his lips were pressed into a tight line of thought. He hadn’t heard me come in.
“What the hell is your problem?” I asked, stepping into the apartment, and shutting the door behind me loudly.
He looked up startled, before a coolness seeped into his already icy blue eyes as they looked me over. He didn’t say anything. He just kept pacing.
“Why didn’t you wait for me? I know you saw me in the lobby.”
“Yeah, talking to him,” he said, a look of disgust on his face.
“Him?” I scoffed. “The guy in the lobby?”
He was jealous. I hated that it felt good. I also hated that it made him even sexier to see him like this.
Focus, Sadie.
He stopped his frantic pacing to look at me. “I don’t want you talking to him again,” he said firmly, pointing a finger at me. I wanted to break it off because of his controlling words.
“I mean it,” he reiterated.
“He was nice,” I said with a roll of my eyes, crossing my arms across my chest.
Jeremiah laughed loudly and shook his head slowly.
“Nice? You wouldn’t think he was nice if you knew who he really was.”
“I know who he is.” I reached into my bag and pulled out the book. Jeremiah’s eyes widened when he caught sight of it. I strode toward him and slammed the book against his broad chest. “It’s you I don’t know.”
“Sadie…” he started, as he clutched the book against his chest as I slowly backed away, my eyes searching his for a clue about who he really was. The iciness in his eyes had melted away to silent worry. He took a single step toward me, reaching out his hand, but I avoided his touch.
“Don’t,” I said sharply. “I can’t believe you. Telling me that you don’t know me, when you had an entire other life you’ve never talked about. How dare you?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When? When you were reading that very book at the café weeks ago?”
“I didn’t read it. I barely looked at it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew him?”
“I did. In Dallas.”
“When you were talking about friends dragging you to hell and back?” I remembered the conversation on the rooftop and how Jeremiah had become quiet, not wanting to go further.
“Yes.”
“You didn’t tell me anything that night about this Anderson guy or you being a criminal,” I said, throwing my hands up exasperated.
“It wasn’t the right time,” said Jeremiah softly.
“Well, then tell me now. I deserve to know who I’m having a child with.”
“It was a lifetime ago, Sadie,” he said casually, rolling his eyes and tossing the book on the couch as if it wasn’t the bomb that just went off. He was trying to get out of this.
“Oh, don’t do that. Don’t act like this is nothing. Did you not think it was important to share this ‘nothing’ with the mother of your child? Or do you still not trust me?”
“We are still getting to know each other.” He shrugged.
“We are past that! We were past that as soon as you asked me to move in here because I’m having your baby!” I shouted.
“You are testing my patience…” said Jeremiah, his voice clipped.
“So will a child,” I said. “So, you better figure out how to get better at being uncomfortable.”
He closed his mouth at that. Defeat clear on his face.
“Now.” I nodded toward Anderson’s smiling face staring up at us from the couch. “Explain.”