Ruthless(22)

But I had no idea where she was now. I’d been tempted to set a PI on her trail, but my male pride had forced me to let her go. So the brunette had disappeared into the masses and I was too proud to admit that my heart had been broken by a woman I’d slept with only twice … but gotten to know in a myriad of ways, good and bad, her amazing and her less amazing traits, all of which I adored.

Fuck me, I cursed. Life just sucked on all angles. Fortunately, at that moment Mary Beth opened the door and said, “Gentlemen, I’ve received an urgent call for Mr. Sterling,” she said, nodding my way. “Please excuse him for a minute.”

MB is my trusted assistant and she calls the shots. If an issue was urgent, then I trusted her judgment. But more likely MB knew I was dying and was pulling me out so that I could legitimately skip some of the meeting. Fuck, Matt could take care of it, he was the VP of Marketing after all.

I made my excuses and headed towards the door.

“This way, Mr. Sterling,” said MB. “You have a guest waiting for you in your office.”

I strode into my office, my mind on a million things. I looked around, ready to dismiss my visitor but came to a full stop when I saw who it was. Tina. The girl who’d left me gasping, empty, my nights fucking endless, my days a nightmare as I fought through the media storm. Why was she back?

“Hi Jake,” she said quietly, her eyes wide. She looked delicious. Instead of wearing her usual plaid, Tina was dressed in a navy blue shirtdress which clung to her curves, outlining that voluptuous body. Her hair was a riotous mass of curls, unrestrained and springing free, those chestnut ringlets gleaming in the light. Plus, she had high heels on, my favorite, showing off her toned calves to their best advantage.#p#分页标题#e#

But I also noticed signs of strain, bags under her eyes, lines of tension around her mouth that hadn’t been there before.

“Well, well,” I rumbled. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

“Jake,” she said quickly. “Thank you for seeing me-“

“It wasn’t me who decided to see you,” I cut her off. “Mary Beth plunked me in here with no advance warning,” I said shortly.

My tone didn’t ruffle the brunette. “Then thank you Mary Beth,” she murmured. “I just needed to talk for a few minutes,” she continued, “You see, we have a daughter together.”

I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

“I’m sorry?” I said slowly. “I’m not sure I heard you correctly. Did you just say we have a child together?”

“Ye-yes,” she stammered hesitantly. I was glad at least something made the girl stumble.

“Okay … just so I understand. You’re saying that of the two times we had sex, one time my little guys swam up to one of your eggs, and made love, sweet love, resulting in a baby?” I said sarcastically. I couldn’t help it. I wanted her so badly but I also wanted her to pay too for putting me through these months of misery.

“Jake, I know this is hard to take,” she said slowly. “I never meant for you to know.”

“You never meant for me to know?” I interrupted, my rage building. “You never meant to tell me that I was a fucking father?” I was livid, my anger like a force of nature as she trembled before.

“I know,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think we had a future. But,” she continued quickly, “I’m here to see you now because our daughter’s sick. Our baby. Janie has leukemia.”

I felt weak and had to lean against my desk for support. The blows were coming too fast, one right after another, to my heart and to my gut.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I said slowly. “She’s only … what, a month old? We only fucked a year ago,” I said harshly.

“Jake, please,” Tina said softly. This time I noticed tears shimmering in her eyes. “Janie has leukemia from some kind of parasite that I caught when I was cat-sitting. I’m fine and the parasite is long gone, but somehow Janie’s immune system is compromised such that abnormal white blood cells are multiplying like crazy.”

I was so stunned that I couldn’t say a word. My life, which had improved dramatically when I saw Tina in the room, had just taken another nosedive to unforeseen depths. My only child, a daughter that I didn’t even know existed, was dying or dead. My body was leaden, my mind too numb to process what was happening.

But Tina pushed on ahead. “Jake, the doctors tell me that Sterling Pharma is the maker of the only drug that can save Janie. Pernacular. You know, the one that costs a thousand dollars per pop. Won’t you,” she choked, “please, won’t you give some to Janie? For your daughter?”