Chapter Ten
EVELYN
If Logan had been the one to call and ask me to help with the twins at that moment, I would have hung up after telling him exactly where he could stick his paternal responsibilities.
But it wasn't Logan. It was Camila. She was at the hospital, her voice strained, explaining that everyone had gathered there in an emergency. She had to take Alice, and Logan had brought the twins.
Bonnie Turner had suffered complications during her heart surgery. The procedure had to be halted, and she was now in the ICU in critical condition.
I drove straight there, finding the entire Turner family huddled in the waiting room.
The moment I walked in, Aurora’s face lit up. She broke into a huge smile and ran to hug my legs. Little Alice, Michael and Camila’s daughter, did the same, chirping a cheerful “Aunt Evy!” that felt starkly out of place in the somber room.
Anna got up from her chair and approached me, too, though with far more restraint.
“Evy, can we go? It’s so boring here,” she whined.
“Of course, sweetie. I came to take all three of you. But can you wait just a little bit longer for me?”
Anna let out a frustrated huff and quickly signed my request to Aurora.
Camila came over and pulled me into a tight hug. “Thanks for coming. Are you sure about taking all three? I didn’t even have time to call my grandmother. She’s in for a surprise when she gets home from the bookstore.”
“Jenna loves having her great-granddaughter over. And I know she’ll adore meeting the twins.” I gave her a reassuring squeeze. “How is she?”
“We don’t know much. Which… probably isn’t a good sign.”
“My God… she’s so young.”
Camila just nodded, her eyes red-rimmed. Even without knowing Bonnie well, the gravity of the situation was written on every face in the room. Everyone was devastated—even Logan, which proved that beneath his selfish exterior, he did, in fact, have a heart.
He, Michael, and Trinity stood in a protective circle around Sebastian, who looked utterly broken, his face buried in his hands, unresponsive to his mother’s soothing words. It was a heartbreaking sight. I sent a silent prayer that Bonnie would pull through.
“Camila?” A woman’s voice drew our attention. We both turned to see Layla, Camila’s colleague from the Turner architecture firm, approaching. She pulled my friend into a quick hug.
“Lay, what are you doing here?” Camila asked, surprised.
Layla stepped back, and I could see she’d been crying. “I brought my mom for her treatment. And to try to talk her out of her decision. She says this is her last session; she’s done.”
“Is she stopping because it’s working?” Camila asked gently.
Layla shook her head, her expression grim. “She’s stopping because she’s too tired to keep fighting.”
“Oh, honey… I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not giving up on her. But what about you? Why are you here?” Her eyes finally landed on me. “Evelyn! I’m so sorry, I’m so out of it I didn’t even see you.”
She hugged me too. I’d only met Layla at Camila’s wedding, but I felt like I knew her from how much Cami talked about her.
As she pulled away, Layla glanced at the twins playing with Alice. “Oh, your daughters are just beautiful, Evelyn. Cami, you never told me she had kids! I only found out from that article online.”
“They’re not—” I started, then caught myself. The lie. “I… I asked her not to say anything. It was a secret from their father.”
“I’m glad you told him. So many men shirk their responsibility, but it’s not fair for women to carry it all alone.”
“Yes. Well, he’s… stepping up now,” I said, the words tasting like ash.
Camila quickly steered the conversation back to Bonnie, and the two of them started talking in low, worried tones.
I glanced across the room and found Logan already looking at me. I gestured for him to follow me, excused myself, and walked down a quieter hallway. He joined me a moment later.
“You’re a doctor,” I said, getting straight to the point. “What’s Bonnie’s real prognosis?”
“Not good,” he said, his voice low and weary. “I spoke with the surgeon. There was a complication. They had to close her up without finishing the procedure.”
“I’ve seen that happen before. It’s never a good sign.”
His brow furrowed. “Seriously? Where did you see that?”
I realized telling him I’d seen it on Grey’s Anatomy would sound ridiculous to an actual doctor. So, I just changed the subject.
