Saving Her Billionaire

“Yeah,” said Nate. “But I should have been more responsible. Don’t blame yourself for this, please. I mean… God I can’t believe how irresponsible I was. S*x is serious business, I should have been a lot more responsible about it. Usually I am, it’s just that… It was right after my father died and I wasn’t in the right mental state. Fu*k I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get s*xual with you in the first place, Phoebe, I am so very sorry I have put you in this position.”

“It’s okay,” said Phoebe. “Nate, it’s okay. It happened. Now we are going to have to talk about it.”

“Right,” said Nate. He began to examine his hands.

“You don’t have to help me raise it,” said Phoebe. “I thought that I would never see you again, and I had already decided to keep it and raise it myself. I’m not going to be the one that forces you to take responsibility for a child that you don’t want. You are going to have to decide that for yourself. If you don’t want this child you are going to have to decide that for yourself and live with it for the rest of your life.”

“Are you sure about this?” asked Nate. “Are you sure that you would be okay raising this child on your own?”

“Yes,” said Phoebe. “I am absolutely sure.”

She was lying, of course. She didn’t know if she would be able to do this on her own. She didn’t know if being a single parent would be possible for her, especially since she had to support her mother back home as well. She had thought about it a lot but she had figured that her mother could simply move in with her and Stephanie. Stephanie would be completely okay with it, Phoebe knew she would. She was just that kind of person, she would never force Phoebe to handle this on her own. Stephanie would help raise the child as well, and with their help Phoebe would be able to give the child a good life. She would be able to give the child a life in which it was happy. It would be financially tough, but at the end of the day that was just the hand she had been dealt and she would have to deal with it.

“You’re really brave,” said Nate. “I… I don’t know if I am going to be able to be there for this child.”

Phoebe felt nothing when Nate said this, and this made her happy. It meant that she was truly not dependent on him. In fact, she had been a little scared of what would happen if he had said that he wanted to be a father for this child, because that was a situation that she was not prepared for, that was a situation that Phoebe would not have known how to deal with because it’s implications were something that she had simply not thought of because she hadn’t thought that such a situation would ever come about.

“That’s fine,” said Phoebe. “Like I said, I don’t care if you are here or not. I am keeping this child, I am raising this child, and you don’t have to have any part in it.”

Nate was quiet for a time. He seemed to be going through some intense emotional struggle.

“It’s the company,” he said. “It’s all on me now. The company has been going through some problems and… well… I am the only hope. I am the only person that can bring the company back and my family needs this company, it is how we earn money. It is all we have now that my dad has died.”

“I understand,” said Phoebe. All of this explaining was really unnecessary. She did not need him to explain anything to her, after all, because this was the situation that Phoebe herself had wanted. However, she had a feeling that Nate needed to hear himself say these things, he wanted to be able to rationalize the fact that he was not going to be able to be a part of his child’s life. He needed to feel human, in a way.

All of these justifications were just a way for him to not feel sh*tty about himself, and Phoebe was fine with that. He probably already felt like a terrible person for getting drunk and being irresponsible after his dad had died, he didn’t need to feel terrible about this too. Phoebe felt like he was not a bad person, he was just confused and dealing with something that he was not even nearly ready for.

“You must understand,” said Nate. “You must understand, if I start giving time to this baby… I won’t be able to run my company. In fact, if the board members find out that I have knocked a girl up in my bender after my father died, it would cast even more aspersions on whether I am fit to run the company or not. The board could vote me out, and my family would lose control of the company that my father dedicated his life to.”

“I understand, Nate,” said Phoebe. “Really, I do. I completely understand that you need to focus on your mother and sister and ensuring that they are happy. You are the man of your house after your father has died, you are the person who is going to have to deal with everything if anything goes wrong. I don’t blame you for not wanting to help me raise this child. Like I told you, I was ready to raise this baby on my own. I was ready to be the only one for this baby. My mother will help, as will my best friend.”

“Alright,” said Nate. “I’ll… I’ll think about it some more too I think, of how I can help.”

“That would be lovely,” said Phoebe. She did not think that she would need help from him, and she was too proud to accept money, but she liked that he was taking this so seriously. So many men would have just run off at the first indication from Phoebe that they had the option of getting out of this. Nate was not like other man. He seemed like a genuinely nice person.

With all of that out of the way, Phoebe began doing her job and counseled Nate and started to help him understand the root of all of his problems.