Page 6 of Nick's Secret Baby
“I’ll hold on to this for now. Come on, we’re leaving.”
Nick went to turn as I stood up from the bench I had sat down on to call Max, but the second I pushed myself up, everything started spinning. The buzzing in my ears came back tenfold and my vision didn’t bother going blurry. It went blank. I tried to step forward, but knew it was hopeless. I reached for Nick just as I collapsed and the last thing I remember was how grateful I was that he was there to catch me.
I was so tired it felt impossible to open my eyes, but I tried my hardest because the annoying noise of the TV I left on was getting to me. Except when I opened my eyes it wasn’t my bedroom I was in, it was a hospital bed. And it wasn’t a TV on in the background, it was the noise of the ER.
“There she is.” A woman standing next to me said as she checked a monitor next to me. I looked around and took in the sight. There were a series of monitors by my bed, all beeping at different times. I had an IV in my hand and what had to have been a heart rate monitor strapped tightly around my middle. If that wasn’t scary enough, sitting next to me holding my free hand was Nick. I laid my head back on the bed and just looked at him while the nurse continued to talk.
“I think the doctor will let her go home if you monitor her. With some fluids, her blood pressure seems to have come down quickly and your daughter is doing just fine.”
“Daughter?”
“Yes, oh, I’m sorry. It says here on the chart that you already knew the gender from her last visit. I didn’t spoil the surprise, did I?”
“No, I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day,” he said, looking back to me.
“I can’t get you a full meal down here, but I’ll grab something for you to snack on. Your blood sugar is a little low, which was likely contributing to your issues today. When was the last time you ate, dear?”
“I… um… dinner last night. I only had tea this morning before I headed into work. I planned to eat there on my break.”
“It would do you good to keep some snacks on you to control that blood sugar. The doctor may send you home with a monitor this time. It’s not that we don’t love seeing our patients, but we’d rather see you when you are in labor than when something has gone wrong.”
I nodded at the nurse and tried to pull my hand from Nick’s to wipe the tears from my face, but he wouldn’t let go. Instead, he reached up with his free hand and did it for me.
“I’ll be back in a bit to get that IV out of you. It’s nearly finished.”
When she left, I sat there looking at the curtain she had pulled around us. I didn’t know what to say or even where to start.
“Ansley, look at me.”
I turned to him and my vision blurred because the tears I was desperately trying to hold back just wouldn’t stop. Nick let go of my hand and stood.
“Move over a bit.”
I did as he asked and he sat on the side of my bed, then reached for me and pulled me into his arms as the dam broke and everything I wanted to say and do for the last six months all came out at once.
“I’m so sorry Nick. I’m so sorry you found me like this. I knew it would be better for me to leave, so I did. I never thought you’d care enough to even look for me and now you are here and stuck with me and our baby, and it isn’t fair to you.” He began rocking me back and forth, slowly and carefully as not to disturb my IV or monitors. “You don’t have to stay. I’ll be fine. Max will come get me and take me home. Him and his boyfriend have been great to me. Really, I’ll be okay. You can just go. I never wanted to put you in this position. You don’t deserve all this mess.”
We sat there for what felt like an eternity before he actually spoke. When he did, it felt as if my heart had stopped. If I didn’t hear the constant beeping, then I would have thought that had been the case.
Nick pulled back and lifted my chin with his finger. “You do not get to decide for me, princess. I am the one that decides for the both of us and somehow you’ve forgotten that. You have stolen months from me. Time I could have spent with you and my daughter, and that is why I am angry. You don’t get to do that again. Do you understand?”
My chest hurt over the way he looked at me. He was still so mad, and he had every right to be. Running out on him was a childish thing to do, but never in a million years would I have thought he’d be okay with this. Never once did I let myself consider what happily ever after could look like with him. Men like Nick Saint didn’t settle down with twenty-three-year-old girls who had nothing but a useless college degree and a negative balance in their bank account.
“Ansley, I asked if you understood me?”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good, I will speak to the doctor when she comes back, and then we are going to go home. Kane left this morning to go back to Whitewood. We’ll have the penthouse to ourselves to figure this all out.”
The way he said that made me cringe. I never considered what Nick would do if he actually found me. He wasn’t a family man as far as I knew, but now the way he said to figure this out made me wonder if he would try to take my daughter from me. Even if it was only part time, I had no desire to share her with anyone. The forever I pictured was me and her. Not me, her and a custody agreement. I pulled back out of Nick’s embrace and tried to lie on my side. The monitors made it difficult, but I needed space that I knew he wasn’t going to give me. Once I had finally settled into place, I felt him pull the blanket over me and a soft kiss on the top of my head.
“Rest, princess. We’ll be home soon.”
Chapter Four
Nick
Mylifehadturnedupside down in a matter of seconds. Not long after, it wracked me with fear when Ansley collapsed in my arms. I was a Dad. I couldn’t believe it. Never in a million years would I have thought that was what she was hiding from me. It made me pissed every time I thought about it. She wanted to talk as soon as we got to the penthouse and I wanted answers, but she looked so fucking tired I made her go lay down. I spent the better part of an hour reading through the medical records we asked for copies of before leaving. This was her second trip to the ER. The first was because of low blood sugar that had caused her to pass out. She hadn’t been eating enough. Even though she was pregnant, the rest of her looked as if she had lost weight. Today, it was a combination of higher than normal blood pressure and low blood sugar. My little girl was carrying my baby, and she was sick enough that she needed my help, yet this entire time I had no idea what was going on. Now I was left pacing my living room, trying to figure out what the hell had happened to my life and what I was going to do about it.
