I nodded at her, but my eyes stayed focused on Dad. Happy in his ignorance, he smiled at the woman and shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong room.”
The nurse apologized and looked down at her chart with a mortified expression. Her brows pulled together as she looked back at me.
I closed my eyes, hoping I would just disappear. When I opened them again, I felt overwhelmed by the three pairs of eyes gazing intently at me. I focused only on my father’s. “She’s in the right room, Dad.”
“You’re telling me that you’re pregnant?” he asked in between laughs, sure this was some sort of pre-Halloween prank.
My eyes were filled with sorrow and shame as I continued to stare at him in silence. Slowly, as reality started to sink in, I watched as his face turned from normal to white before finally settling into a deep shade of red.
The nurse excused herself and left my room, shooting me a look that was both apologetic and chastising. I ignored her and Kellan—who, for whatever reason, was still there— and kept staring at my father. “I swear I was going to tell you and Mom. I just didn’t know how.”
“You’re pregnant?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Unable to find the words to respond, I just nodded. Dad started pacing. “How long have you known?”
I forced myself not to glance at Kellan as I stammered, “A-about three months now.”
Momentarily, he stopped pacing and glanced at me with so much sadness and disappointment in his eyes that I could barely bear it. Then he turned his eyes toward Kellan, silently asking the father of my unborn child to leave. Leaving me no room to question where his loyalties lay, Kellan nodded and walked out. Tears filled my eyes as, once more, I was hit with the realization of just how alone in this ordeal I actually was.
Once my father and I were the only two people in the room, he turned to face me fully. I wasn’t sure if the heartbreak I saw in his eyes was his, mine, or both of ours.
“Who’s the father?” he asked in an unrecognizably weak tone.
My heart pounded frantically as I replied, “Some guy at a party.”
“You don’t even know who he is?” His eyes glistened with a raging fire.
“Yes, I do,” I started, deciding that I should keep my lies as close to the truth as possible. Hopefully by doing that they would suck less and pass as facts. “But he’s not important or in the picture. It was a one-night thing.”
He stopped pacing again. My father’s gaze traveled around the room before it finally landed back on me. The disappointment in his eyes was so intense that I could barely stand to look at him.
“So that’s it?” he asked after a heavy sigh. “I send you off to the top school in the nation, shell out thousands of dollars, give you a house and job, and then you come home knocked up and don’t even tell me about it?” He shook his head and, in the saddest voice ever, asked, “What happened to my little girl?”
Tears fell freely from eyes. “She’s here, and very sorry, Daddy.”
“I bet you are, and frankly so am I. You had so much to look forward to, Amelia. The world was at your feet, and now . . .”
He never finished the sentence, not that he needed to finish it. I knew exactly where he was going, and I agreed. I had compromised a good chunk of my future plans for a cheap lay with someone who couldn’t care less about me. I was stupid and pathetic, and it killed me that now my dad knew about it as well.
Every inch of my body ached as I watched my beloved father gather his things and walk to the door. He didn’t turn to look at me or say good-bye; he just stood by the half-opened door and said, “I’ll let you be the one to tell your mother. Please, don’t wait another four months to do it. She deserves better than that.”
With those hurtful words, he left me alone to cry my pain and sorrow away.
Chapter Eight
Kellen
After leaving Amelia alone at the hospital to tell Alex about our baby, this strange feeling of guilt settled in my chest. I felt like the biggest coward alive and a carbon copy of my father, which was a terrible thought. However, plain and simple, I couldn’t bear the thought of hurting Alexander and losing not only my one true friend but also my place in the company. I had learned at a young age that people had to look out for themselves first, and that was what I was doing.
Though sound, that rationalization did absolutely nothing to appease the self-loathing I felt. And that was where the Asian beauty beside me came in.
Since that day, I had distracted myself from thoughts of Amelia with as many women as I could manage. Being as desperate for company and distraction as I was caused my standards fall significantly, and instead of my usual “models only” policy, I was now bedding pretty much any woman who smiled at me. Some of them had been unfortunate looking, but this one wasn’t. In fact, she was one of the prettiest women our agency had signed in a long time.