CAROLINE AGREED TO dinner right away. She answered my call with a ‘darling, I’m so happy to hear from you’ and she’d crooned into my mobile about how she’d been hoping for a reconciliation once we’d arrived back in London. She admitted that the circumstances of the pregnancy must have come as quite a shock, but that she knew, in time, I would come to understand her reasoning behind putting a wedge between Andie and I.
“I just couldn’t lose you like this Freddie,” she said, reaching across the table at the restaurant Georgie and I had agreed upon. We’d only been sitting at the table for ten minutes and I’d already had enough. Her hand fell on top of mine and I took in the sharp shade of red covering her nails. It was the same shade she’d smeared across her lips—lips that were currently tipped up in an innocent little smile. She was dressed in a silky cream dress, back to looking the part of the innocent angel. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could let her get away with it.
“I think you’ll make a wonderful father, Freddie.”
Had I eaten the bread they’d brought to our table, it would have come back up with that comment.
“How is the pregnancy going so far?” I asked, careful to watch her face for any sort of tell.
She pressed her hand to her stomach as if there was really something there other than the French baguette she’d stuffed down her throat a second earlier. “I’ve been having bouts of morning sickness off and on, but everything I read says that’s normal.”
I nodded.
“I’m just glad I was able to make it to all of your races.” Of course she was. They couldn’t resist showing her on the stadium screen. She played the role of the nervous fiancée just the way they wanted her to. “You were brilliant, Frederick,” she continued.
I nodded and took a sip of water.
“How has your mom taken the baby news?” she asked.
I thought back to the call I’d had with her the day before. It’d been strained and short. “What will you do now that you’ve returned from Rio, Frederick? You’ve turned down every event. The press are beside themselves to get an exclusive with you. I think you ought to come out and clear the air. You need to let the world know that Caroline is your fiancée and the mother of your child, and that you’re not leaving her for some girl you met four weeks ago.”
Four weeks.
How had so much changed in four weeks?
“Freddie?”
I shook my head, glanced back up at Caroline, and lied. “I haven’t spoken to her in a few days.”
Her brow perked. “Ah, well, I’m sure she’s so excited.”
I couldn’t sit there any longer. I’d gotten her to the restaurant and she had her guard down; sitting there any longer wouldn’t serve any purpose.
“Georgie can’t wait to become an aunt.”
She swallowed down a piece of bread slowly and then reached for her glass of water. After a long, drawn out sip, she finally glanced up to me. “Oh, that’s such good news.”
I leaned forward so that the nice couple at the table beside us—people who were actually enjoying their dinner—wouldn’t hear me. “It’s a shame she won’t become one for quite some time.”
Her eyes narrowed, but her tone stayed light. “What do you mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, give it a rest already, Caroline. You aren’t pregnant.” She set her glass on the table as I continued. “Georgie found the emails you sent to your friend, Dr. Dunn. Nice guy with a practice in central London? He must have had no trouble adding your name to the ultrasound photos.” I never gave her a chance to cut me off. “Tell me, was he going to lie to my face when we returned to London? Pass along forged medical records with your name on them? What about a paternity test? Would we have seen him about that as well?”
Caroline picked up her napkin and dabbed at the corners of her mouth. She seemed wholly unaffected by the news. She didn’t blush or fidget. When she’d finished wiping away the imaginary crumbs, she dropped her napkin to her lap and leaned over the table confidently.
“This is ridiculous. You can’t prove any of this nonsense.”
I laughed. “I haven’t needed proof since you first showed your true colors. I’m announcing our separation as soon as I leave tonight.”