Page 16 of The Billionaire's Wife (An Heir At Any Price 2)

“Oh no! What kind of accident? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. He got hot coffee splashed on him.”

“Oh dear. How did that happen? Where was his mother?”

“I wasn’t there, so I don’t know,” I said. Then I thought, finally, someone who actually gets it. You have to watch your children all the time. Something in Cecile’s face seemed to shift then. It was almost like she was enjoying the fact that she could tell that I was annoyed with Holly. That thought made me feel instantly disloyal. I knew that Holly was a good mother, and I also know that accidents happen. I was an ass at the hospital, and am an even bigger ass to say anything negative about my sweet wife to my ex-wife. Damn! I’d bet a million dollars that Holly already felt guilty, and all I had done was made it worse. I’m batting a thousand with her lately. “Anyways,” I told Cecile, “I better get going.”

“Okay, thank you again for picking Mark up, and Aiden…I’d keep an eye on that situation with your son if I were you.”

“Anytime, about Mark,” I told her. “And don’t worry about Eric. Holly is a good mom. Things happen.”

“Sure,” she said. “Of course they do.”

She walked me all the way out to my car even thought I told her she didn’t have to, and then watched me drive all the way out to the road. I could see her just standing there in the driveway in my rear-view mirror. I thought that was strange.

HOLLY

I was asleep that night when Aiden got home. The stress of the day had worn me out, but I went to bed early mostly, because I didn’t care to talk to him. The more I thought about what he’d said and how he’d acted the more upset I’d gotten. How dare he accuse me of not watching our child, when that was all that I did. Not that it was a chore for me. I would pick being with Eric over any job in the world, but I thought it was awfully nervy coming from a man who rarely even saw his own son lately.

Eric had been such a little trooper since we got home from the hospital. He was such a good-natured baby. He was exhausted too though and fell asleep earlier than usual. I got a text from Aiden a few hours after we got home from the hospital asking how Eric was doing. The text made me mad, he should be here, or he should have at least called.

I replied, “Fine.”

He text back, “Good. How are you?”

“Fine also,” I’d said.

“Good,” was his reply to that. I didn’t hear back from him after that. He didn’t even call or text to let me know when he’d be home.

He didn’t wake me when he got home that night, nor in the morning before he left. I saw when I checked on Eric that he had changed his diaper and probably given him his binky which he had in his little mouth. I tried not to be too touched by that. I wasn’t ready to stop being angry with him just yet. I kept going over in my head what he’d said to me and then the way he’d just left us there. I couldn’t imagine how anything at work could be more important than your child sitting in the ER.

When I went out to make my coffee I found a dozen red roses and a note.

“I’m sorry I was an ass. I love you.”

I guess I should have been happy about that, but why didn’t he wake me up if he was so sorry? Why was he having such a hard time communicating with me lately? He couldn’t just say terrible things and then send flowers and make it all better. By noon, I was fuming again because I couldn’t stop thinking about it all, and I promised myself that when Aiden finally did make it home, we were going to have this out. I couldn’t just keep stewing about it or I would explode.

On a positive note, Eric’s little arms were turning back to pink by the next day and he was so good when I put the cream and the wrap on each time, he didn’t even cry. I looked at him sometimes and could hardly believe that I loved him so much. It consumed me, and it made me shudder to think that I’d almost given him up. I couldn’t imagine my life without him now. That made me think about Aiden and the way his ex-wife had taken his son, or the boy he thought was his son, away from him. I know that experience had colored the way he saw things but we couldn’t keep using it as an excuse for his bad behavior.

Those terrible thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door bell. I was startled by it, since the doorman always let us know when someone was here. I went over and looked out the peephole and imagine my surprise when I saw the woman from the café…the one who had caused the accident. I wondered if she’d gotten the address from Rose and came to apologize.

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