9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
The whole world froze.
“Babygirl?” I blurted, unable to believe it. The nausea, the looks Caroline kept giving her—suddenly they were all clicking into place, forming a puzzle whose edges I could’ve discerned already if I’d been looking for them. “That’s not possible. Dr. Kothary’s office is running a bunch of tests…”
“Mr. Avery!” Dr. Kothary had to shout for me to hear her voice, tinny in the speaker. “Are you there?”
“I’m… I’m listening,” I managed. “Marcie is saying—”
“I was just telling your wife,” Kothary said, glee in her voice, “that you won’t be needing our services after all. Our preliminary tests revealed a highly-elevated level of certain pregnancy hormones. The follow-up we performed after confirmed it. Congratulations, Mr. Avery.”
Pregnant. Marcie was pregnant.
“That’s… that’s…”
That’s impossible, I’d wanted to say.
Except it was right here in black and white, wasn’t it?
I managed to get off the phone with Kothary in another few words—I think she could sense that Marcie and I needed to be alone in this moment.
Doubtless she was placing another call to Miss Isringhausen right now to let her know to schedule Marcie’s first ultrasound.
The family would handle it. We’d handle everything.
Right now, I needed to be here for Marcie.
The phone, the mansion, Tallulah herself—all of them were forgotten. It fell out of the back of Marcie and I’s heads as we held onto each other.
“I… I did it, Uncle Jack,” Marcie sobbed, looking at me like she still didn’t dare believe it. “I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to have our baby!”
“I am so proud of you,” I kept saying, stroking the back of her head and murmuring into her hair. “Babygirl, I’m so proud of you, I’m so fucking proud of you…”
I don’t know how long we held each other like that, Marcie sobbing into me.
The sheer relief of it was better than any sex we’d ever had.
Marcella Avery-Ramsey, the wife who’d been terrified of falling behind, who’d been driving herself crazy with worry over the fact that she alone of my brides wasn’t carrying my child, was finally pregnant. In the end, all it took was time.
At some point, Marcie managed to lift her head. “I can’t wait to tell Kiki and Sam,” she whispered, grinning bigger than I’d ever seen her. “Oh my God, I can’t wait to tell Mom and Dad! Jack, oh they’re going to lose it! You have no idea how badly they’ve been looking forward to having grandkids…”
Behind us, someone made a soft sound.
I turned. And saw what I would’ve noticed earlier if not for the fact that the news about Marcie had blown every other thought right out of my head.
Tallulah had seen the whole thing. She’d watched while Marcie broke down, completely unscripted, in the middle of her dining room after getting the most important news of her young life.
She’d watched me scoop my angel into my arms and hold her, telling her how proud I was of her.
She’d watched ugly, beautiful tears roll down Marcie’s cheeks, smearing her makeup.
And somewhere in the middle of it, Tallulah Harrington realized that we weren’t thinking about her anymore.
A strange look spread across her face. Somewhere inside of her, a door that had been bolted shut very tightly since her husband’s funeral quietly slid the slightest bit ajar.
“…well,” Tallulah said, looking from one of us to the other. “That, I believe.”
Before either of us could say a thing, she craned her neck and glanced back at the kitchen. “Gadfrey!”
The servant from earlier appeared in the door. “Yes, ma’am?”
“Bring a bottle of the good champagne,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height. “And some sparkling cider for the lady.”
Marcie moved on autopilot, her hand gesturing wildly. “Oh no, you really don’t have to…”
Tallulah laughed. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since we’ve had something to celebrate in this house?”
Two years, I guessed but didn’t say. It only would have brought down the moment.
“I…” Marcie slowly regained a bit of her composure. “We’ve been, um, trying for a really long time. We saw a doctor recently, and we just…”
Tallulah held up a hand. “I think I can infer most of the story,” she said, arching an eyebrow in the midst of her smile. “Let me take a wild guess. I know the sultan has three wives. You’re the odd woman out?”
It was a pretty good guess—and one that probably wasn’t a guess, seeing as anyone who knew about Morning Harbor and Call Your Daddy would’ve known that both Yukiko and Samantha were already with child. But Marcie reacted with surprise all the same.
“Yes,” she said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m so sorry. This is… this is supposed to be a business meeting, and here we are derailing it with our personal stuff—”
Tallulah made a face. “Sweetheart, let me tell you something. The personal stuff? Is the *real* stuff. Everything else: the clients, the jobs, the awards and the names over the door… they’re all just *dross*.
