The Billionaire's Baby (The Romero Brothers, Book 5) (5 page)

Was it because he
knew then that his chances of having a biological child were practically slim
to none? He didn’t know why but he felt connected to Amber’s child and
reconnected to Amber. They definitely had a strong chemistry before their
breakup. He knew that now. If they didn’t have that special cosmic magnetic
reaction in the first place, they sure wouldn’t be able to rekindle their feelings
for each other so quickly after meeting up again, would they?

 
“Where did you park?” Jules asked her
before continuing farther down the hall. He wanted to walk her to her car, at
least before returning to the boardroom.

“Oh, I’m taking
the bus to the café. You know, the Murray Café.”

“Taking the bus?
In your condition?” He remembered she’d gone back to working for her family-run
business, the Murray Cafe, the joint her deceased parents willed to her that
her aunt had taken over for her until she was of age. He wanted to ask Amber
why she wouldn’t take time off from working long, stressful hours at a busy
café to nurture her body and the miracle growing inside her. But heck, he was a
man, what did he know? He only knew that if she
was
still his woman, she’d be pampered and catered to, not the one doing the
catering.

“Jules, plenty of
women take the bus while pregnant. We don’t break, you know!”

He excused
himself before swiping out his smartphone and
dialed
his assistant. “How did it go at the meeting?” he asked Brenda. “Good. I’ll be
back shortly. I’ve just got to drop a friend somewhere.”

Today’s meeting
was more of an orientation to the facility. Jules had already been there and
had instructed his assistant, whom he trained impeccably
well,
to oversee things while he had urgent matters to tend to.

“I’m taking you
to the cafe.”

“Jules, no. I
don’t need you to take me. I’ll be fine. Really. You did enough by sticking
around for the class. I’m good. Really.”

“I don’t think
so.”

Just then, Amber
bent over, a look of horror on her face. “Oh, God!”

“Amber, what is
it?” Jules reached over to hold her.

She did not look
good at all. Her skin paled.

“Are you all
right?” the instructor asked as she came rushing out of the classroom. She’d
apparently heard the commotion outside the door.

Amber could barely
speak. “I’m okay. Just a sharp pain,” Amber told the instructor.

“I’m taking you
to the ER,” Jules said in a finite tone. His heartbeat sped a mile a minute in
his chest. What was with him? He’d only just seen Amber for a couple hours
today after so long but already his feelings for her had resurged from the last
time they’d been together.

“Good. She needs
to see a doctor,” the instructor agreed, her countenance concerned.

Jules was all too
prepared to drop whatever the heck he was doing. This looked damn serious.
Amber was his top priority right now. He would take her for medical attention
right away!

Later, Jules stood
by Amber’s side in the ultrasound room at the hospital, pacing frantically like
a nervous father-to-be. Yeah, right. As if
he
was baby’s father. Trouble was, he sure felt like it.
 
Since Amber was already more than six
months gestation, they had admitted her to the floor as a precaution. Soon
after that, she was taken down to have images done to ensure the baby’s
position was okay.

What the heck was
Jules doing? Agreeing to be there for Amber? Was he losing his ever-loving
mind? He swore business would be his only focus right now. So why was he so drawn
to helping Amber? He’d make sure she was okay, then he’d leave her be.

“Okay, now. We’re
just going to have a look at the baby, Mrs.…?” the tech said, as she walked
into the room.

“Ms.,” Amber
clarified. “Ms. Johnson-Murray. But Amber is fine.”

Jules didn’t know
what got into him just then but he felt irked at the thought of Amber being a
Ms. If it were up to him, she’d be a Mrs.
His
missus!

She should be
Mrs. Jules Romero. He kept his tongue restrained while the tech proceeded to
prep Amber for her test.

Support. That was
what she needed, right? Support. That’s what he’d just learned in that
unexpected prenatal class he’d just attended.

The room was dark
and Jules observed the monitor by the stretcher that he’d helped position Amber
on.

“Move a little
closer to me,
hon
,” the tech instructed Amber. “Good.
Now turn slightly to me.”

Just then, the
tech helped Amber to pull up her shirt a bit to apply some gel.

Amber looked embarrassed
at first and hesitant to lift up her top. “Do you want me to leave and come
back, Amber?” Jules offered quietly. Wanting to give her privacy. They weren’t,
after all, an official couple. So if she was obviously playing shy again in regards
to having Jules see her bare
skin, that
was all good
with him. It was all for her comfort. Though he was puzzled since she’d been
intimate with another man. She was, after all, pregnant.

“No. No, that’s
okay. Please stay.”

The ultrasound
tech looked confused. “I’m sorry, I thought he was the father. I usually ask
visitors to stay outside while I do the test.”

“No. He’s not
just a visitor.”

“We’re together.
It’s okay,” Jules chimed in. Why had he said that?
Because he
didn’t want Amber to feel awkward—again?
Not that it was anybody’s
business who the father was or if he was around.

Amber carefully
lifted up her long-sleeved black yoga top and revealed her naked skin over her
huge, swollen baby mound.

Jules tried to
hide the shock and horror in his eyes.

It took all the
strength in his body to remain composed. So was this why Amber didn’t want to
get intimate with him? Was this what she was hiding all along? But why hadn’t
she just told him? He looked away then back at Amber as the tech squirted blue
gel on Amber’s abdomen and rubbed it around before placing the scanner on her
belly.

Amber didn’t look
in Jules’s direction. He thought he could see raw hurt clouding her eyes. Was
she ashamed? God, there was no need to be.

He moved closer
to the table and rubbed her feet, massaging them. She looked at him and her
lips curled slightly at the corners into a warm smile of appreciation.

