“What?” My eyes went wide. “No. I can’t step down-“}
“What you can’t do is speak right now.” Mom’s voice was sharp. “The internet is tearing you apart–your secret affair with that woman, abandoning your pregnant fiancée. Forsyth & Co. Holdings is about to go down with you and your pathetic drama.
“We don’t even know where Virginia is. We haven’t been able to reach her. But no matter what, we have to distance ourselves from her publicly.”
“No. Absolutely not!” I sprang to his feet, visibly shaken. “She’s my fiancée. The mother of my child!“}
“Oh, now you remember she’s your fiancée?” Dad shouted back. “Where were you when she was in the hospital? You were off playing house with Millicent in the mall! You never even gave her a damn explanation! And now you want to act like you care?!”
Mom turned away, unable to look at me any longer.
“What’s done is done. The baby is gone. But we cannot lose everything else with it,” she said coldly. “Do you have any idea what kind of financial fallout we’re facing? Do you think you alone can handle it? We have no choice. We have to cut her loose.“}
I felt my heart shatter into dust.
“I won’t give up my inheritance,” I said, my voice deep and trembling with fury. “And I’m not going to help you slander her either!!
“If saving the company means blaming her, you’ll have to do it without me.§
“I’m going to find her. I’m going to apologize. I need to say it to her face–I was wrong.”
Dad
let out a bitter laugh, obviously beyond rage. “You think she’ll forgive you? She sent your dead child to our doorstep! Your mother nearly had a breakdown! Do you really think Ginny will even want to see you again?“>
I sank to the floor again, like the life had been drained right out of me.
“Mom… I’ve never been this scared before. I’m scared… she’s never coming back.”
Dad turned away, unable to bear the sight of me, while Mom sat numbly on the couch, her tears in her eyes.
Virginia’s POVI
The hospital room was quiet–eerie quiet. The curtains were drawn tight. The gray light from outside cast long shadows on the walls.§
I curled up under the stark white blankets, a bowl of still–warm risotto sitting on the side table.§
The soft scent of pumpkin lingered in the air, but it did nothing to ease the chill in my chest.
“Ginny… just one bite, okay?” Crawford’s voice was gentle. This man, so ruthless with business contracts, had absolutely no defenses left when it came to me.
I looked up at him. My eyes were hollow, my voice dry. “I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten all day.” He knelt beside the bed, scooping up a spoonful, blowing on it softly. “Just a little. It’ll help you heal faster.”
The way he bent toward me–it reminded me so much of the boy he used to be. The one who used to sneak out to buy milkshakes for me behind our parents‘ backs. That boy was still here, only now with more calm, more ache in his eyes.
I opened my mouth and took a sip.
The mild sweetness of the risotto filled my mouth. The warmth and the familiarity of it–it almost broke me.§
It was my favorite risotto. Only he knew how to make it just right.
Every time I got sick growing up, he’d stay by my side, making this same risotto, feeding me spoon by spoon.
“You used to say my risotto was ten times better than the cafeteria’s,” he said with a chuckle. “Don’t like it anymore?”
“It’s not that…” I murmured, the words catching in my throat.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like it!
It was that I didn’t want anything anymore.
I’d broken up with Slade. The baby was gone.
But for some reason, it still felt like my whole world had fallen apart. And no matter what I did, I couldn’t bring myself to care again.
