Billionaire's Threat (3 page)

I straightened up in my seat. “Um, okay. What do you mean?”

Lifting her right arm, Susan draped it over her heart as she began to speak. “Now, of course, your personal life is none of my business, so please don’t take this as me trying to intrude. It’s the last thing I want.”

Uh oh.

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “Of course not.”

Susan nodded and after folding her hands together on the table once more she continued, “Maddie, it wasn’t all that long ago when I was a young woman like you. And I vividly remember what I went through when I had my first child. I suppose what I’m saying here is, if you haven’t done so already, perhaps you should consider getting a pregnancy test done.”

I blinked at her in disbelief. Was I being that obvious? No one in the production knew about the relationship between Grey and me. We’d agreed to keep it quiet for the time being, even though when he was on the set, he spent a good bit of time in my trailer. I really had no idea if there were rumors going around or not.

Downplaying it, I shrugged and put on the best poker face I could muster.

“Susan,” I began. “I’m not pregnant. The problem I’m having is that I’m still having side effects from the food poisoning. That’s what the doctors told me.”

I swallowed. “It’s just stress. Really. Susan, you’ve got this all wrong. I am not pregnant.”

“All right,” she replied with a nod. “Then you won’t have any objections to getting tested. Correct?”

Twirling my hair with my right hand, I broke eye contact with her as she finished her thought.

“Maddie?”

I looked back in her direction again. “Susan, no disrespect but this is crazy.”

“Well, you might feel that way but there’s a lot people betting on the success of this movie besides yourself, and as the person responsible for putting it together, I can’t allow one of my stars to behave like you have been.”

She pressed her hands flat on the surface of the table and after sliding out of the booth, she stood and continued, “I’m going to have to insist you have a test performed. Otherwise, I can’t allow you to continue on in your current condition.”

I chewed my lip and with frantic effort searched my mind for any sort of objection. I couldn’t come up with a single one to counter her suspicions.

“Maddie, look, it’s not the end of the world. Even if you are, we can rework a number of the scenes so you aren’t showing quite as much down there. And although I’ve never worked for Mr. Sinclair before, he seems reasonable enough and…”

Horrified, I snapped my head up towards her. “Oh no, no,
no.
Please Susan, I don’t want him to know about any of this. Please.”

Susan wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Well, Maddie, I don’t see how I have much choice here. This is the man’s film after all, his business. He has every right to know what’s going on with his employees. That’s especially the case if his lead actress is pregnant. Don’t you agree?”

I broke my gaze from her. As I looked down at the table, I picked at my fingernails. Just then, I felt Susan’s hand cover my shoulder.

“I won’t tell him anything right now, Maddie. I promise. But as soon as you get checked out, he’ll need to know what’s wrong with you.”

I exhaled and after lifting my hands to my forehead, I began to rub it with my fingertips.

“No you don’t understand, Susan. I… If I lose this job, that’s it for me. I’ll never work again.”

“Maddie, my goodness. Honestly, I think you have nothing to be worried about where Mr. Sinclair is concerned. He might not be a family man or settling down type but he’s far from a misogynistic ogre. I’m quite sure he’ll be more than reasonable about the whole situation.”

Dropping my forearms back to the tabletop, I laid my head down on them. Susan’s hand worked its way towards the center of my back. She continued to rub me as she spoke.

“Do we have an understanding, Maddie?”

“Yes.” I muttered.

“Good,” she began. “Do you have an OB of your own? If not, I can recommend mine.”

“Yeah, I have one.”

“Okay. I’ll expect you to get yourself checked out right away.”

“Mmm, hmm.”

“All right, then.” She removed her hand from my back and turned to go. “Well, I’ll leave you to finish your meal. We’ll need you back on the set in twenty minutes.”

I lifted my head up and after brushing the hair away from my eyes, I nodded.

A soft smile spread to her face. “Maddie, everything will be okay.”

I returned her smile with one of my own. “Thank you, Susan. Um, could I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure. Anything,” she replied, as she grabbed the door handle and leaned towards it.

“If it is true, will you let me be the one who tells Mr. Sinclair?”

“Of course, Maddie.”

MADDIE

At Susan’s insistence, I called and got an appointment with my OB, Dr. Anna Simms. After waiting in a lobby half-full of pregnant women which, uh, completely
freaked me out
, the nurse led to me back to the exam room.

It’s worth mentioning none of those women looked to be enjoying the process of having a baby. In fact, they seemed to be miserable. Reaching down, I caressed my belly and chewed on the inside of my lip. I was not ready for that, no way. I would never survive. I barely managed to keep up appearances as it was and the size of a couple of their stomachs…!

Uhhhhhhhhh!!!

Unable to sit still, I wandered around the exam room and poked around in places I shouldn’t. I couldn’t help myself. Why did they feel the need to bring me back here? I would rather have stayed out front. At least I could have watched television. After a few minutes, I gave up and sat on the exam table while thumbing through a three-year-old gossip rag.

Just then, the waiting room door opened and the doctor entered, clutching a manila folder against her chest. As I stood from the exam table, the thin tissue crinkled and tore. Trying to minimize the damage, I reached down to smooth it out causing it stick to my palms like flypaper. I rolled my eyes and tried to remove it as quickly as I could.

