Page 7 of Secret Baby for Dr. Billionaire

She stood in the crib, her purple dress covering her chunky legs. I turned on the TV and let her watch her YouTube show, which had helped her say her first word, "sticky,” thanks to Ms. Rachel’sIcky Sticky Bubble Gumsong.

Sofi bounced on the crib in joy when Ms. Rachel greeted her from the screen, and that was my signal to start unpacking before she’d lose interest and screamed at the top of her lungs due to boredom.

***

I jolted awake, disoriented and confused. Where was I? The hazy surroundings looked nothing like my Queens apartment. But the heavenly soft mattress against my back reminded me I was in my new penthouse—my newtemporaryhome. I was about to doze off again from exhaustion from unpacking our things when I heard Sofi clamoring in her room beside mine. Immediately, I was wide awake.

Sofi wailed even louder, and alarm bells rang in my head as I jumped off the bed groggily. What was happening? Was she hungry? Was it her molars? All the possible things ran through my mind. What if she had climbed out of the crib and fell? What if she hit her head on the floor?

But when I arrived in her room and turned on the lights, she was not on the floor, nor was she hungry. In her blue dolphin onesie, Sofi was standing in her crib, holding the frame as support, her cheeks wet and flushed. As I stepped closer, I saw her bottle was half full on the bed counter, and she had her dolphin stuffed animal wrapped around her arms—both essential things for Sofi to go down.

She sniffled when she saw me and raised her arms, telling me she wanted up. So, I picked her up and wondered what had startled her to tears. She was usually such a heavy sleeper that I could vacuum around the house or max the TV volume, and she’d still be asleep.

“What’s the matter, Sof?” I wiped her damp cheeks with my thumb, and the little girl nuzzled her face against the curve of my neck, not letting go of her stuffed toy.

And that’s when I heard it—the loud, muffled noise of what sounded like a barking dog.

What the actual fuck?

I glanced at the clock on Sofi’s wall. It was barely two in the morning. Why was the neighbor’s dog having a meltdown in the middle of the night?

The dog’s enthusiastic bark made Sofi jump, and that’s when I realized that she was startled because she started crying in my arms.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” I stroked her back, hoping it would soothe her. “We have a loud neighbor, don’t we, Sof?”

I picked up her pacifier from the crib, and she gladly took it and put it in her mouth like it was her life support. Then I turned on the lullaby machine on her small nightstand, hoping to block the noise from the neighbor’s side of the ball.

This seemed to calm Sofi down a bit. So I returned her to her crib, leaving her be for a moment. I stepped out of her room, closed the door behind me, and marched towards the living room with shared walls.

I could hear the growl and whimper of my neighbor’s dog and the steady hum of a vacuum cleaner.

Was I fucking dreaming? Is this what this was? Because who in their right mind vacuumed at one in the morning?

The dog barked again. Once. Twice. And I cringed at how loud it was in my living room. Thankfully, this didn’t seem to freak Sofi out anymore due to the lullaby playing in her room.

I debated whether or not I should march right to my neighbor’s door and give them a piece of my mind, but then I realized that I just got here and didn’t want to make a bad first impression. Besides, my oversized shirt and pajama shorts didn’t actually scream decent right now.

Instead, I marched towards the wall, pounding it with both hands with what was left of my strength, praying that my neighbor took the hint. I just hoped that they were not wearing headphones while cleaning at this ungodly hour.

I pounded the wall again when the vacuum didn’t stop. And on my third attempt, a muffled click came, and the machine stopped humming. The barking dog fell silent as well.

The stillness of the night wrapped around me, and I stood near the wall, my hands on my hips, waiting to see if my unruly neighbor would continue to vacuum their penthouse.

I could hear the muffled, hoarse voice of my neighbor, maybe blaming the dog for barking at the vacuum. But thankfully, my neighbor didn’t continue.

Walking back to our rooms, I checked Sofi in hers to see that she was asleep again, her pacifier now discarded. I tucked her in, set her stuffed dolphin beside her, and bent over her crib to kiss her forehead and cheeks.

“I love you, Sofi.”

Then I tiptoed out of her room and left the door ajar before heading back to mine to get back to sleep again, hopefully.

With how soft the pillows were and how heavy the duvet was, it didn’t take me five minutes before sleep consumed me again. I could get used to this.

Chapter two

Ben

Ikilledmycar'signition after finding a parking spot just in front of Billy Anne’s school building.

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