Page 26 of Secret Baby for Dr. Billionaire

“Oh, Ben.” Maggie understood how death worked when you were in the medical field. We were a family of doctors after all. In fact, Maggie was an ER nurse before she went into aesthetics. It was the reason she had changed specialties. She couldn’t stomach a patient dying. She always felt like it was her fault. “I’m sorry.”

“What I said was stupid,” she added, and the laughter of her husband and the kids disappeared from the background. “You know Billy Anne loves you, right? She can’t stop talking about you. I wishmykids talked about me that much.”

“Your kids are lucky to have you, Maggie.”

“Damn right, they are.” Her laughter made me smile. She always knew what the right things to say, and I was lucky to have her growing up. “I’ll have her call you before bedtime, okay?”

“All right.” I was about to hang up and continue wrapping up my email so I could start prepping dinner when she yelled my name so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “Jesus, Maggie. What is it?”

“Did you receive the invitation from Mom?”

“What invitation?”

“For her annual charity gala.”

“Doesn’t she do that at Christmastime?”

“I don’t know. She might be doing it early this year. I’m personally sick of wearing Christmas colors to it every year, so I’m excited to mix things up a bit.”

“I’ll look for it in my inbox.”

“It came in the mail, Doc.” That explained it. I hadn’t checked my mail at the reception desk for months. I didn’t think that people would still opt to send real mail, especially when everything was electronic. “I gotta go. Ralph’s calling me. Bye, Ben.”

“Good night, Maggie.”

I made to leave my penthouse really quickly to grab the mail from the cluster of mailboxes. Grabbing my keys and phone, I shut my laptop and headed out. I risked a glance at Chloe’s side of the building only to see that the door was shut.

She hadn’t initiated contact after I had told her that I’d be more present for Sofi. And honestly, I hadn’t exactly made an effort, too. It’s just that I didn’t know where to start.

Fifteen minutes later, I was holding the red and gold invitation in my hands. When I saw that the rest of the mail left in the box was junk and unimportant, I threw it all in the nearby bin. I grabbed the only letter that mattered and ripped through the paper as I got into the elevator.

Next week? I checked the information in the envelope and saw that the invitation was sent a month ago. Why did Maggie just inform me of this now? Great, now I had to clear my schedule and miss seeing some patients.

Janice Hayes knew how to throw a party. They could rival some of Hollywood’s greatest events. And not only did she love going overboard, but she knew the right people to invite and the right press members to include who’d make sure her message would be received by the right donors.

The gala she hosted each year was great in every sense. It was for charity, it had booze and people got to dress up. Socializing was not my favorite thing in the world, but because it was for a great cause, the least I could do was show up and donate the same amount every year.

But since Tonette and I had broken up, my mother, bless her heart, had been berating me to find a date—a wife really—to bring along to her gala. She told me that it was sad at this point every time I’d show up alone. And every year, when I came without someone in my arm, she’d play matchmaker with some of her friend’s daughters.

The ladies were beautiful, of course. Most of them were professionals—lawyers, engineers, even fellow doctors. But they never piqued my interest. Sure, their jobs were a big deal, but they would get dull every time they’d talk about their work as if I’d be more interested in the their work than their personalities. I wanted to know them as people, not learn about their damn clients.

This year, though, I was determined to change things up. I was not about to waste my time with one of the ladies my mother would introduce me to and pretend that I’d ever let them in my life. My trust issues simply wouldn’t let me and right now, I was not in a position to choose them over Billy Anne.

Opportunity showed itself when the elevator pinged and the double doors opened on my floor. The opportunity was wearing a white crop top that hadn’t seen an iron all its life and a pair of gray sweatpants.

A subtle amount of skin on her stomach showed, and I could see the delicate curve of her waist. She was barefoot, too, her toenails painted a bright shade of orange that I could see all the way from the elevator.

I probably shouldn’t be staring her down, given that she looked like she was in a dilemma. Her sweatpants had wet marks on the ankle, her temples were beaded with sweat, and locks of her midnight black hair adhered to the side of her face.

She was walking back towards her open penthouse door, and it looked like she was coming from my side of the floor.

“Thank God you’re here,” she said, halting on her feet and sighing in relief when she saw me walk out of the elevator. A sense of caution echoed in my mind, and my initial thought was Sofi. Has something happened?

“Are you okay? Is Sofi okay?”

“She’s fine.” She frowned at my reaction. “But remember that you said you’d help out more? Well, I kinda need your help right now.”

She needed something, and as long it wasn’t about Sofi or anything urgent, I had to play my cards right. The lightbulb in my head was glowing with the idea it was brewing. I needed a plus one, and I was looking at her right now.

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