Page 79 of Tragic (Lark Cove 3)

My mind whirled, and the only word I came up with was “Huh?”

“Didn’t the doctor explain all of this to you when she delivered your results?”

“I’m sure she did.” To Adam. My blood started to boil. “I guess I must have missed it. Thanks so much for your time today.”

“My pleasure. And again, congratulations. I’ll expect to see a baby announcement.”

“You got it.” I ended the call, then tossed my phone into the passenger seat.

Poor sperm quality? Limited motility? Adam had a fertility problem?

“Gah!” I screamed, my hands strangling the steering wheel.

How could he have kept this from me? How could he have led me to believe that it was all my fault we couldn’t have children?

I cranked the key in the car, revving the engine as I screeched out of the parking lot. I was fuming mad, but I resisted the urge to stomp on the gas and speed down the highway toward Lark Cove.

All through the divorce, I’d been plagued with guilt, and at the time, I’d felt defective.

“Damn you, Adam.” Damn you.

How could he deceive me like this, yet claim to love me? He’d held me in his arms those nights I’d cried myself to sleep. He’d dried my tears with his thumbs. He’d kissed my puffy eyes, telling me I was still the most beautiful woman in the world.

Had that all been a lie too?

I pulled up his number on my phone, fuming as it rang twice.

“Hel—”

“You’re an asshole!” I shouted before he had a chance to utter another syllable. “How could you have lied to me about this? How could you have kept something like this from me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You told me it was my problem. That I was the reason we couldn’t have a baby. But that’s not exactly true, is it? And do you know how I know it was all a lie? Because I’m pregnant!”

“You’re-you’re pregnant?” he stuttered.

“Is this why you wanted to get back together? Is this why you fought so fucking hard for our divorce? So I wouldn’t learn the truth?”

“Pip—”

“Don’t,” I snapped, cutting him short. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. I want to hate you for doing this to me. I want to hate you for the way you’ve made me feel for the last three years. I want to, but I won’t.”

The anger in my voice disappeared as my free hand went back to my belly. “Because of your lies, I get the greatest gift I could have ever dreamed of. I get to be a mother. I won’t hate you, but I will never think of you again.”

My thumb squashed the button to end the call, and I immediately pulled over on the side of the road so I could retrieve my phone lying on the other seat. With fast strokes, I pulled up Adam’s name and blocked his number.

In a deceptive and cruel way, Adam had given me a gift.

In an accidental way, so had Kaine.

Kaine.

“Oh, hell.” My stomach rolled for the first time since I’d left the doctor’s office and it had nothing to do with morning sickness.

I had to figure out a way to explain to Kaine that I could, in fact, have children.

And that I was having his baby.