Page 9 of Billionaire's Frenemy

Jameson

What in the hell had possessed me to ask Willow if I could go with her to this thing? Two nurses and the lady at the intake desk had asked if I was the father, and I’d had to hear Wills confirm to them all that no, I wasn’t.

“So where is this asshat love of your life?” I asked, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest.

“Busy,” she snapped.

“Too busy to see the first images of his child?” I was being a dick, and I knew I wasn’t helping the situation. But I was in too much pain to find anything but anger.

When she’d told me she was in love with someone else, that she was carrying his child, it had felt as if I’d died. As if she’d gutted me and left me to bleed out. We’d been each other’s firsts, each other’s only, ever since…since whatever this was between us had started. I thought she knew we’d end up together, eventually. It had never occurred to me that she might be on another page and find someone else.

I loved her. I’d always loved her. And now, it was way too late to tell her.

“You didn’t have to come,” she said with a sigh.

“You shouldn’t be here alone,” I argued. “I want to be here.”

I forced myself to loosen my posture and walked over to her. She was wearing a paper gown and lying on an exam table with a blanket over her legs. She looked so tiny. Her hand rested on her belly, which showed no obvious evidence of a bump. How could she be pregnant?

“Sorry!” the doctor chirped when he came into the room. “We’re running a bit late today.” He held out his hand to shake mine. “I’m Dr. Bob.”

Dr. Bob? Her OB was named Dr. Bob.Jesus, really? That’s really his name?

“That’s okay,” Willow assured him, propping herself up on her forearms.

“Let’s get a look at that baby.” He dropped onto his stool and wheeled over. He helped Willow push her gown up under her breasts, and I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from knocking his hands away from her.

I had to get a grip. She wasn’t mine anymore. Apparently, she never really was.

“Don’t you have… Doesn’t a tech usually do the ultrasounds?” I asked, wanting to demand a female member of the staff do the scan.

“Not always.” Dr. Bob chuckled.

Undeterred by me, her doctor squeezed some goo on Willow’s belly and started pressing the ultrasound wand over it. He pushed a few buttons on the machine and soon a softthwump-thwump-thwumpsound filled the room.

“Is that…” Willow’s eyes went wide.

“Baby’s heartbeat,” he confirmed with a smile.

Tears suddenly pricked at my eyes, and I had to turn my head away, not wanting to let her see what this was doing to me. Damn it, this should be the happiest moment of our lives. Instead, I was just an interloper, standing in a room with what could have been.

“And there it is,” Dr. Bob said softly.

I couldn’t resist looking at the screen. My heart leapt into my throat at the sight of the tiniest little bean, nestled inside Willow.

The doctor clicked a few more buttons, and little lines surrounded the nugget.

“Too early to tell the sex yet,” Dr. Bob murmured. “Looks like you’re right around three and half…maybe four months along. According to your chart four, and you’re measuring right for that.”

Four months. She’d met someone, fallen in love with the guy, and gotten pregnant by him all in four months. How? I’d had over twenty years with her and look at us.

I was an idiot. All of this was my fault. I pushed her and goaded her and fought with her. It had been a game to me. A game I’d thought she was playing, too.

A game I’d just lost.

Dr. Bob helped Willow clean up, and I wandered back to the window, looking out over the city and feeling sorry for myself.When he was finished, I followed him out into the hallway, so Willow could get dressed.

“Hey, Doc?”

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