Guiding Ashley out of the room, I was startled to be stopped by the technician who had performed our ultrasound. She smiled broadly, clapping a hand down on my lover’s shoulder. Ashley jolted a bit, only just having come to her senses. She tilted her head at the woman, blearily blinking her weariness away.

“As you’re expecting quadruplets, you’ll want to check in more frequently. I grabbed some snapshots from your ultrasound in case you have some family members you want to show off to,” the woman said politely, her lips curled in a cheerful smile. Ashley hesitated for a moment before her eyes seemed to nearly bulge from her skull. She reached out, yanking the envelope out of the technician’s hands.

“Qua-quadruplets?” she repeated, as if hearing the news for the first time.

“Yes, honey. I know it can seem a bit overwhelming, but we’ll make sure you’re given the best care possible,” the technician replied warmly. “Since pregnancies like this are so rare, I have to ask if you used any sort of fertility treatment, or if you just conceived them naturally?”

At the mention of fertility treatments, my stomach seemed to tie itself into unpleasant little knots. Ashley didn’t seem particularly keen on responding either, taking me by the hand and all but dragging me out of the office.

The walk to my car was a silent one, but it was obvious that my lover had a lot weighing on her mind. I helped her into the passenger seat, bracing myself for the conversation we obviously needed to have. Her wide eyes were fixed upon me as I settled in the driver’s seat, and I turned the ignition just so we could have the air conditioner running.

“How on earth… We were having such a hard time conceiving! Now, I’m carrying four children with no idea of how to raise them properly,” she gasped out in a panic.

I tried to keep my composure, but the reality of the situation was quickly sinking its claws into me. The idea of raising one child had been daunting enough, and we obviously had to take our jobs into consideration. If there were now four children to raise, how would I continue running business as usual?

“This doesn’t make sense,” I lied, knowing full well what could have led to the conception of such a large number of children. The fertility drug I’d taken danced in the dark recesses of my mind, and it was all I could do not to lose my cool altogether. It would do little good while Ashley was already in full-blown panic mode.

“What are we going to do, Jensen? I can’t… There are going to have to be big changes in our lives if we’re going to be raising four babies,” she whispered.

“Well, one of us is going to have to greatly reduce their work hours, or quit their job altogether. You can see how that wouldn’t be possible for the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, right?” I said firmly, refusing to lose my cool. Ashley glanced at me with bitterness in her gaze, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well it’s not like I’m too happy about the idea of giving up my job, either! We can’t just go all or nothing, there will have to be compromises,” she bit out.

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to make her feel stupid in spite of how ridiculous her suggestion was. There was no room for compromise, couldn’t she see that? Without me, she wouldn’t have a job.

“You have to realize that a secretary position is much lower on the business totem pole. It wouldn’t make sense for me to give up my hours if you have time to take care of the children,” I argued, tensing my hands at my sides.

“I’m not going to abandon everything my father worked for over this. It doesn’t even make sense. We shouldn’t have conceived four infants.” I continued. Fertility treatment aside, the sheer number of babies she was carrying was astounding. It was difficult to fathom that my taking one dose of the supplement would have such a stark effect. We went from being unable to conceive at all…to this!

“I’m not saying you quit your job altogether, just like you shouldn’t suggest that I give up my career. We’re both responsible for the four of them; it wasn’t a one-person job to make four babies,” she hissed, seeming to grow more and more incensed. “For example, you could cut out your weekly business trips. You can’t say that they’re all for the sake of business—you know as well as I do that you’re prone to pursuing whims,” she added, crossing her arms.

Gripping the steering wheel tightly in my hands, I shifted into gear and began to back out of the parking lot. How dare she accuse me of wasting time with pointless whims? I hadn’t gotten as far as I had through whims! I became the CEO of GlobaPharm based on hard work and my merits.

“I suppose you wouldn’t really understand how difficult a job is when you have to do more than just sit at your desk and look pretty,” I said snidely, regretting the words as soon as they escaped my mouth.

Ashley looked at me through wide and wounded eyes, drawing her hands toward her chest as if to protect her heart. I parted my lips to apologize, but she began speaking before I could get the words out.

“I do so much for you, Jensen! You’re not exactly the easiest person to work for, you know! You couldn’t just pick anyone up off the street to deal with your moodiness. I went out of my way to try and be your friend when you were cruel to me, and I went out of my way to offer myself as a surrogate when you couldn’t find any other options,” she said viciously. Narrowing my eyes, I barked out a hollow laugh as I began to speed down the back roads.

“I wasn’t the one who was out of options. I wasn’t the one hopelessly in love with their boss. I did you a favor with all of this, Ashley. You need to remember your place—” I paused as she began to weep, the wind getting knocked from my sails in one fell swoop.

“You said you loved me,” she whispered, sounding absolutely betrayed. I hesitated, tensing my hands on the steering wheel before trying to reach out and take her by the hand.

“I never said I don’t. You have to understand how difficult this will be for me. I just can’t even begin to fathom how this happened,” I sighed, wincing at how tightly she was gripping my hand. There was an expression of guilt on her face, and I could only wonder what was making her feel so guilty. Then again, I was sure the same expression was reflected on my own face.

“Things will be difficult for both of us. Especially if you can’t even admit that I’m important to you, that I serve some purpose in your grand life. You made me feel special, but now I just feel like dirt,” she paused, tears continuing to trickle down her cheeks. I brushed my thumb to the back of her hand, anxiously gnawing my bottom lip between my teeth.

“You’re not dirt. I just…” I paused, realizing that I was taking my guilt out on her. My heart clenched painfully in my chest, and I pulled over so I could look her in the eye. She refused to meet my gaze at first, but I gently reached out to grip her by the chin.

“Let’s talk about this like adults and get to the bottom of it. Something had to cause the sudden spike in your fertility, and I have an idea of what might have done so…” I began, watching as her eyes darted from me, to her stomach, to the window.

My poor Ashley looked as if she had been accused of some unforgivable sin, and all I wanted to do was put this behind us and try to move forward. If I could just get her to accept how important my job is to me, if I could just explain where we’d made our missteps…I was confident we could get past this. I could only figure that I’d taken too much of the supplement, or that our case had been some strange fluke. It seemed unthinkable that a single dose would lead to quadruplets, but I couldn’t think of anything else that could have happened.

“I have an idea as well,” she admitted quietly, her voice sounding strangely hollow. She tensed her hands in her lap, refusing to meet my gaze. She seemed more upset than I’d ever seen her before, and I could only wonder if she had somehow found out about my secretive use of the drug.

Something about that theory didn’t sit right with me, however. If she knew about my use of the supplement, surely she wouldn’t have that expression of guilt. There was no way she would blame herself for my mistake. Ashley was kind, but not stupid.

It was obvious that she had done something as well, something to contribute to this giant disaster we found ourselves caught up in. Releasing her hand, I drew my hands back toward myself, refusing to let her see that she had me unnerved. I wasn’t about to allow us to simply stew in our respective guilt any longer.

“All right. Talk,” I said firmly.

My lover turned to me with a baleful expression, and I simultaneously wanted to draw her near and bolt as far away as possible.

I only hoped we could forgive each other at the end of this.