Chapter Thirty-Two

~James~

I didn’t say much the entirety of the ride home, just listening to the sound of Nicole breathing slowly as she drifted in and out of consciousness. I didn’t want to disturb her, but I did have something that I needed to talk to her about.

Man, we had really had a day, hadn’t we? I was so relieved when I found her in the hospital and she wasn’t dying or hadn’t been hit by the car. Sure, the blow that our child could be in danger wasn’t great, but the doctor had a plan and I was confident in their abilities.

I couldn’t afford to be scared, so I had to be brave for Nicole. Even if I was worried about our baby, and all the complications that arose from this, I needed to play it cool.

And I had been doing a pretty damn good job of that until I was picking up her things only to have some pieces of neon colored paper tumble out of her purse.

Normally I respected everyone’s privacy, and I thought going through people’s things was generally pretty wrong. But my curiosity got the best of me, and before I knew it, I was bending down to grab one of the scraps.

I had uncrumpled it carefully, just in case it was something important to Nicole that had accidentally been bunched up in the EMTs rush to get her onto the ambulance. But as soon as the words were revealed, I knew this was definitely not Nicole’s.

Sure, her picture was on it, but the accusations written in bold, cartoonish lettering let me know exactly who this belonged to. Like a video played on repeat, the moment where Nicole told me all about Jason and his insane ex flashed through my mind, every single detail sharp and intense. I could see the hurt playing across Nicole’s face, hear the way her voice grew quiet and raspy, as if her throat was constricting to hold back tears. Sad tears hanging back at the corner of her eyes, where she refused to release them from.

Feeling like my skin just shot up several degrees, I had crumpled that cursed piece of paper right back up. But that hadn’t seemed like enough, so I had torn it into a dozen or so little scraps and threw them in the garbage bin.

Tipping over her purse, I took out all of the flyers I could find and destroyed them in the same manner. The last thing I needed was for the first thing Nicole to see when she got home was one of these hateful papers.

Was this what had made her faint? The very thought made me livid. Nicole had done absolutely nothing to these people and yet they continually harassed her as if she was their mortal enemy.

The thought had bothered me all the way during checking her out, when the doctor gave me instructions, and during the car ride. It was killing me to wait to ask her, but I knew now wasn’t the time. She needed rest and to recover from the strain that had literally made her pass out.

Of course, I still had a lot to arrange for work, but I had at least managed to take care of the preliminary stuff before we even left the hospital. I was sure that some of my upper level employees were wondering why I had suddenly abandoned them, but Nicole came first.

Besides, it wasn’t like they were incompetent without me. It was just that we were a small enough company where my absence would definitely be noticed. Not to mention there were meetings I was postponing, and I would eventually need to do some overviews.

But all of that was going to have to wait or be done online. I had long since made my decision and now it was just a matter of getting my ducks in a row.

I had never been so grateful to be wealthy. I couldn’t imagine what this situation would have been like if I was just an average joe, trying to make my way in the world and care for my pregnant baby mama, I was sure the whole situation would seem far more hopeless.

I pulled up to the front of her building and threw my flashers on. I hated to wake her considering that she looked like she had truly fallen sleep, but I also wanted to get her up into her bed in her comfiest pajamas.

Did she even own comfy pajamas? I wasn’t sure. There was so much we still had to learn about each other.

Well, I guessed we were about to spend a whole lot of time with each other to find all of that info out.

I smiled to myself as I helped her up to her room. She was fully conscious but quite sleepy, and I had to wonder if it was due to the anti-anxiety meds that they had given her to help with the panic attack that had tipped her over the edge and caused her to faint.

It was easy enough to get her into bed, and I placed a cup of water on her nightstand, before grabbing a chair from the dining room and hauling it to the corner of her room.

And that was right where I sat while she slept. Maybe it was creepy to do that, but I wanted to be close while I read over everything the doctor had given me, which was quite a lot by the way. There was at least fifty pages, some of it concerning what she couldn’t do, some on what she could do. There was a whole chunk on diet, and even a packet concerning how to keep her morale and psyche up during extended periods of bedrest.

