“I don’t think you should be alone in your present state of mind.”
“I’m not going to hurt myself, Yas.”
“I know. I’m just saying. I’d go with you if I could.”
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“Why don’t you call Ryan?” Yasmine suggested. “You guys are still friends, right?”
“Well, we haven’t spoken in months. For all I know, he may have a girlfriend, be engaged or married, and want nothing to do with me. I mean I did reject him.”
“Be realistic, Mich. Nobody gets married in that short a time.”
I did. And I’m about to be divorced.
***
“I know I didn’t give birth to an idiot,” Felicia said, staring at her son across the coffee table.
“Darling, give the boy a break.” Philippe squeezed her hand that lay on his thigh. “He’s been through a rough patch. It’s a terrible thing that happened between him and Michelle.”
“I know he’s been through hell and back, Philippe. But it’s been two months since the media has left him alone and gone in search of fresher news. He should have been back with Michelle by now, but he continues to punish her, and my… our grandchild.”#p#分页标题#e#
Erik looked from his mother to his father. They had summoned him to Granite Falls for an intervention, as they called it, but he’d been in no mood to discuss his relationship with Michelle. He had spoken to no one about her. He couldn’t. It was just too damn painful.
“Erik,” his mother said, turning her eyes on him, “Precious needs Michelle, and so do you. Why don’t you go out and find her, bring her back to us?”
Erik pushed himself out of the recliner, shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks and walked to a floor-to-ceiling window. He stood gazing out at Mount Washington, a massive, impenetrable symbol of the agony in his heart.
Of course he knew Precious needed Michelle. He needed her, too. But when he’d returned from Europe to learn that she’d gone running back to her ex, it had crushed him. He’d advised her to leave town, to go someplace far away to escape the frenzy of the press until the news about her father died down. He never for the life of him ever thought she would run right into Ryan’s arms, and be so insensitive as to mail the annulment papers and a check for the money he’d given her from Ryan’s address in South Carolina.
He’d been ready to forgive her, to ask her back into his life, and beg her to forgive his stupidity for cutting her out in the first place. There were a lot of things he could forgive, but knowing she’d returned to her ex-lover wasn’t one of them. The thought of her in another man’s arms, in another man’s bed, was nauseating.
Michelle had made her choice. She had moved on. It was time he accepted it and did the same.
“I’m inviting her to our wedding,” his mother said behind him. “You’ll have to talk to her then, Erik.”
He turned and captured and held her gaze. “You do that, Mother, and I won’t be there.” He marched out of the room.
***
The first few weeks of her two-month refuge in South Carolina had been the worst. Michelle hadn’t been able to eat, sleep, or think, and when she’d finally let something down her throat, it had come back up within minutes. Her malady continued for about five weeks until she was so weak, had lost so much weight, and could hardly stand up that Ryan insisted she see a doctor, and had taken her to one himself.
As Michelle browsed a children’s store in the Mall of New Hampshire with Jessica, her self-appointed personal watchdog, trailing idly behind her, she reflected on that informative doctor’s visit.
“How long have you had these symptoms?” Dr. Nixon asked.
“About a month now.”
“When was the last time you had your period, Michelle?”
Her eyes puckered. “I—I don’t remember.”
“Is it possible that you could be pregnant?”
“Pregnant?” she exclaimed in a stilted voice.
“Well, all the signs are present—nausea, vomiting, appetite and weight loss, fatigue, and most significant of all, no period.”
Michelle uttered a strangled laugh. “There has to be another explanation, Dr. Nixon. Erik… We used protection.”
“Every single time, Michelle? Are you certain of that?”
‘Well, except for that one time, but that—”
“ It only takes one time, my dear. One daring energetic sperm and one ecstatic fertile egg and boom, you have a baby.”
Michelle had been speechless. Could she be pregnant with Erik’s child? That last night when he had taken her in Cassie’s house, could he have planted his seed inside her? Could his baby now be growing in her womb?