“Okay, as you can
see, your baby is here. Right where she should be.”

“She?” Jules repeated,
rubbing Amber’s shoulder now as he stood on the opposite side of the stretcher.

“Yes, I’m having
a girl,” Amber acknowledged, smiling weakly.

“You look tired,
beautiful,” Jules commented. “Don’t worry, I’m taking you home after the doc
gives us the go ahead.”

“The doctor will
have to see the results first. But I’m sure everything should be fine,” the
tech responded.

The sound of a galloping
horse was the baby’s heartbeat. The ultrasound machine was quite high-tech and
advanced according to the tech. That was no surprise since the Romeros donated
millions to upgrade the hospital’s equipment to superior quality and turn it
into a state-of-the-art facility.

“So this is the
baby’s heart rate.” The tech showed Amber and Jules a number on the screen
below the baby’s image.

Jules squeezed
Amber’s shoulder lovingly. It was
all spontaneous
.
Maybe this was God’s way of giving him a second chance since he would never be
able to have kids—at least not as of now. He was getting a taste of what
it would be like to be a real dad.
An expectant father.
He couldn’t understand why some men didn’t want to stick around their pregnant
wives or partners. This was like…a miracle. Nothing like he’d ever experienced.
His heart turned to mush just watching the monitor with the image of a precious
life inside Amber.
A baby girl.
The little bundle was
unaware of being monitored and gaped at—just going about her little
business in the warmth and safety of her mother’s womb.

“So your baby
weighs two pounds,” the tech continued as she glided the scanner over Amber’s
belly while her vision fixed on the screen of the monitor.

“You can tell how
much the baby weighs?” Jules was stunned. He wasn’t a med specialist or
anything, that would be his brother Alonso, but he was always in awe of medical
science and the possibilities and amazing capabilities of technology.

“Yes, that’s
right.” The woman continued to move the scanner around the abdomen. “We can
tell a whole lot more, too, these days. “The crown to rump length of your baby
is about fourteen inches, as you can see here.”

Jules could not
believe this little precious miracle growing inside Amber and seeing a full
color image of the
fetus
was breathtaking. Just as
breathtaking as
Amber
looked in her awesomeness and
expectant motherly glow. Seemed like those pregnancy hormones agreed with her.

After the
session, the tech switched off the device and wiped down the scanner. She then
offered Amber a paper towel to wipe the gel off her belly.

“I’ll take that,”
Jules said, usurping the cloth from the tech. “Come here, baby, let me clean
this gel off you.”

Amber’s look of
surprise melted into a warm smile. “Thank you.”

“I’ll be right
back,” the tech said. “I’m just going to get the doctor in to see you. If all
is okay, I’m sure you’ll be able to go home soon.”

“Thank you,”
Amber reiterated to the tech.

After the woman
left the room, Jules couldn’t wait to turn to
Amber
.
“Are you okay?” he said while cleaning off her delicate skin.

“Y-yes.”

“Why didn’t you
tell me what was going on before?” he asked, as he carefully swabbed her belly
to assure it was clean and dry. He assisted her in pulling her shirt down and
covering up her exposed skin.

From what he
could ascertain, from her stomach to her back and up to her rib cage were rife
with horrific jagged scars and raised abrasions.

“What happened?”

“I didn’t want
you to see what a mess I am before, Jules. It…it happened when-”

“Oh, God, Amber.
I’m so sorry. When your parents…that accident…?”

She nodded. He
didn’t need to probe any further. He wasn’t going to say anything more unless
she did. He knew all too well the pain of losing a loved one. But it looked as
if Amber lost a whole lot more.
So much more.

Anger blazed
through Jules like an erupting volcano yet he fought to simmer inside for
Amber’s sake. He wanted to hunt down that son-of-a-bitch that did this to
Amber—to her body.

Amber breathed in
deeply and closed her eyes then opened them again. “It was hard for me to…get
close to you, Jules. I loved you too much.”

“But why? Why did
you keep this from me? You think I would have minded?”

“From the corner
of my eye, I saw your look of surprise when the tech lifted up my shirt. I
don’t blame you.”

“I was shocked. Yes.
But not for the reasons you think, Amber. How could you have judged me that
way?”

“Because I was
afraid of being judged that way. Again.”

“Again?”

Amber swallowed
hard. “Jules, you have no idea what I have been through as a child. I only told
you some of the story. Yes, the crash that killed my parents left terrible
physical scars on me but nothing compared to the emotional scar.”

“Emotional scar?”

“I was
ostracized. Teased. Because…” she sat up on the stretcher and moved her long,
dark hair to the side so he could see down her back. “The scars are everywhere
and they don’t look pretty. Some folks said I should have seen a plastic
surgeon, not a regular surgeon. But anyway, as a kid, do you know what my name
was?”

“No.”

“Frankenstein or sometimes
just the monster.”

Jules closed his
eyes as he leaned against the wall, twisting his college ring on his finger,
anger seething through him like acid. He wished he’d been there to defend Amber.
He lowered his head. He tried hard not to feel her pain. But it was all too
great. How crazy that she had to go through all that after losing her parents
and her younger brother. He remembered the story she’d told him. They were
driving home from the cottage when she was a girl. It was a cold, dark, fall night.
A heavy downpour fell from the sky. They were hit by another car that sped off
without stopping. The car swerved into a ditch, smashed into some trees and
overturned. Amber was lucky to be pulled out alive. The others were not so
fortunate. Her younger brother who was four at the time and her parents were
both killed instantly.

No one ever located
that other vehicle.

The wreck that
claimed her family turned into another cold case for the police—an
unsolved case.