It was all very interesting, and I greatly appreciated it, but I couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed, like I should have prepared better. But how could I have known that this would happen? I suppose there was a reason that the phrase hope for the best but prepare for the worst was popular, but I never quite realized why until now.

Time passed and I paid it no mind, until I heard the covers shift and I looked up to see Nicole looking me over.

“So that wasn’t all a dream,” she muttered, rubbing at her temples.

“Afraid not,” I answered, crossing to her to sit on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“A lot better. Maybe a little hazy, but otherwise pretty much back to normal.”

“Already? That’s pretty impressive.”

She shrugged, and I instantly knew that she was trying to play it cool. While that was certainly admirable, she didn’t need to do that with me. I wanted to know how she really was, and the more I knew, the more I could take care of her.

“Yeah, it’s really not a big deal. Like I said, I just stood up too quickly and made myself get a little lightheaded.”

“Uh-huh. And what exactly were you bending over to pick up.”

She looked surprised, as if she hadn’t thought about that. “Oh, just a little bit of lipstick I dropped on the ground.”

“Really?” I asked, trying to sound interested and not suspicious. The last thing I wanted her to think was that I thought she was a liar. I understood why she was trying to cover for herself considering her history, but I also wanted to prove to her that she didn’t need to. I was right here, ready to protect her, and I just needed her to trust me. “You weren’t wearing lipstick in the hospital.”

“I guess the EMTs must have wiped it off.”

“Are you sure that’s what happened?”

Her face paled and she let out a long, long breath. “You know, don’t you?”

I nodded slowly. “One of those flyers fell out of your purse.”

She groaned and rubbed her head even harder. “Ugh, she really does have a way of ruining everything, doesn’t she?”

“She certainly has a knack for it.”

“Well, now you know. She plastered my work with those flyers and I worked myself into a panic trying to get them down. I was running around like a damn fool and now I’m sure my coworkers think I’m some sort of trashy drama pit.”

“I’m sure they don’t,” I assured her, squeezing her hand. “It’s very clear that you’re being antagonized.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“In fact, I think it’s clear to everyone that you’re being harassed, so I think we should take legal action.”

“Legal action?” she snorted. “Like I could ever afford tha- Oh. Right. That’s not a valid excuse anymore.”

“No, it’s not.” I said, chuckling lightly. “But it’s something I want you to think about. This woman has gone to extremes when you have literally done absolutely nothing to her. I don’t like to think what she will do after our baby comes into the world, and I don’t want her affecting your health. Especially considering the situation.”

“Yeah, the situation,” she said with a sigh. “You mean the fact that my body could kill our child at any second.”

“No, I don’t mean that, and I thought we agreed that this wasn’t your fault.”

“You agreed to that. I remember hearing it, but I don’t quite remember saying that I would be on board.”

“You’re awfully snarky for someone who lost consciousness earlier today.”

“Consider it a gift.” She shot back, sticking out her tongue at me.

“Uh-huh. Or at least your gift is avoiding the topic of conversation.”

She sighed and sat back. “You got me. Look, I know I should probably take this woman to court, but I’m just so tired. I just want to curl up in a ball and have her forget about my entire existence, but she can’t seem to do me the courtesy. Is that so wrong? I just don’t want to fight anymore. I’m tired.”

My heart broke and I stroked her hair once more. I couldn’t blame her one bit. If I was being harangued by a psychopath that had a vendetta against my very existence, I would want to pack up and move across the country as well.

“I understand,” I said, letting the subject drop. “You know what, the list mentioned that it’s important to get you on a regular diet, so how about I order some lunch?”

She paused, looking like she was considering the subject ever so seriously. “You know, I am pretty hungry.”

“That’s my girl.” I patted the top of her head and pulled out my phone, seeing what was available to order. But as I did, I made a personal note that this wasn’t over. Nicole and I may not have been in any sort of relationship, but she was the mother of my future child, and like hell I was going to let a hick from Timbuctoo terrorize her with no repercussions.

Obviously, I would have to take care of Nicole’s needs first and foremost, but it was amazing what a single email to my lawyer on retainer could do.