The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (15 page)

She followed her
grandmother upstairs and went to her room, slumping on the bed and
luxuriating at the softness. Her back was profoundly grateful. She
could hear her grandmother pottering about in the kitchen, talking to
Craddock and the day maid; her name escaped Christine for a minute;
she was relatively new to the establishment. She figured she’d
have to get to know all the staff’s names and what not but not
yet…gawd, not yet.

Martha padded into the
room holding a steaming mug of something.

“
I
brought you some hot chocolate,” she said.

“
Oh,
thank you gra, that is very considerate of you.”

“
Are
you having any other cravings?” Martha asked.

Christine thought about
it. “No, I think I’m good,” she said. “I’ll
just have a wash and go to bed if you don’t mind. It's been a
long two days.”

“
Yes
of course, I’m sure you’re tired. I’ll be in the
guest room down the hall if you need me.”

“
Okay
gra, thanks,” Christine said already divesting herself of her
clothes in preparation for her shower.

*****

Christine started awake
in the middle of the night leaning over to the bedside table to check
the time and seeing that it was three am.

“
Wonderful,”
she grumbled wondering what she was going to do till morning. She was
so wide awake there was no way that she could go back to sleep. She
padded to the kitchen to make herself some hot milk and then decided
to call the hospital to see how Max was doing.

“
Beth
Israel Hospital,” the voice said on the line.

“
Hello,
I’d like to check on a patient?”

“
What
is the patient’s name and what is your relationship to the
patient?”

“
The
patient is named Max Lestrange and I’m his fiancé
Christine.”

There was silence on
the other end for a bit.

“
Oh,
Max Lestrange. He’s in a private room and currently awake.
Would you like to speak with him?”

“
Yes
please,” Christine said in utter relief. She was supremely
surprised that Max was awake at 3am and the nurse was willing to let
her talk to him but she wasn’t sweating the details.

“
Hello,”
his croaky voice came on the line.

“
Max!
Gawd I’ve been worried. How you doing?”

“
Great.
You didn’t come back,” he said.

“
Your
mother kind of banned us from seeing you,” Christine said.

“
What?”
Max croaked. Christine could tell he wanted to shout but had no
voice.

“
Your
mother. She has you on lockdown. She’s trying to get power of
attorney.”

“
And
you just rolled over and let her?” Max asked in disbelief.

“
Well…no.
But I wasn’t about to get in a street brawl with the burly
bodyguard she’d placed outside your door. I didn’t think
you’d appreciate it.”

“
Yeah,
I wouldn’t have. The baby might have been hurt. Will you be by
later? I’ll take care of the tool at the door.”

“
Yeah
of course we will.”

“
Why
are you awake in the middle of the night? Worried about me?”
Christine could hear the smugness seeping down the line.

“
Nope.
I just slept really early. Could you ask them to let me in to see you
around 7am? I have to go to work tomorrow. I mean…today.”

“
Okay
if you say so. Now go get a little more rest if you’re working
today.”

“
Yes
master.”

“
Oh,
I love when you talk dirty.”

“
You
get some sleep too.”

“
Yeah,
I’ll try. The pain is a pain in the arse.”

“
Can’t
you ask for more painkillers?”

“
I
could but I’m tired of being asleep. And groggy. And apparently
missing things.”

“
Nothing
really important.”

“
Yeah,
just my mother trying to take over my life before I’m even
dead.”

“
Don’t.
Don’t even say it.”

“
Say
what? Dead?”

Christine’s
silence was eloquent.

“
Okay
okay, I’m sorry. How are you feeling by the way?”

“
I’m
great. The nausea is kicking my ass but other than that…”

“
And
did you get to the bottom of who’s trying to blackmail me?”

“
I
think so. I got my cousins to work on getting a confirmation that
it's really who we think it is.”

“
And
who do you think it is?”

Christine debated with
herself, wondering whether to tell him or not.

“
Chris…?
Come on are we family or not?”

“
I
don’t know about family…when did we become that?”

“
When
we mixed our blood and bone together and made a new human being?”

“
Very
evocative imagery. We think it's my mother and her boyfriend
husband.”

“
Hmm.”

“
Is
that all you have to say? Hmm?”

“
What
do you want to do about it?”

“
I
don’t know. Hit her over the head with Mjolnir?”

“
I
don’t really know where we can get Thor’s hammer.”

“
Warner
Bros?”

Max croaked a laugh.

“
Yeah
I’ll make a phone call,” he said fondly amused.

“
Great.
I’m gonna let you sleep now.”

“
Okay,
I’m gonna let you sleep too.”

“
Goodnight.”

“
See
you at 7am?”

“
Yes.”

“
Okay
Goodnight.”

Christine hung up
smiling at nothing and then padded off to bed, forgetting her milk on
the kitchen counter. She started awake at six am and that was how she
knew she’d fallen asleep again. She showered, puked and dressed
as fast as she could, resolving to get a coffee and a donut from
Starbucks on her way to the hospital and thus kill two birds with one
stone. She made it to the hospital by seven and the body guard was
gone from Max’ door. He was awake and sitting up in bed,
reading the day’s paper.

“
Well,
you look well,” she said placing one coffee cup on the bedside
table next to him.

Max looked her up and
down. “You look good too. Did you get more sleep?”

“
Yes
I did. You?”

“
Yes,”
he said folding the paper.

“
Liar,”
Christine said sitting down on the hard chair. “You need a new
chair for your guests. This one is hostile,” she said.

“
I’ll
have Andrea take care of that right away,” Max said smiling as
he sipped his coffee.

“
Are
you allowed that by the way?”

