Yvonne's POV
“Cynthia, I don’t want him in my life. If he finds out about this child, he is going to demand he be involved.”She smiled. “That’s what a good dad is supposed to do.”“I don’t want a good dad. I will be okay raising a baby by myself. I’m financially secure and can handle whatever happens. I don’t want him to know. You can’t tell him,” I ordered.“I won’t say a word, but I will keep encouraging you to tell him. I believe it is his right. I know you don’t like it, but that’s the truth. You might change your mind down the road. Don’t completely dismiss the idea.”I ignored her and went about pulling out the seasonings we would need for the recipe. She was supposed to be distracting me from the problem, not bringing it up. Kylian was the problem. I felt protective of my child and didn’t want him getting his hands on him or her and showing the child off like he did something amazing. He donated sperm. I was the one doing all the incubating.“Can we pKylian's POVWe were finally given a brief recap of what had happened to my mother and were now waiting to see her. She had taken a tumble down the stairs at the mansion and broken her hip. Kieran and I were standing in the hallway of the ninth floor of the hospital, waiting for the nurses to give us the all clear to enter the room where my mother was being settled into. They had brought her upstairs after a round of x-rays and a lot of pain meds, we were informed.“You can go in, but you can only stay for a few minutes. She and her roommate are sleeping,” the nurse informed us as she walked through the door of the hospital room.“Her roommate?” I said with a raised brow.The older woman nodded. “Yes, this is a hospital and we are full. She has a roommate.”“We want a private room,” Kieran blurted out.The woman was not impressed by our demands. “Then you can talk to the hospital administrator. There aren’t any available. Your mother will have to deal with wh
Yvonne's POVThe moment my eyes opened, I knew it was going to be another rough day. Last night’s elation over being able to eat a meal that didn’t make me ill had evaporated. I should have known it wasn’t meant to last. I lay in bed, inhaling through my nose and slowly exhaling, hoping I could breathe through the nausea I could feel moving over my body. It always started out as kind of a tickle of ick and then came on much stronger.The breathing exercises the doctor had told me to try weren’t working. I didn’t even know why I tried. I jumped out of bed and raced for the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet in time to go through my usual routine of vomiting. Morning sickness was no joke. I couldn’t deal with a full nine months of this, I told myself as I hugged the porcelain seat. I was seriously considering moving my bed into the bathroom or moving the toilet to the bedroom. Something had to give.I stayed on the cold tile floor for a good twenty minutes,
Yvonne's POVI called a couple more people, hoping to secure a lab. I couldn’t fail before I even started. I stared at the notes on my screen. There was so much to do. I felt like I was staring at Mount Everest and I had no idea where to start. Maybe I was wrong. I couldn’t do it on my own. I was kidding myself thinking I could. I couldn’t ask Cynthia to leave the comfort and security of her job to help me. When the idea came to me to start over, I had been dreaming.I had this brief moment where I remembered the good old days and thought back fondly on them. I hadn’t thought much about the actual hard work. The long nights and the days when I had wanted to give up, because I was so frustrated, had vanished from my memory—until now. I had been young and hungry back then. I wasn’t quite as hungry now and I felt like I had aged thirty years since those early days. I was a married woman, estranged from her husband and pregnant with his child … who he didn’t even know about
Kylian's POVI walked through the foyer, heading for my father’s den, which had been transformed into a hospital room for my mother to convalesce in. It wasn’t the ideal room for her, but there were no bedrooms on the ground floor. She had pitched a fit, of course, but that had been expected. She wanted to be upstairs in her own room. It wasn’t going to happen. There was no way we could safely get her upstairs. I refused to take the risk.We had done what we could to transform the den into a comfortable place for her to rest and heal in. I was already working with a contractor to renovate a space on the ground floor to a bedroom suite for her. I knew there was no way she would move, but the fact of the matter was she was getting older and she had broken a hip. Climbing the huge stairs to the second floor several times a day wasn’t going to work. She would never agree to a lift, so it was either we put in an elevator or she moved downstairs.“Hey,” Kenyon said as I s
Kylian's POVHe shrugged. “It’s never been what I wanted. I don’t want that kind of responsibility. I like knowing I can walk away from the job if I want. If I were the CEO, there would be all kinds of restraints. I like the freedom of being the spare heir.”“What about Yvonne?” I blurted out.Kieran smiled. “I don’t want Yvonne. I wasn’t conspiring with her. I don’t love her. She’s a nice lady and we got along great, but it was never like that with her. I wanted to reconnect with her. I was surprised you and she were a thing. The Yvonne I knew was not your type.”“Yvonne is a beautiful woman. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted her,” I persisted.He let out a long sigh. “I’m in love with someone else. I don’t want Yvonne. She is gorgeous, kind, and smart, but not the woman I want. One day I will tell you all about the woman I love, but for now, I need you to know I am not trying to ruin your life, take your inheritance, or anything else,” he said, and I almo
Yvonne's POVIt felt good to be back in the lab. Once my company had gotten started, I had rarely ventured into the lab. That was the research and development team’s domain. I was the lady in the big office and didn’t have the time to play with various ingredients. I missed the days of doing the creating. I had been involved in choosing shades and things like that, but the actual creation had been delegated to a group of experts.Now, it was all about my own dreams and my own talents in the lab, which weren’t quite as good as some of the team at my old company, but I could get by. It felt good to have somewhere to go and something to do. I had my earbuds in and was enjoying some piano music. It always helped me focus. I was creating the perfect shade of red lipstick that maintained the shine while lasting all day without the use of harmful chemicals. I knew there were others out there, but mine was going to be better.The morning sickness hadn’t been as bad when I w
Yvonne's POVHe sighed. “I can only imagine. It isn’t personal. He doesn’t know how to be the kind of guy who women dream of falling in love with. He’s Kylian. He’s stern and aloof, but underneath all that, there is a good man in need of a good woman. I think that’s you, Yvonne.”I fought back the urge to race over to Kylian’s house and tell him I loved him and it would be okay. I wasn’t going to let myself get hurt like that. Not again.“I’m not interested in fixing a damaged man,” I snapped.“He’s not damaged. He has a big ego, that’s for sure. But he wants you, I know that. He’s too stubborn and prideful to make the first move. He knows he screwed up, but he’s so arrogant, he can’t do anything about it. He’s ashamed of his behavior,” Kieran explained.I scoffed. “He should be ashamed.”“I know you love him, Yvonne. Don’t do this to yourself. Give him a chance to make things right. I know he did something that hurt you, but it wasn’t intentional.
Kylian's POVI wasn’t accustomed to going in to the office on a Saturday, but after cutting out of work so much this last week to check on Mom, I was a little behind. Not to mention, I had kind of checked out in general the past six weeks. I’d flip-flopped between caring and not caring about the company’s success. I couldn’t believe I thought I would be able to take a vacation.Things would have fallen apart without me. I knew it was a shitty management style. I needed to delegate more. Kieran was the right-hand man and could handle this stuff if I let him, but I was too afraid to let go of my control. I wanted to trust him, and I did a lot more than I had two weeks ago, but the company was difficult to give up control of—even a little. The whole situation was why I needed to take a step back and enjoy a little rest and relaxation on a sandy beach somewhere. I needed to get my head straight. There was too much shit bouncing around and making me crazy. Mistakes, missed opport