Funny how when he’d been trying to reach her after returning from New York, each contact point had sliced through her and she’d prayed he’d stop, that he’d leave her alone to figure out how to manage this huge, terrible secret between them.
Now that he had actually broken off all communication, each moment of silence cut even deeper. He really wanted nothing to do with her or the baby. Nor would he be a strong hand to hold when she miscarried. He wasn’t the man she’d thought he was, and that was perhaps the worst realization of all.
Late one afternoon, Trinity roused herself out of her stupor to help Harper and Alex throw a baby shower for Cass. It was good for her to stop stewing over things she couldn’t change, and it was definitely better to quit dwelling on what had not yet happened, which she had zero control over. Plus, Cass was her best friend, no matter how distant they’d been lately.
Maybe it was time to change that.
Harper flew in from Zurich for the occasion and coupled the trip with some on-site meetings with her lab staff. Alex’s twin girls weren’t technically due for another six weeks, but her doctor in Washington was convinced she’d deliver any day now, so she participated remotely. As soon as she had her babies, Fyra’s CFO would take six months maternity leave.
Once, Trinity would have labeled that ludicrous and pretended a woman’s career should trump everything else. When really, it was solely Trinity who had grabbed on to her job with both hands in lieu of seeking what her friends seemed to fall into so easily—a supportive relationship with a husband who loved his wife and couldn’t wait to be a father.
Now she could readily admit she was so jealous she couldn’t stand it.
As the four pregnant executives gathered in one of the conference rooms at the company they’d built from the ground up, Trinity had enough energy to hug Harper, whom she hadn’t seen in person in quite some time. Never would Trinity have thought they’d all have pregnancy in common a few weeks ago. Fyra’s chief science officer had finally developed a belly, which she patted when Trinity commented on it.
“Dante calls him Amoeba. I tried to get him to quit, but he thinks it’s hilarious.” Harper rolled her eyes at her absent husband, whom she’d left behind in Zurich, but only because he was filming his television show about the science of attraction. Otherwise, he’d have been following his wife around like an overprotective caveman, wearing a goofy, adoring expression that communicated how very much he loved Harper and their baby.
Obviously Trinity could use some pointers on how to find a man like that—she should have been watching Dr. Gates’s show all along. Then it wouldn’t have been such a shock to find out Logan hadn’t been falling for her all along like she’d been for him.
Tears pricked at her eyelids and she let them fall. Didn’t matter how hard she tried to hold it all in, everything came gushing out anyway. Why fight it?
“Oh, honey.” Harper rubbed a sympathetic hand along Trinity’s forearm. “It gets better.”
Cass settled into the chair on Trinity’s other side and drew her into a hug, bopping the balloons tied to nearly every surface of the room. “You still haven’t talked to Logan?”
Trinity shook her head against Cass’s shoulder without fear, because Harper’s combo foundation and powder was bulletproof against smearing. Maybe that could be the genesis of a new ad campaign. But her thoughts refused to jell, like everything else in her life. Her creativity had left the moment Logan walked out of her condo. Which was of course appropriate, because he’d become her muse along with her reason to breathe, the father of her baby and the sole thing that occupied her thoughts 24-7. Ironic, much?
“You have to talk to him,” Alex called from the TV screen. “He has legal obligations to you and the baby regardless of whether he likes it or not. Child support, if nothing else. Phillip is texting you the name of a lawyer right now who will get you everything you deserve.”
What did she deserve? Half of Logan’s fortune? Season tickets to the Mustangs’ home games? To be alone because she’d spent her adult life pretending she didn’t want the fantasy she’d created with him?
Cass nodded as Trinity sat back in her chair. “Also, things are not always how they seem. I thought Gage and I were destined not to work. And we tried it twice. I never would have predicted that he’d storm into my office with an engagement ring in his pocket.”
That was different. Everyone had known that Gage had it bad for Fyra’s CEO.
“Phillip kidnapped me on the way home from the hospital, after that time I passed out, so he could talk me out of divorcing him,” Alex threw in. “Men can be very unpredictable when they decide they want something.”