“
Allowed
what? Coffee? Who cares? I’m drinking it,” he said
sipping again.

“
So.
Mother dearest.”

“
Yeah.”

“
Plan?”

“
Send
her back to Paris with her tail between her legs?”

“
You’re
not well enough for a knock down drag out.”

“
Who
said anything about fighting?” Max asked with a smug smile on
his face.

Christine narrowed her
eyes at him.

“
We’ve
been outed,” Cordelia said shaking Kevin awake.

Kevin groaned in
response and tried to move away from her hand. She just followed him
and tried to shake him into wakefulness again.

“
What
C?” Kevin said at last, irritably.

“
They
know it's us wanting to sell their story to the tabloids Kevin, what
are we gonna do?”

“
It
could be anyone; there’s no proof it's us.”

“
The
circle is too small; and we’re the only ones in it without
jobs. Sadie has her online shop, Angie has her hair salon and Aisha
is doing her masters. They all have income they can rely on. It's
definitely not Andrew cause he has his auto shop that’s doing
well and Carl’s an EMT whose biggest expense is his half of the
rent in that big old house he shares with his “roommate”
slash boyfriend; and I suspect he don’t even pay no rent coz
that guy owns half the city and he’s gone over Carl. I don’t
know why they just don’t get married. It's legal in Boston and
nobody cares that he’s gay.”

“
He
cares apparently,” Kevin said.

“
He
must know that we know,” Cordelia said thoughtfully.

“
Digress
much?” Kevin reminded her of her original worry.

“
Yes,
so I think we need to talk to Mr. Cosby and see how being busted is
going to affect our bid.”

“
Okay
if you like. You wanna call him or shall I?”

*****

Mr. Cosby ushered them
into his dingy office and then sat down, looking at them expectantly.

“
So
do you have more titbits for me or…?”

“
No,
the thing is, I think my family found out that it was us that were
going to sell the story. So I’m thinking maybe we should take a
step back for now.”

Mr. Cosby looked at her
intently. “Hey, Ms. Richards it's your decision but do you
really want to give up the possibility of a huge pay day just because
a member of your family may have discovered that it's you selling the
story? Sooner or later, it’ll come out. So why not profit from
it? Who are you hurting really?”

Cordelia’s face
twisted in anguish as she thought about it, “I don’t know
sir, my daughter is pregnant. I don’t know if this is gonna
cause her a lot of stress but I don’t know if I should risk it.
If anything should happen to her…”

“
What
could happen?” Mr. Cosby said. “She has access to the
best health care in the city, the best doctors. You said she’s
living with him right? She’s living in the lap of luxury, why
would anything happen to her?”

Cordelia’s face
softened but she still looked troubled. “She seemed very
distressed about the news getting out…” she tried again.

“
Of
course, nobody likes their business in the streets; but don’t
you think she’s being just a little bit selfish? She has this
rich man who has to pay child support for the next eighteen years and
she begrudges you
one
pay day? Does that seem fair to you?” Mr. Cosby said reaching
out to envelope Cordelia’s hand in his.

Cordelia shook her head
and then nodded it and then shook it again. “I don’t
know,” she wailed.

“
It’s
a good deal,” Mr. Cosby wheedled.

“
I
know it is. I just…I don’t wanna like…lose them
over this.”

“
You
won’t lose them. Why would you lose them? You’re trying
to make some money of your own. They can’t hate on your
hustle.”

“
They
actually can,” Cordelia said wryly.

“
They
don’t have to know and there will be no way they could prove
it. Trust me. I got your back.”

Cordelia sat…lost
in thought for a long while. Then she sighed and shook her head. “I
can’t do it,” she said standing up. “Call it off.”

She walked out of the
room, clearly expecting Kevin to follow.

Kevin stood up facing
Mr. Cosby, “Go on with the deal. You're right; ain’t
nobody got the right to hate on our hustle. I’ll handle C,”
he said as he left the room. Mr. Cosby nodded his agreement.

*****

Claire Lestrange
arrived at the hospital at 11am to see her son. She had his lawyer
trailing in her wake because she needed to persuade him to sign over
power of attorney to her. He had come willingly enough when she
explained what she needed but she wasn’t sure he would back her
up in her demands. Still it was a good sign he was here. The
bodyguard she’d left outside Max’ door wasn’t
though and that was not a good sign.

Max was still asleep
when they walked into the room, just as he had been for every visit
she’d made. She turned to Clarence with a significant glance
but he was looking at Max and didn’t see her. She turned back
to her son and his eyes were open.

“
Oh,”
Claire said startled.

“
Hello
mother,” Max said.

“
Max,”
Claire said a bit breathlessly. “You’re awake.”

“
Yes
I am. Is that too disappointing?” Max asked.

“
Don’t
be ridiculous Max, of course I’m happy if you’re feeling
better,” she said.

“
Mmhmm,”
Max said sounding extremely skeptical of her. He turned to Clarence.
“Good morning sir. Do you have my pre-nup ready?” he
asked.

“
Pre-nup?”
Claire exclaimed.

Max ignored her and
continued to look at Clarence waiting for his answer. Clarence rolled
his eyes and pulled a document out of his briefcase.

“
I
have a preliminary draft here for you to look over. I think it covers
all the points. Now legally, we cannot include custody issues in a
pre-nup-“ Clarence stopped abruptly and stared at Claire. “Er,
perhaps we should discuss this later.”

“
Yes,
absolutely, you’re right. So mother, it's nice to see you but
I’m fine. It's not really necessary to be here. You can go back
to Paris with absolute peace of mind.”