Page 80 of The Omega's Secret Baby
I came home a little bit exhausted from my shopping trip, and Griff laughed at me as I huffed, putting the groceries away. “You try being pregnant and running errands!” I told him. “Actually I’m really looking forward to the day it’ll be you in my place.” I tossed him an apple and he caught it.
“Not for a long time!” he said. Then, “Is it really so bad?”
“Not the pregnancy so much.” I wiped some sweat from my forehead. “But it’s like everyone in town suddenly loves me. Super weird.”
“Ah yeah. I saw your thing in the paper. I can’t believe he took out a whole page. Must have cost him a fortune.”
“I guess money doesn’t really matter to you when you have as much as he does.” I lowered myself in a chair and let the rest of the groceries be for a moment.
“And I guess he must really want everyone to know that this baby is going to be legitimate.”
What?I stared at Griff, mouth half-open. Was that really what this was? No, it couldn’t be. Could it? How hadn’t this thought occurred to me before?
Griff rubbed the back of his neck. “Did I say something wrong? I just figured that’s what you guys wanted. I mean, you did get engaged the day after you found out you were pregnant.”
“You know I don’t care about legitimacy!”
He shrugged, the gesture almost apologetic. “I knowyoudon’t.”
I cringed. Because what he was saying made sense, and I didn’twantit to. This baby’s legitimacy status wasnotwhy Matt had proposed to me. Was it?
Only one way to find out.
I grabbed my phone.
37
Matthew
Eli sounded upsetwhen I answered the phone. “Is something the matter?” I asked, sitting in my dad’s office. These days I spent so much time with Eli and Jake that I had to pour every other minute I had into work just to stay caught up.
“We need to meet.” There was a certain urgency to Eli’s tone that worried me.
“Did something happen? Is Jake alright?”
“Jake’s fine, just meet me!”
“Okay.” I glanced at the clock that hung on the wall above the door. It was still early evening. “Would you like to go eat something?”
“No, I’m not hungry. Just…Let’s meet by the playground in the park, okay?”
“Okay,” I said, really worried now that Eli didn’t want food. So far, he’d been ravenous for this whole pregnancy.
Leaving the office and the mansion behind, I made my way to the town’s park. The playground was mostly deserted, but Eli was already waiting for me when I got there. And he looked tense. Absolutely beautiful with his belly getting round, but tense.
“Hey,” I said, approaching.
He looked up at the sound of my voice. “Hey. Should we walk a bit? I think I need to walk.”
“Yeah, sure. Let’s.” I took his hand and led him down the path, remembering that night we’d come here to talk. When he’d first told me about Jake all those months ago. Part of me still couldn’t believe how much my life had changed since then.
“I saw the announcement in the paper,” Eli started.
“Yeah? Did you like it?”
“It was… certainly eye-catching. You really wanted everyone to know about us, didn’t you?” He laughed, but it sounded forced.
“Eli? What’s wrong?”
