Not the Boss's Baby

Then, over the hysterical sound of her calling him every name in the book, he shut the door.

Serena hunched in her normal chair, her head near her knees.

Chadwick picked up his phone and dialed the security office. “Len? I have a situation outside my office—I need you to make sure my ex-wife makes it out of the building as quietly as possible without you laying a hand on her. Whatever you do, don’t provoke her. Thanks.”

Then he turned his attention to Serena. Her color was not improving. “Breathe, honey.”

Nothing happened. He crouched down in front of her and raised her face until he could see that her eyes were glazed over.

“Breathe,” he ordered her. Then, because he couldn’t think of anything else to shock her back into herself, he kissed her. Hard.

When he pulled back, her chest heaved as she sucked in air. He leaned her head against his shoulder and rubbed her back. “Good, hon. Do it again.”

Serena gulped down air as he held her. What a mess. This was all his fault.

Well, his and his lawyers’. Former lawyers.

Outside the office, the raging stopped. Neither he nor Serena moved until his phone rang some minutes later. Chadwick answered it. “Yes?”

“She’s sitting in her car, crying. What do you want me to do?”

“Keep an eye on her. If she gets back out of the car, call the police. Otherwise, just leave her alone.”

“Chadwick,” Serena whispered so quietly that he almost didn’t hear her.

“Yes?”

“What she said...”

“Don’t think about what she said. She’s just bitter that I took you to the gala.” The blow about Serena being a dumpy secretary had been a low one.

“No.” Serena pushed herself off his shoulder and looked him in the eye. Her color was better, but her eyes were watery. “About her being alone all the time. Because you work all the time.”

“I did.”

But that wasn’t the truth, and they both knew it. He still worked that much.

She touched her fingertips to his cheek. “You do. I know you. I know your schedule. You left my apartment on Sunday exactly for the reason she said—because you had an interview.”

All of his plans—plans that had seemed so great twenty-four hours before—felt like whispers drifting into the void.

“Things are going to change,” he promised her. She didn’t look like she believed him. “I’m working on it. I won’t work a hundred hours a week. Because Helen was right about something else, too—I didn’t love her more than I loved the company. But that’s...” His voice choked up. “But that’s different now. I’m different now, because of you.”

Her lip trembled as two matching tears raced down either cheek. “Don’t you see the impossible situation we’re in? I can’t be with you while I work for you—but if I don’t work for you, will I ever see you?”

“Yes,” he said. She flinched. It must have come out more harshly than he’d meant it to, but he was feeling desperate. “You will. I’ll make it happen.”

Her mouth twisted into the saddest smile he’d ever seen. “I’ve made your life so much harder.”

“Helen did—not you. You are making it better. You always have.”

She stroked his face, tears still silently dripping down her cheeks. “Everything’s changed. If it were just you and me...but it’s not anymore. I’m going to have a baby and I have to put that baby first. I can’t live with the fear of Helen or even Neil popping up whenever they want to wreak a little havoc.”

The bottom of his stomach dropped out. “I’m going to sell the company, but it’ll take months. You’ll be able to keep your benefits, probably until the baby’s born. It doesn’t have to change right now, Serena. You can stay with me.”

Tears streaming, she shook her head. “I can’t. You understand, don’t you? I can’t be your dumpy secretary and your weekend lover at the same time. I can’t live that way, and I won’t raise my child torn between two worlds like that. I don’t belong in your world, and you—you can’t fit in mine. It just won’t work.”

“It will,” he insisted.

“And this company,” she went on. “It’s what you were raised to do. I can’t ask you to give that up.”

“Don’t do this,” he begged. The taste of fear was so strong in the back of his mouth that it almost choked him. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

Helen had left him, of course. But underneath the drama, he’d been relieved she was gone. It meant no more fights, no more pain. He could get on with the business of running his company without having to gauge everything against what Helen would do.

This? This meant no more seeing Serena first thing every morning and last thing every night. No more Serena encouraging him to get out of the office, reminding him that he didn’t have to run the world just so his siblings could spend even more money.

The loss of Helen had barely registered on his radar. But the loss of Serena?

It would be devastating.

“I can’t function without you.” Even as he said it, he knew it was truer than he’d realized. “Don’t leave me.”

She leaned forward, pressing her wet lips to his cheek. “You can. You will. I have to take care of myself. It’s the only way.” She stood, letting her fingers trail off his skin. “I hereby resign my position of executive assistant, effective immediately.”

Then, after a final tear-stained look that took his heart and left it lying in the middle of his office, she turned and walked out the door.

He watched her go.

So this was a broken heart.

He didn’t like it.





Thirteen


The door to Lou’s Diner jangled as Serena pulled it open. Things had been so crazy that she hadn’t even had time to tell her mom and dad that she was pregnant. Or that she had quit her great job because she was in love with her great boss.

Mom and Dad had an old landline phone number that didn’t have voice mail or even an answering machine, if it worked at all. The likelihood of her getting a “this number is out of service” message when Serena called was about fifty percent. Catching her mom at work was pretty much the only guaranteed way to talk to her parents.

She’d put off going there for a few nights. Seeing her parents always made her feel uncomfortable. She’d tried to help them out through the years—got them into that apartment, helped make the payments on her dad’s car—and there’d been the disastrous experiment with prepaid cell phones. It always ended with them not being able to keep up with payments, no matter how much Serena put toward them. She was sure it had something to do with sheer, stubborn pride—they would not rely on their daughter, thank you very much. It drove Serena nuts. Why wouldn’t they work a little harder to improve their situation?

Why hadn’t they worked harder for her? Sure, if they wanted to be stubborn and barely scrape by, she couldn’t stop them. But what about her?

Yes, she loved her parents and yes, they were always glad to see her. But she wanted better than a minimum wage job for the rest of her life, pouring coffee until the day she died because retirement was something for rich people. And what’s more, she wanted better for her baby, too.