” That smile was back on her face, wider than before.
“Moments like these are the ones that matter.” A flicker of guilt filled her features.
“I made you drive all the way out here tonight so I could be rude to your husband, and now you’ve given me something good to distract me from what a miserable old battle-axe I’ve become. ”
Marcie’s jaw dropped. “That’s—you’re not—“
Tallulah was already shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have done this to a Ramsey,” she said.
Marcie took it as an apology, but the look Tallulah gave me told me she wouldn’t have felt nearly as bad if she’d made me come out here by myself. Evidently, the ‘sultan’ wasn’t off the hook just yet.
Marcie, though? The pregnancy news had absolved her.
“Have a seat, please,” Tallulah said, gesturing for us to resume our stations. “My servant should be back with all the elements of a toast at any moment—where the hell are you, Gadfrey?”
As if waiting for Tallulah’s yell, the servant materialized in the doorway. He carried several glasses on a tray, along with an unopened bottle of cider and one of champagne. The latter had frost all over the glass—the Harringtons took care of that sort of thing.
“Apologies, ma’am,” the servant said, just a hint of stress in his voice. “I was dealing with a rather rude situation—“
Evidently the situation wasn’t over.
Because Caroline emerged from the doorway two steps behind the servant, slipping around him like a Black Friday shopper making a beeline for a deal.
She streaked into the room without a glance at me or Tallulah. She only had eyes for Marcie.
“I just got a text,” she said, her arms outstretched. “Everyone’s going nuts back in Boston. Is it true? Marcie, oh my gosh, please tell me I’m not getting pranked by those cheerleaders…!”
Tallulah gave me a confused look at the word cheerleaders. I was really going to have to come up with something less controversial for the rest of the harem to call Heather and Eva when we were out and about.
“It’s true,” Marcie said, rising from her seat, bottom lip trembling. “Caroline, I’m gonna have a baby…!”
The two embraced, for all the world like they were back at the house instead of standing in the center of the most important business meeting of the Avery Company’s existence.
Gadfrey’s face turned as red as Tallulah’s dress. “You!” he snarled, setting the tray on the table as he made for Caroline. “Get out of here—!”
Tallulah lifted a hand. “This would be the assistant?” she asked me.
I nodded.
She lowered her hand. “She can stay,” she told the servant. There was a beat, then the corner of her mouth curled in an indulgent smirk. “In fact, bring her a glass.”
The servant looked incensed, but did as Tallulah commanded. I don’t think Marcie or Caroline even heard the exchange: my angel was busy babbling, Caroline nodding along and giving my wife her full attention like there was nobody else in the world.
“Alright, alright,” Tallulah said after a few moments, letting out an honest-to-God laugh. “Settle down, chickens! Goodness, this has been a day for firsts. We’re letting the hired help join us tonight. I must be going dotty for you in my old age, Miss Ramsey…”
Marcie gave a start like someone had cracked a whip between her shoulder blades. All at once, the reality of the situation came rushing back in, and her cheeks went as red and ruddy as apples. She took her seat with haste, gesturing for Caroline to settle in at her right hand.
I watched the willowy woman sit, adjusting her long, dark hair and the crystals around her neck. When she confirmed Tallulah wasn’t looking directly at her, she gave me a wink and pursed her lips. Congratulations, she mouthed without a sound.
I nodded.
“And you are Miss…?” Tallulah asked.
“Aitchison,” Caroline said. The last name came out just slightly strangled, as if part of her had wanted to say her *real* name instead of the one she’d used to get hired by our family. “Caroline. I work for Marcie, as well as Mr. Avery’s other two wives. Hair, makeup, that sort of thing.”
“She used to work for Morning Harbor,” Marcie added.
“I watch that every morning,” Tallulah murmured. “That Colin Holloway is quite the smokeshow, no?”
I kept my opinions about the man to myself. So did Caroline.
The servant returned with an extra glass. He handed it to Caroline with what was almost certainly the exact amount of rudeness he was allowed to get away with. He poured Tallulah and myself flutes of champagne; Marcie got the cider, and somewhat surprisingly, Caroline turned down the alcohol, too.
It made me wonder for a second if there was a story there.
I wouldn’t have to wonder for long.
“To new beginnings,” Tallulah said, lifting her glass.
I felt like I’d heard those words before. For a heartbeat, the carpet beneath the chair felt as if it were rocking gently back and forth, like a ship at sea. The feeling subsided.
“New beginnings,” I said, sharing a look with Marcie.
We drank.