The next day, Mom comes through on a doctor. We pull up to his office and he actually comes outside to meet us. I have never seen a reaction like his towards my mother, he treats her like royalty. When he finally gets to examine me, he informs us that I am sick because I am having morning sickness.

“What!?”

“You’re pregnant.”

“I can’t be!”

“Well, I am afraid you are.”

I look at my mother, and she doesn’t look shocked. I, on the other hand, am shocked beyond belief.

“But I’m on the pill.”

“It’s not one hundred percent effective. Have you been on any medication, or have you maybe skipped a pill or two?”

I think back, shit. I’ve been so stressed, I know that there were a couple of pills that I missed. I cannot believe this. I start crying, what the hell am I going to do now? Mom comes around the table and hugs me as she asks the doctor to step out of the room.

“It will be all right, Chéri. Zander will be so happy to find out you are having his baby.”

I jump off the patient table, shouting, “NO! He can’t find out! Mom, please, I don’t want him to know!”

“This is going to be hard to hide.”

“Just don’t say anything. I’ll figure something out.”

She agrees but tells me I better think of something fast. We leave the doctor’s office and arrive at the casino. A man opens our door and introduces himself as Bobby Belanger.

“Ma’am, I am your new head of security.”

“What? I don’t even know you. Who sent you?”

“I was sent by Mr. Stern. I have been told to tell you that you have no choice in this, I am to be your head of security. I have also taken the liberty of firing some of your men and replaced them with men I trust. I’m sure you would like to settle in, and then we can have a meeting at your convenience so you can meet everyone and we can discuss the new policies I have implemented.”

I walk right past him. There is no sense arguing; my energy should be spent on yelling at Zander.

When I make it to the hall, and then my office, I notice the place has been wiped clean; there is no evidence that anything ever happened. Part of me is happy that it can all be like a bad nightmare, but then part of me is so sad for Craig and the way he lost his life. It doesn’t seem right to make all of it vanish.

I shake myself back to the now. I call Zander to let the yelling commence. Giving it my best, I still get nowhere with him, so I hang up on him. Sitting back in my chair, my mom starts laughing.

“What?”

“Oh, the passion you two have is explosive. It’s going to be a fun relationship. But I warn you, he will not always be so lenient with you. You are wasting your breath, there is no sense in arguing with him on this. I already told you he will protect what is his.”

“Oh my God, enough! I am so tired of him and everyone referring to me as his. I’m not.”

“Now that you are having his baby, you will have no choice, my love.”

“He won’t know. When I start showing, I will tell him it’s someone else’s. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll leave like you did.”

“You think that’s what I did, Chéri? You think I ran because I was trying to run from your father? I ran to protect him and you. He found us, though, and he might not have been there daily, but that man loved us his whole life. We both did what we had to do.”

“To protect us from who?”

She leans back in her chair and starts telling me everything. “We were so in love, but your father had obligations to his family and wife. His father made him marry Judith, it was a business agreement. Neither one of them loved each other. So, Judith didn’t mind me being in the picture as long as it wasn’t thrown in her face or out in the open with her kind of people. Your grandfather, on the other hand, hated me; he tried everything he could to break us apart. He even tried to pay me off. He was scared your father would eventually leave Judith for me, and he would have.”

She looks down, I can tell remembering the past is bringing her pain.

“Then I got pregnant with you. Judith paid me a visit when she found out. She could handle the affair, but not a child from our love. She would not tolerate your existence, and she had help, your grandfather. He didn’t care that you were his blood, the only thing he saw was a low life stripper pregnant with his son’s child. He wanted not only me gone, but you. He was going to disown your father and strip him of all his wealth and power. I ran to protect him. Your father knew no other way of life, he had too much to lose. I couldn’t hurt the man I loved like that, so I ran, but it wasn’t long before your father found us. He came and said he was ready to give it all away. But after we discussed it, your father realized his father and Judith would not accept that. They would retaliate, neither of them would want the embarrassment. Your father knew we would never be safe, and he had no other skills to provide the kind of protection we needed without his power and wealth. He went back, to protect us both.”

She pauses, deep in thought, then says, “He made an agreement with his father and Judith that if you and I stayed away, he would stay with them to be able to provide for us both financially and physically. If we were ever threatened or touched, he would destroy them. As the years went on, they put more and more demands on your father. He was not able to come to us as he wanted.”

“Why? What changed?”

“Judith became pregnant, but then she lost the baby. It was horrible. She was almost full term. She couldn’t have any more children after that. She went crazy with the idea of you, a living child, as a reminder of the one she could never have with her husband. To women like Judith, love or no love, they are to provide an heir. She no longer could do that. It made her come for us. She wanted you dead. That is how much her hate was and is for you. Your father had to agree to fewer visits, and then eventually none. You see, Murphy, he loved you more than anyone, even me. He did what he had to do.”

“He had to sleep with Judith? Is what you’re telling me?”

Mom stands. “Yes, girl, he slept with his wife. It was his obligation.”

“But you never dated.”

“I was obligated to you and him. I would never betray either of you. I loved him and understood what he was doing.”

“I don’t know if I could live like that.”

“We all sacrifice for the ones we love, Murphy. I lost spending my days with the love of my life, he lost watching you grow up, and you lost out on knowing the man who loved you more than you will ever know.” She turns and grabs her purse. “Now, I am going to take a man with me to go to the drugstore to get your prenatal vitamins and something to settle your stomach. Morning sickness is a bitch. For me, it wasn’t only in the morning.”

For me either. I’ve been so sick lately, around the clock.