Page 106 of Secret Baby for my Off-Limits Fiancé

I say nothing.

And I wait.

***

Three Days Later

Vincent’s diagnosis is confirmed. It’s aplastic anemia.

I’ve been checking in with the vineyard periodically.

According to Micah, everything seems to still be in order, except for Eva. She’s been back and forth demanding to speak to me, but I’ve told them I’ll deal with her when I return.

Layla and I barely talk. We move around each other like ghosts, coexisting but never connecting.

I can tell she wants to talk.

And she can probably tell that I can’t.

I still haven’t figured out what to say to her.

I don’t know where we stand anymore. I don’t know if I want to know.

All I know is that our son is fighting for his life.

And that’s the only thing that matters.

Layla is at Vincent’s bedside, holding his hand as he sleeps in his hospital bed.

I sit across from them, my foot tapping restlessly against the tile floor, my hands clasped together.

Every now and then, I steal glances at her.

She looks exhausted. The dark circles under her eyes make her look even smaller, her skin pale, her frame stiff. She keeps fidgeting with the ring on her finger, the engagement ring I put there only days ago.

But now it feels like a joke.

A cruel, twisted joke.

It was never real. It was never supposed to be real.

But Vincent is.

Vincent is so damn real that it makes my chest ache.

I want to be mad at her. Hell, Iammad at her. How could she have kept this from me? How could she have let me believe that he was someone else’s child? That I was just some stranger in his life?

But at the same time… I see her.

I see the way she tries her best to hold back her tears, the way her hands shake as she holds our son, the way she presses her fingers into her temples like she’s trying to hold herself together.

She’s hurting too.

And I don’t know what the hell to do with that.

I should be demanding answers. But instead, all I want is to hold her.

To pull her into my arms, feel her warmth, run my hands through her hair, and tell her that it’s going to be okay.

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