“So, any idea when we’ll be able to travel?” I asked.
“What do you mean? We’re leaving tomorrow.”
“You’re not postponing?”
“Why would I?”
“Because your family is in the middle of an emergency! Your sister-in-law is in critical condition.”
“I’m aware. But I can’t help her. This isn’t my specialty.”
“No, but you can help your brother. He needs you.”
“There’s nothing I can do for Sebastian, either. I’ll be here tonight to support him, but starting tomorrow, my mother, Michael, and Camila will handle things here.”
“Wow… I think I made a mistake earlier.”
“What mistake?”
“When I first got here, I saw you standing with your brother. For a second, I thought even selfish people might have a heart.”
He just shook his head, as if the insult didn’t even land. Instead of arguing, he handed me an envelope I hadn’t noticed he was holding.
“Janet, my lawyer, was here earlier. She dropped this off. It’s our contract.”
Even his lawyer had come to the hospital to pay her respects. She’d probably left due to work, but she wasn’t his sister—and that was the crucial difference.
I opened the envelope and skimmed the terms. It was all as we’d discussed.
I would pose as the girls’ mother, uphold the story that we’d met in college, had a brief fling, and I’d chosen to leave and raise them alone.
I’d accompany him to social events, reinforcing the narrative that we were “giving our relationship another chance for the sake of our daughters.” The term was two months, which the contract suggested was ideal for Logan to solidify his position as director.
He was absolutely certain the job was his. Arrogant, on top of everything else.
Two months felt like an eternity to keep up this lie. But I couldn’t complain, not with a three-million-dollar payout.
Under any other circumstances, that amount would have me dreaming of investments and security. Now, all I felt was the profound relief of finally being able to erase the crushing debt my ex had left me with.
“Do you have a pen—” I started to ask, but stopped when I looked up. Logan was already holding one out to me.
Like I said. Smug bastard.
“How can you be so sure I wouldn’t back out? Or that I wouldn’t want to take this home to review it properly?”
“Please, Evelyn. Only a crazy person would turn this down. Three-million-dollar offers don’t just fall into your lap for legal work.”
“I’m no legal expert, but impersonating the mother of someone else’s children has to break some law.”
“You’ll be acting for the press, not a court. And I have legal guardianship; it’s not kidnapping.”
“Still. Maybe I’d like to refuse.”
“Again. Only if you were crazy.”
I crossed my arms, staring him down. “You really think money can solve everything, don’t you?”
“Maybe not everything. But it makes everything easier. Or are you going to pretend this money won’t completely change your life?”
Damn him. I hated that he was right.
If it weren’t for the debts and the hole my ex had dug for me, I might have torn up that contract and told Logan Turner exactly where he could go.
Or maybe not. The thought of leaving Anna and Aurora alone with a father who saw them as a secondary concern broke my heart. Though I highly doubted two months would be enough to change that.
Annoyed, I snatched the pen from his hand and signed every page, then thrust the contract back at him.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he said, a little too casually. “With Bonnie’s situation, my mother can’t take the twins. They’ll have to come to New York with us. It’s only a two-day trip, but I’ll be busy at the hospital. You can look after them, right?”
“The contract doesn’t list ‘nanny’ as one of my duties, Dr. Turner.”
“Find another nanny job that pays three million.”
“If you’re going to keep throwing the price in my face and demanding responsibilities outside our agreement, you’d better find someone else. If you can manage to explain all this to the press, that is.”
I allowed myself a small, satisfied smile at the flash of pure hatred in his eyes. If he thought he could bully me into anything he wanted just because he was paying me, he was about to learn a very different lesson.
“Don’t worry, Miss García,” he said, his voice tight. “I won’t ask for anything else. I am simply requesting that you watch the girls for these two days. When we return to Los Angeles, I will hire a proper nanny.”
Hire a nanny.
Of course. What was I expecting? For him to actually step up and parent his own children?
That would be asking far too much of the selfish and insensitive Logan Turner.