The Billionaire’s Risky Pregnancy

“And the baby?” Smith asked. Caroline fell silent, and Tasha felt her lip quiver as Smith’s hand pressed into her shoulder. She wanted him to wrap her in his arms, make it all better with his money or a magic word. But there was only fear in his eyes, and despite the pain radiating up her back and flooding her mind, she found his fingers and squeezed with all of her strength.

“It’ll be okay,” she muttered through the tears that she tried to keep in check. “I won’t let you down.” His free hand touched her belly, and she pictured him having to relive the worst moment of his past like some kind of a cruel joke.

“Tasha, you can’t—”

“This was the last thing that I wanted for you,” she said as the pain intensified. She started to see two of him and tried to right her vision when the doctor appeared as he read what had to be her chart.

“What’s happening now?” Smith asked.

“We’re taking her up to surgery,” Caroline said. “We can’t wait any longer.” Tasha tried to speak when a needle made its way into her arm. She gasped at the sudden sharp pain, and the room started to spin as she saw Smith at the doctor’s side.

“You’re going to fix this, right?” he said, his voice quavering as he spoke. The doctor barely made eye contact as Tasha started to give into the drug. Why did she suddenly feel so cold?

“We will do all that we can, Sir,” he said.

“What does that mean?” he demanded. “I want… I need to know that she’s going to be alright.” Her vision blurred, and she sighed at the sight of only one of him. But his large hand on the doctor’s collar filled her with fear.

“It’s your fucking job to make her better!” Smith said. “I’ll find someone else if you’re not up to the task.” Caroline smoothed the beads of sweat from her brow, and the other nurses tried to pull the men apart.

“You’re out of line here,” the doctor said. “I’ll have you removed and—”

“And I’ll have your fucking license if anything happens to her!” Smith screamed. “Or my child.” The raised voices and flailing arms from the end of the bed spiked her blood pressure, and Caroline slammed her foot to the ground as she snapped her fingers.

“How about you all put your di*ks away and focus on the patient!” The room fell silent, and the doctor said that he had to scrub in as the others started to pour out.

“Relax,” Caroline soothed. “I’ll give you two a minute.” She patted Smith’s arm before departing, and once they were alone he hurried back to the bed and cupped her chin in his hands.

“Please don’t leave me,” he whispered as he kissed her cheeks. “I’ll give you anything you want. I just don’t… I can’t be alone again.” Weakly nodding her head, she felt his hair spill over her neck and tried to rub his back when she shot up and  he trailed his hand down her sides.

“Both of you, Tasha,” he continued. “I want us. A family.” Was it the fear or something else that finally released the words that she longed to hear? Her lips curled into a small smile, and she tried to kiss him when everything went dark and his voice sounded a million miles away.

*****

“Tasha?”

Her head felt heavy as she tried to turn her head against something soft. Where was she? The last thing she remembered… the only thing that she could focus on was…

“Smith?” Tasha’s eyelids fluttered in search of his green eyes, and she gripped the hand in hers only to find George at her bedside.

“Just me,” he said. “Zach’s getting some coffee. I tried to call you. Took me all night to connect the dots.”

“We… ate too much,” she muttered.

“Maybe,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure that a Big Mac and some fries are the last reason why this happened.” Just like that she remembered the pain and the blood…

…and Smith.

“He said he wanted us,” she moaned as she turned under the thin sheets. “Why isn’t he here?”

This would be it. The man had stayed with her long enough to make sure that she came out the other side. Even said what she wanted to hear most before he slipped away. But now that the deal was done and she had let him down all over again…

“The baby!” Tasha bolted up and struggled to leave the bed as George steadied her stance and gripped her arms.

“Tasha, listen to me,” he started.

“They took me into surgery,” she said as she kept trying to wriggle away from him. “Something had to go wrong. The baby should be here.”

“She is, Tasha.”

“She?”

He nodded his head as he eased her to her feet. Tasha’s soles shivered against the cold floor, and he nearly had her out the door when Caroline appeared.

“Not on my watch,” the nurse said. “You go on wheels or you get right back into that bed.”

“Wheels then,” Tasha said. “Where is my baby?”

“Your chariot awaits.” Tasha slid into the wheelchair and clutched it while George wheeled past a wall of glass. So many babies in blankets. Was one of them hers? The greatest moment of her life. Had she slept through it?

“Right in here, Miss Finn.” Entering a smaller room of to the side of the nursery, Tasha saw Smith Heller sitting in a rocker with a pink bundle in his arms. He smiled at the baby and gently touched the tip of his finger to her nose.

She hadn’t slept through it; this was beyond amazing.

“Hey.”

He glanced up at the sound of her voice, and she had never seen Smith’s smile wider as he started to stand.

“No don’t move,” she said. “I’m coming to you.” She waved George and Caroline off and wheeled to the chair. Smith presented the baby with kid gloves, and the child… their daughter was a perfect fit.

“Oh my God,” Tasha murmured as she blinked back a few tears. “We did this.”

“I know,” Smith said as he stroked her back and kissed the top of her head.

“But everything was going wrong,” she said. “How did this even happen?”

“Doc said you both did great. She’s perfect. I wanted to be there when you woke up. But I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

“Right call,” Tasha said. “She needed her Daddy.” Her voice broke around the word, and Smith was on his knees as he cradled his girls close and sighed.

“I was wrong,” he said.

“No you were scared,” she insisted. “After all you’ve been through.”

“There’s that,” he said. “But I’m talking about miracles”

“Miracles?” she echoed. Smith inched closer, and the baby gurgled as he held them both.

“They’re not in short supply,” he said. “They’re right here.”

His face started to fall, and Tasha moved to kiss him when the baby cried between them. She punched two tiny fists into the air before settling into sleep between them. Smith smiled and rested his head to her shoulder.

“It’s not that I didn’t want the baby,” he said. “I just didn’t want to lose everything all over again.” Feeling as if she was seeing him for the first time, Tasha stared into his eyes and imagined all the time that was suddenly in their grasp.

“One plus two makes three, Smith.”

And he smiled again as he kissed her slowly. In that moment she knew that she would never look back.

The end.