Page 166 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

Okay. I don’t know that I’m pregnant yet. Either way, I need to see a doctor.

For the first time in an age, Jasmine called to make her own appointment. Jenna didn’t need to do this for her. No one needed to know anything yet.

CHAPTER FIVE

Doctor Basu’s officehad remained unchanged for all the years that Jasmine had been going there. As a child, she’d appreciated the doctor’s maternal warmth; as an adult, she respected her no-nonsense approach. Now Jasmine sat opposite her, the air thick with tension.

The doctor was the first to break the stilted silence. ‘From your silence, I take it this is a surprise.’

Pregnant.

Every thought in Jasmine’s head had been wiped clean by that one word.

‘We need to establish how far along you are.’

‘I know when it happened,’ Jasmine said, her throat dry. She opened her app and showed the doctor the date. While she had been taking a break from her usual self-control the night she’d slept with Emilio, she had been back to normal the next morning and had recorded the encounter, keeping track like she did with everything in her life. It was proof that things only worked out when she had control. There would be no letting her hair down again.

‘Based on that, we should be doing your ten-week ultrasound,’ Dr Basu said. ‘And you need to stop your birth control immediately.’

The thought of her birth control nearly had Jasmine in tears. ‘I don’t understand why it failed.’

The doctor frowned. ‘Were you on any medications leading up to that night?’

‘No, nothing.’

‘Any natural supplements—any at all?’

‘No. I didn’t— Wait…’ Jasmine paled, thinking back to the weeks before the wedding. How stressed she’d been. She had arranged everything. Richard hadn’t helped at all.

‘Relax,’he’d said.‘It’s not that important. We can get married in the court house, for all it matters.’

‘My mother gave me St John’s Wort tea to help with my anxiety about the wedding. Do you think that’s what caused it?’

‘That could explain it,’ Dr Basu said sympathetically. ‘I’m going to write you a prescription for some supplements you need to take and two referrals: one for your ultrasound and the other for a great OB/GYN.’

‘Can I get the ultrasound done today?’

‘Yes, I’ll call ahead for you.’ Dr Basu reached over the desk and took Jasmine’s hand. ‘It will be fine, Jasmine. If you need anything, you call me.’

Jasmine was about to say that she would, but then she remembered Zara—the best friend to whom she had been so much closer than Dr Basu. A person she had trusted implicitly. A person who had betrayed and humiliated her.

No matter how much Jasmine liked the good doctor, she was determined not to need anything at all.

‘Thank you.’

She left the doctor’s office and went to her car in the car park. Too quick for her driver to get to the door, she let herself into the back seat and pulled out her phone.

That night Emilio had asked if Jasmine knew him. At the club, his seat hadn’t been touched, and even getting a suite had been no problem. He had to be someone of importance. She opened up her browser and typed ‘Emilio’. Her finger hovered over the search button. How many Emilios must there be in the world? Thinking, she added ‘New York’ and ‘Boulevard’ next to his name—all that she knew about him—and hit enter.

Hundreds of hits landed.

And yet, when she opened the images tab, she immediately saw him. Neat, curly brown hair. Sharply tailored suits. Paparazzi pictures of him dressed a little more casually. Those coffee-coloured eyes. There was no mistaking him.

Jasmine cursed under her breath. He wasn’t just a VIP. He was Emilio De Luca.

***

Emilio sat behind his desk. He’d just ended yet another virtual conference call, and had only a handful of minutes before the next one. Some days were just like that. It was one meeting after another until late into the evening. And to recover, he wouldn’t go home to rest; he would go to Boulevard. A tired mind had the tendency to wander, and Emilio didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts at the best of times.

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