Page 84 of Discretion at Its Finest

Genevieve

The sheets were warm, tangled around my legs, heavy with the smell of Reid’s scent. My body ached in places I hadn’t felt in a long time. I lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling.

For the first time in a long time, my mind wasn’t racing ahead.

We’d spent the night together again. After tucking in Eugene, I was startled when Reid had slipped in behind me in the hall, nipping at my ear despite my protests, his hands tracing my body like it belonged to him.

And I caved again. Because who was I kidding? I was still utterly in love with the man. I’d let him do just about anything to me if it meant he’d look at me the way he once did. He was beating himself up for looking at me in that way these last few days. But even then, he was caving too.

I slipped out of bed, pulling on my robe as I crossed the room to the bathroom, the floor cool under my feet.

After flicking on the bathroom light, I leaned over the sink, reaching for my toothbrush before tying my hair back. My thoughts couldn’t escape his words from last night, the trip inCalifornia, the sight of the little family I always wanted, the one I’d always dreamed of. All of it had made me feel all warm inside.

And I’d had this stupid idea that maybe… somehow things between us could work. Being his brother’s fiancée definitely wasn’t on my side, but it didn’t have to end up being a disaster in the end.

We could still be the little family with just him and me and our son. Run away to California, live under the sun and forget about the chaos here in New York. That was wishful thinking, but it was a wish nonetheless. And with how he held me last night? It didn’t seem like a far-fetched one.

Maybe we could figure it out.

Maybe we could—

My gaze dropped. The drawer beside me was open, only enough to see the edge of what was inside. And I froze.

The toothbrush stilled in my mouth as my eyes locked on the box tucked near the back. Placing it on the counter, I opened the drawer fully, my mind short-circuiting as I pulled out the box. Theemptybox of tampons that I’d swore I’d replenish the last time I had my cycle…

When… when was the last time I had it?

Placing the box down, my hand found the edge of the counter, my mind immediately beginning to spin. My thoughts scrambled uselessly backward. The weeks blurred. Dates slipped through my grasp.

I clenched the counter harder.

Four… five…sixweeks? No, that couldn’t be right.

I rummaged through the drawer under it, willing myself to remember the last time I’d used one. And when the box I’d found was just as empty, I could only stand there, panic building inside me.

I was late. I was very late.

I sank down onto the closed toilet lid, the robe falling slack against my shoulders, my feet numb against the tile. I remembered the last time I missed my period. It was Eugene. Back then, there had been nausea. Sore breasts. The constant metallic taste in my mouth. All the signs they warned you about in the parenting books I never read.

This time?

It had only been a month of chaos. Reid coming back home, Newman Trust financials going down the drain, business meetings, airports, sleepless nights, Reid’s body on mine. I didn’t have time to worry about a period… and it looked like I didn’t need to anyway.

I curled over slightly, pressing my forehead into my palms. And that’s when the real terror hit me… The night Reid came back, I was still in Gregory’s bed.

Still pretending, trying to hold the illusion together. We’d had sex that week. I still hated myself for it.

And then—

I was with Reid. Again. And again. Andagain. His hands on me like he was trying to reclaim lost time, and my body answering like it didn’t remember it had ever belonged to someone else.

There was a slim chance it could be Gregory’s, but it was a chance nonetheless. A chance I realized I didn’t want.

It could be Reid’s. I wanted it to be his. God, I needed it to be his.

But I didn’t know yet. And once I started showing, I knew for a fact Reid would want to know. Need to know, actually. He’d want to be part of the baby’s life. He wouldn’t ask. He’d take. He’d make room in a way that wouldn’t leave space for any more lies. I could almost imagine a world where we figured it out. A family. Together again, fractured, but somehow real. Eugene wouldn’tbe waiting for his father to show up. I wouldn’t be pretending or alone anymore.

But what if it was Gregory’s? What if, after everything… after Reid came back, after I let him back into my heart, my son’s life, watched him burn down the Newman empire, I was still carrying Gregory’s child? What if this baby bound me to the one man I no longer wanted anything to do with?