The CEO’s Hired Surrogate

But now, years later, she knew that wasn’t the case, her father was happy wherever he was. He was at peace, especially now that he knew his wife and daughter were living a decent life. He wondered if he was mad at what she did, at accepting the surrogate mother thing. She knew that if he were alive he would have been mad. But now she was the true mother of her child, and she loved Emily’s father, so was that the case anymore?

No, Kayla doubted that. Her father’s rage surely would have worn off after seeing how good Ryan treated her, after seeing their love.

She was happy she’d come here, but she still didn’t understand why Ryan had brought her there. Was it because she never actually took him to her father’s grave? She knew she should have, but she always ached so much when she went there, she didn’t want to feel that pain while pregnant.

“You know, after all these years I still can’t believe he’s dead,” she sighed as she stood up, smiling at her father’s picture. Ryan didn’t say anything, partly because he was anxious and partly because he knew the ache of losing a dear one. He might not have loved his father, but he was still his flesh and blood, and so he pained for a while after losing him.

With one hand he held his daughter, and with the other his girlfriend. He liked the feeling of them both in his arms as if suddenly he could touch the entire world, his world.

“Hey, dad!” Kayla suddenly said, finally finding the right words to address to her father. With shaky hands, she took her daughter from Ryan’s arms and sat on the rock by her father’s grave. She looked at her daughter for a minute, gazing into the two pools of ocean blue eyes, those two pair of blue eyes that were inherited from her father, and caressed her skin before sighing.

“This is Emily, dad. I’m sure you already know I have a daughter now. She’s gorgeous! I wish you could have been here. I know for a fact this journey is definitely harder without you. But even so, I’m sure you’re taking care of us from where you are.And this is Ryan.” She breathlessly said as she turned towards him. When she was younger, she always tried to imagine how things would go when she introduced a man to her father. And she’d had that opportunity once, but her father and she both knew that those were childish infatuations, that’s why none of them paid much attention to them.

But she now wondered how her father would feel when he got to meet the man who truly stole her heart. The father of her daughter.

“He’s a great dad. I’m really lucky to have met him. He is also a midnight drinker, just as you were!” Kayla laughed, tears now streaming down her cheeks.

Ryan looked at her with a puzzled look but still smiled. She never told him her father would choose a good glass of wine over her mother’s teas any day. But he had. And she was lucky to find a man that was as good and honorable as her father.

“My dad was like you. Trying to avoid my mother’s tea and sneak in a nocturnal glass of wine.”

For a few minutes, they were silent. Each one of them quietly contemplating. Kayla was now reflecting on the year that had just passed, and how much had changed ever since she’d gotten pregnant. While she sat by her father’s grave she wondered if she would have met Ryan had her father been alive. Would fate have played one more sly trick on them both and gotten them to meet? She liked to think that they would have. What she and Ryan had was magical, something that defeated all odds. And so she knew that life wanted them together, it wanted them to meet and fall in love because they needed one another.

“I have something to say.” Ryan’s voice suddenly interrupted the silence, making Kayla look up with a puzzled look.

*****

He was frightened, petrified by the words he was going to say. They were the most important words he’d ever uttered in his life, and he wanted them to sound perfect. With pursed lips and sweaty hands, his fingers curled around the thing he’d hidden in his pocket, feeling its form as his finger molded around it.

He took a deep breath and looked Kayla straight in the eyes, before returning his gaze to the grave.

“Hello, sir!” His words radiated with the mixed emotions he was feeling, making Kayla chuckle. “You see, I never loved my father, he was a douche. But Kayla loves you, and I love her so much. She’s the light that penetrated my world when everything lacked color. My mother knew that, and she thought that a child would save us from the emptiness inside. And she was right. Partially.

While she was trying to solve the problem, Kayla entered my life, shedding light on the ultimate solution. She turned out to be everything I needed to feel alive again. She and our daughter are my treasure, I am ready to give my fortune, power and very life to make them happy.” Ryan took a moment to breathe, turning towards Kayla, who was now crying, and smiled. He knew he’d never confessed to her in such big words, but he was doing it now. He needed her to know just how much they meant to him.

“You might wonder Kayla why we came here? Well, I have a question for you, and, I wanted to ask you in front of your father. I wanted to do it the right way. Ask for his permission. He may be dead, but he’s here with us, and I need his blessing if I’m ever going to do what I’m about to do.”