Page 46 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

More importantly—could I still do it?

Patience wasn’t exactly my strong suit anymore. I needed sleep. I’d earned the right to need sleep. When Leonardo was born, I was practically a kid myself, running on adrenaline and bad coffee. And Jodie’s parents picked up the slack when we couldn’t.

This time? There wouldn’t be a village.

It would be me.

I didn’t have answers yet—but I would get them.

I needed the truth before I made any moves. Logic said there was a chance the twins weren’t mine. Maybe she met someone else at the resort. Maybe some guy on the flight home. Hell, maybe she crawled back to that bastard ex of hers.

All possible. But I didn’t know if I wanted them to be true.

If she had slept with someone else, if someone else was the biological father, then I was off the hook. And I didn’t know if I wanted to be off the hook.

The only thing I knew for sure was how to play it.

She’d open the door, probably tired, but beautiful in that way only new mothers could be—soft, radiant, and stronger than hell. She’d let me inside, and I’d meet the girls—see them up close for the first time. After helping her settle them down for the night, we’d open the wine I brought and talk.

Reminisce about that night. Feel that pull again.

And if luck was on my side, I’d end the night buried inside her.

Finally, I’d ask the question that had been eating me alive, and she’d tell me the answer that could shake my world.

When I reached her building, I hesitated for only a second before knocking. The door opened a moment later, and?—

Jesus.

She lookedwrecked.

She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair was piled into a messy bun, strands falling loose. Pajama pants hung low on her hips, the fabric wrinkled and stained.

And despite all of that—despite the exhaustion written across every inch of her face and leaking out of every pore—she was still the most beautiful woman I had seen in years.

For a second, I forgot what I had come here to say. My brain was nothing but oatmeal.

She just stared at me. Silent. Frozen. Like I’d knocked the wind out of her without even touching her.

Her hazel eyes darted across my face, searching for something—mercy, maybe, or a way out—but finding none.

The color drained from her cheeks, leaving her pale but still maddeningly beautiful, radiant in a way that only mothers were. A fresh glow beneath the fatigue, the kind that made my gut twist and my chest burn.

The air stretched between us, taut as a wire, vibrating with everything we weren’t saying.

“Are they mine?” The words ripped out of me, raw and unforgiving, shattering my careful plan.

No easing in.

No waiting.

Just the brutal truth clawing its way to the surface.

Ella froze, her breath hitching like I’d sucker-punched her. Her eyes widened, wild and glassy, and her knuckles turned white where they gripped the doorframe. She stumbled back a step, like the floor itself had shifted beneath her. An invitation? A silent confession?

I followed her inside, shutting the door with a click that echoed like a gunshot in the suffocating silence. Bracing for the storm I knew was coming.

Chapter 17

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