Page 13 of Doctor Daddies

Because a demand as huge as this one, it’s not the kind of thing you can just drop out of the blue, without a hell of a lot of planning.

And what would I tell Matt? He’s already been kept in the dark about the father of one of my children, and then I ask him to just trust me to make the same mistakes again? That’s how it’s going to look to him, no matter how I try to spin it.

My mind ticks with questions as I try to focus on the matter at hand. I have to think about that money. It would change so much for us, and it would only be, what, a year of my life?

I would be set for a long time. I would be able to buy a house, take some time off looking for work, really focus on doing everything I can to make sure that Lewis has the best childhood possible. I do what I can now, of course, but it’s always going to be limited by how much I earn, and I hate the thought of having to spend these precious years of my son’s life on the job hunt.

I read through the rest of the contract, combing over every word in great detail until I’m sure I’ve made sense of all of it. It seems pretty straightforward, all things considered.

I would be implanted with a few embryos, to see which ones would take, since they’re hoping for multiples. And then I would go through the pregnancy, getting the very best medical care that’s on offer, until I would be taken to a private hospital where I would give birth and hand the children over to their new parents.

In a lot of ways, it sounds way easier than everything I did with Lewis, and this time, I would at least know what I’m getting into when it comes to the matter of actually being pregnant.

Fuck it.I have to at least try. No matter how crazy it might feel, no matter how mad it might seem to even think about it, this is the kind of money that I can’t just turn down like it’s nothing. I don’t have to go through with anything—if I meet with thesepeople, whoever they are, and find that I don’t like them or wouldn’t trust them to raise a child, then I don’t have to even consider letting it go any further. But if I do…

Then I might stand to make more money than I’ve ever seen before in my life. And I can’t lie and pretend that doesn’t appeal to me in a huge way.

I grab my phone before I can think about this any longer, pulling up the same number that called me when I was at the grocery store and dialing swiftly. I lift it to my ear, and I can hear the blood rushing through my temples, the hair on the back of my neck standing up. I can’t tell whether my instincts are warning me to drop this before it goes any further or insisting that I don’t stop now that I’ve come so close, but either way, I’m going through with it.

“Hello?”

I nearly jump out of my skin when I hear her voice again, and I have to take a moment to gather myself.

“Oh, uh, hi, again!” I blurt out. “I just—I took a look over the contracts that you sent over…Millie, remember?”

“Yes, of course,” she replies, and she sounds intrigued as she speaks again. “So, have you had a chance to consider it?”

“Yes, I have,” I reply, and I inhale deeply, gathering myself before I come out and say it. “And I’d like to arrange a meeting with the people who sent over those contracts.”

“You would?” She sounds surprised.

I don’t know whether to read into it or not. Does it mean that she thinks this is the wildest thing in the world and that I’m crazy for even considering it? Does it mean that she wants to tell me tothink about it before I jump into anything I can’t take back? Or is it just that she’s surprised it took me so long to accept the offer, with that much money on the table?

“Yes,” I reply. “Can I give you some times that work for me? My schedule is pretty busy, but I’d like to get it done this week…”

She notes down some times and finishes up the call, promising me that she will be back in touch the moment she’s heard anything from them.

I thank her and hang up, leaving myself alone in the quiet of the apartment once more—and trying to work out if I have just made a huge fucking mistake.

I rise to my feet. No time to think about that. I need to head off to pick Lewis up from school, and I don’t want to leave him waiting. He’s the reason I’m even considering this in the first place, after all—if it wasn’t for the worry of providing for him, I would have laughed off this offer no matter how much money came with it.

But that’s what you do as a parent. You step up and take on things you would never even have thought about before, just to make ends meet. That’s the deal I made when I decided to bring Lewis into this world, and that’s the one I intend to see through, no matter what.

I head through to the bathroom to wash up, and catch sight of myself in the mirror. Could I really do it again? Go through a pregnancy and then hand over the child to someone else? It’s one hell of a big ask, but…

But I have been through worse. And if two million dollars is waiting for me on the other side—then the least I can do is entertain a meeting with the people who want to give it to me.

7

ROSS

I drummy fingers on the table in front of me. It doesn’t matter how many times James and Cole tried to convince me this was a good idea, I still can’t find it in myself to believe it.

“She’s going to be pissed,” I mutter, cutting through the silence in the fertility clinic meeting room.

Cole glances around at me, shaking his head. “Keep it down,” he shoots back. “I don’t want her to hear you.”

“She’s not going to be able to hear anything any of us say when she realizes that we’re the ones who brought her here,” I retort. “You think she’s going to just sit down and talk with us, when she figures out that we’re the ones behind this?”