The Doctor's Secret Bride(109)

‘It’s a special trip people take after they get married so they can get to know each other better.” Felicia had sent her an invitation to the wedding, but she’d had to decline. Even though she wasn’t showing much, one look at her, and Erik would have known she was pregnant. He’d told her once that he could tell a woman was pregnant even at two months. She was almost at the end of her first trimester at the time. He would have smelled his child growing in her womb from miles away.

Precious’ eyebrows suddenly wrinkled as she pressed into Michelle’s stomach. “You’re getting fat, Michelle.”

Michelle stiffened as a cold flush crawled up her spine. “Yeah, I’m—I’m putting on a little weight,” she said, pushing Precious to her feet.

“I was just thinking the same thing.” Bridget’s eyes blazed down into Michelle’s as she stood imposingly over her.

“Michelle isn’t fat, silly,” stated a defensive Jessica. “She’s going to have a—”

“Jessica!” Michelle silenced the girl as she struggled to get up.

Jessica crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and rolled her eyes.

“Jessie, why don’t you take Precious over to the toy section and help her pick out something. And you get something for you, too.” Michelle pulled some bills from her wallet and thrust them into Jessica’s hand.

Jessica snatched the folded bills, grabbed Precious’ hand and practically hauled her away to the toy section.

“You’re pregnant?” Bridget snapped.

“Yes.”

“Is it Erik’s?” Her tone grew more distasteful.

Michelle sighed. Nobody knew for certain, but there was a lot of speculation that she and Erik had been sleeping together. She’d returned to New Hampshire, just as the news about her father was winding down. The press had hounded her for information, but when she simply ignored them, they finally left her alone. The man she’d called her father for twenty-five years had pleaded guilty to the charges, thank God, so there was no long drawn-out trial.

She could lie to Bridget about the father of her child. Ryan was back in town and was paying her attention. Their friendship had deepened while she’d been hiding out at his place in South Carolina. He’d taken good care of her when she was at the lowest point in her life, and since his return to Manchester, he’d started helping out at the center—which brought them even closer still. They’d gone out together a few times, as friends, but just in case Erik found out, she couldn’t bear for him to think she had been intimate with another man so soon after their breakup.#p#分页标题#e#

Foolish rationale, considering she was speaking to the woman he was currently dating. “Yes, it’s Erik’s, but he doesn’t know,” she finally answered Bridget.

“My God,” Bridget rasped, a cold, congested expression settling on her pale face. “He has a right to know. He would want to be involved in his child’s life. You can’t offer that baby anything, Michelle. Erik has every right to raise it. He could give it a good home, a good life. With you, it would just be another hopeless statistic.”

The bottom dropped out of Michelle’s heart, and fear, stark and vivid, pounded in her veins. Good Lord, she hadn’t thought of that. What if Erik decided to fight for custody of his child? What if he won? And he could.

The odds were stacked highly against her. She didn’t have a steady job. She was living in her best friend’s apartment. The man who’d raised her and called himself her father was a convicted killer.

Erik was a respected doctor and upright citizen. He had money at his disposal. He could hire the best lawyers in the country. What he could do to her by taking her child away was snowflakes compared to what she had already been through. If she lost her child, Michelle knew she would literally crawl under a bridge and die. Her hands automatically clutched her stomach as her maternal instinct pumped the adrenaline through her veins.

“You listen, Bridget.” Despite the terrible quaking in her bones, Michelle managed to keep calm on the outside. “If Erik knew I was carrying his child, he would come back to me. There is no doubt about it. So don’t you start harboring any stupid ideas in your head, thinking you and Erik could take my child from me and raise it as your own. ‘Cause it ain’t gonna happen, sister. If you want to hold on to your man, I suggest you keep your scarlet mouth shut.”

“But—”

Michelle wanted to be absolutely certain she got her point across as poignantly as possible, so she wasn’t holding any punches. “Erik loves me. He has told me and shown me in ways far beyond your imagination or comprehension. His feelings for me are deep and strong. He shut me out of his life because of his loyalty to Cassie. If he finds out I’m carrying a part of him inside me, don’t think for one minute that your little romantic farce with him won’t be over. I’m the woman he loves. I’m going to be the mother of his child. Remember that before you go blabbing to him.”