“Maddie,” Dr. Simms said as she entered. She noticed my struggles. With a soft smile, she continued, “Nice to see you again. Don’t worry. Happens all the time with women in your situation.”

I swallowed.

“My situation?” I asked with a hint of disbelief. Peeling the paper away from my skin, I continued, “What do you mean?”

“Oh,” she replied as she crossed her hands low in front of her waist. “What I meant is it’s normal to be nervous. You know, when you suspect you might be pregnant.”

“Right. That.” I nodded.

After a bit of admonishment for being more than a year overdue for my normal checkup, we got down to discussing the reason for my visit. Frankly, it felt good to just tell someone what I’d been going through without worrying about them judging me, firing me or in the case of Grey, uh, who knew? In any case, after performing my exam and asking me a series of questions about my symptoms, she sat down across from me in a rolling chair.

“Well,” Dr. Simms said, as she finished making notes in my file. “I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that your symptoms have me concerned.”

I sat up straight on the exam table. Wrapping my hands low around my stomach, I swallowed hard. “Concerned? Why?”

“Um, well, it’s normal to have things like morning sickness, since the way you are presenting leads to me to conclude that you are, in fact, pregnant. Beyond that though, you might have some potentially serious complications. In particular, what you revealed to me about your alcohol consumption is what has my attention.”

Pregnant?

Complications?

“Uhm…” I stammered. My entire body went clammy and cool as she shared her distressing insight.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. A nurse poked her head in and looking towards the doctor she said, “Excuse me, Dr. Simms, I’m sorry. We need you for a moment.”

Looking over her shoulder, the doctor nodded in the nurse’s direction before turning back to me.

“Maddie,” she began. “Pardon me. I’ll be right back.”

Chewing the inside of my lip, I nodded in understanding as she stood in front of me. A moment later, the door to the office clicked shut, and I lifted my knees up to the exam table. Hugging them against my chest, I laid my head down on top of my knees and began to rock back and forth.

I felt my throat begin to tighten with sorrow. Liquid rushed to my tear ducts as I fought with everything I had not to break down and make a complete fool out of myself in the doctor’s office. But, it was no use. As I shifted to and fro, the tears spilled forth. Warm rivulets ran down my cheeks and then across my forearms as I clutched my knees hard. Unblinking, I stared across the room to the stark white of the exam room walls, losing myself in despair.

That continued for several minutes until at last, the door opened. I didn’t bother to look up or try to pretend suffering hadn’t consumed me. I heard the door close as the doctor walked back in my direction. I licked my lips to rid myself of some of the evidence of my state of mind. A heavy, salty flavor stung my tongue in bitterness as I looked up at her.

Her expression held concern, empathy. Reaching for a box of nearby tissues, she passed them to me. I thanked her with a hard swallow and a sniffle as I pulled with a ginger tug or two on the thin papers. I made a half-hearted attempt to fix my appearance, and she returned to sit in front of me.

With the folder in her lap, she placed her hands over the top of it, lacing her fingers together. “Maddie, I… I’m afraid there’s just no easy way to tell you any of this, dear. I’m terribly sorry.”

As she spoke, I fought for a breath. I gulped and struggled for air, trying to remain as calm as possible. My tears burned like acid as they trickled down my cheeks. The moisture in my palms nearly liquefied the tissue. As if I were trapped outside in a blizzard, a sudden wave of nerves caused my entire body to start to quiver and shake. I cannot imagine what I must have looked like to her as I sat there, my knees pulled hard against my body. I shook my head as I tried to focus on
anything
. What was happening to me right now? This couldn’t be real. It just couldn’t be.

Summoning all the courage I could, I swallowed hard while I searched my mouth for any sign of moisture. I came up with next to nothing and with a rasp, I sputtered, “What… is it? P-Please, I-I just want to know.”

Her features turned somber. The doctor’s brow creased with concern as she thinned her lips. She cleared her throat and began, “Maddie, are you familiar with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?”

“No,” I muttered.

Shaking, I strengthened my hug. I just wanted to wake up, somehow make this all not real. But the word ‘fetal’ caught my attention. Lifting my head, I glanced down at my belly through a haze-filled stare.

Baby?

“Maddie,” The doctor said, in a tone that commanded attention. “Honey, I need you to pay attention. The child you are carrying… It’s at high risk for FAS and other birth defects should you bring it to term.”

Grey’s baby?

The doctor continued, “The severity of your morning sickness in combination with my exam leads me to the conclusion that the fetus has likely sustained damage consistent with alcohol abuse.”

“Alcohol?” I muttered. “What?”

The doctor fell silent. Overhead, the harsh glow of fluorescent lighting stabbed at my tear-weary eyes. Shaking, I didn’t feel like a mother should - happy or overjoyed. No, instead I felt like a specimen as she rattled off all the things that could go wrong,
would
go wrong.

“Maddie, I don’t think you understand the severity of this situation. Bringing the child to term… It would be a very grave choice for the baby. There’s a very high probability if you did, the child will never be normal. And that’s if you manage to carry it to full-term, which is highly unlikely. At best, you have a fifty-fifty chance of the baby making it.”

As she finished speaking, my feet slid off the edge of the table, ripping the tissue in the process. The backs of my calves banged against the front of the exam table as I looked at her in disbelief. A soft breath escaped from my nose as I exhaled.