Chapter 175
Cecilia wanted to know the father of her child, but she didn’t want the others to know. She didn’t want any of them to feel singled out—didn’t want the actual father to feel any more pressured, nor did she want to disappoint the others. So when she decided to have her paternity test, she snuck into each of their rooms with cotton swabs and gently collected samples of their saliva. It was a miracle none of them woke up—especially Grayson who was a bit of a light sleeper.
They all must’ve been exhausted from the late nights, worrying about Asher.
Once she had her samples, she placed them in bags and labeled each one. R, G, S.
She wanted to make her visit swift—didn’t even want the others knowing she left. So she called in her appointment at the crack of dawn, then ordered one of the drivers to take her to the hospital. The ride was eerie and quiet and Cecilia hated that she was doing this alone, but the doctor was right. She needed to know who the father was and what kind of health risks the baby would have, too. Would it be allergic or prone to illness? Did any of them have allergies anyway? Nerves were wracking her mind as she watched the trees pass through the car window.
Eventually, she arrived at the hospital and the nurse at the front desk directed her to the proper room where the doctor from the night before was awaiting her. “Wonderful, please come in,” he said when he saw her. He was already preparing a needle and the sight of it made Cecilia dizzy. “Do you have the samples?”
Cecilia took the little bags out of her purse and handed them over. She was afraid the doctor would mutter something about sleeping with so many different men, but he kept his opinion to himself and delicately placed each cotton swap in a separate tube. “We’ll have to draw a bit of your blood,” he said.
Cecilia’s nerves went haywire. She offered her arm, her heart pumping rapidly in her chest. She’d never been a fan of needles.
She shut her eyes as the device neared her skin, feeling the tiny prick as it entered her bloodstream. He thoughts were raging. Would her feelings change once she found out who the father really was? The thought frightened her. She didn’t want anything to change at all.
“All done,” the doctor announced, and Cecilia watched as he placed a bandage over her skin and carried the blood sample off to his counter. “It will be a few days before you get the results. I’ll give you a call then, okay? Why don’t you visit your friend while you’re here?”
Cecilia nodded, stepping up from the bed. She had planned to visit Asher before heading home. But as she said her thank you’s to the doctor and headed off down the hall, an eerie feeling crept up her skin. The hospital felt so…haunted. So eerie this time of day. It was still so early in the morning that the sun had yet to rise, and by the looks of it, not many visitors were around. Cecilia crept to Asher’s room and took the seat beside his bed, aching at the sight of him. He looked exactly the same as he had looked at her last visit. She wanted so badly to walk in and see him moving around—blinking and grumbling and scowling at her as he usually would. But Asher was still just as he’d been.
Cecilia looked around, hoping no one would walk in, and climbed into bed beside him, her arms wrapped around him tight. “Don’t hate me,” she said. “Or…I guess you can hate me. Just wake up. Please wake up.”
She stayed there like that, listening to him breathing until the sun came up. Then Cecilia returned home to the mansion.
Rather than heading back to bed, she stayed up and cooked breakfast for the others. They had all taken time off work to cope with the Asher situation—or mostly, they were just too tired to function after nights of staying up, wondering if he’d pull through or not.
It was Ryan who came down to the kitchen first, looking rough, his hand in his mussed hair. He swept by Cecilia in the kitchen to fetch a cup of coffee, pressing a silent kiss to the side of her head. She wanted to smile, but she didn’t have it in her. After seeing Asher like that, she couldn’t shake the feeling of doom that had crept into her chest.
“Hey beautiful,” said Sebastian as he rounded the corner. A sleepy Grayson was following at his heels. “We’re going to visit Asher today. Would you like to come?”
Cecilia shook her head. She didn’t know how to explain that she’d already seen him once and her heart couldn’t take it again. So she worked up a small smile and said, “I need to run some errands today. My mother needs her medicine refilled.”
It wasn’t true; her mother had been refilling her own medication. But Cecilia needed a break from the panic and the overwhelming sense of loss that had taken over the mansion.
She worked up the courage to call Mia.
They met at the cafe by the park—that special place of hers where she first heard her own voice on the radio. Mia could instantly tell something was wrong. She looked into Cecilia’s eyes with a worried expression and pulled her to a table before they’d even ordered. “What is it? What’s going on?”
Cecilia felt the tears hit her eyes, stinging bitterly. She explained everything—the night at the casino, the shooting after, how the doctors had put Asher into a coma and how he couldn’t wake up again.
Once she was done, Mia looked at her sadly and said, “Wow. Kinda seems like you really loved him.”
Cecilia hadn’t really thought about it before. She loved Ryan and she was certain of that—the others she loved as family. But was she in love with all of them? Truly in love? She thought back to it—which of them gave her butterflies, which of them made her feel comfortable and protected. Which of them she felt she needed the most. How could it be that Asher had fit every criteria? He was so cruel to her in the beginning…how had he become so special?
She was about to answer when her cell phone rang. Mia saw Grayson’s name on the screen and she lit up. “Is that Grayson? Can I talk to him?”
Cecilia ignored her, stepping away from the chatter to answer the phone. Her heart beat rapidly at the possibility that it was an emergency call. Maybe something had happened to Asher.
“Grayson?” she said. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” Grayson said. “But there’s something that’s really bothering me. I need to talk to you.”
“I’m at the cafe with Mia right now,” Cecilia explained. “You can come join us if—”
“No, we need to talk about it in private,” Grayson said. “Let me know when she leaves. I’ll head over.”
Cecilia said goodbye and returned to her seat, feeling an overwhelming sense of stress twist in her chest. “God, I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, slumping into her hands. “Everything is falling apart around me.”
“Oh, honey,” Mia reached over to console her, touching her on the shoulder. Then she twisted around and shouted the barista, “One chai latte, please!”
Cecilia sat in the comfort of her friend while they sipped their drinks. There wasn’t much Mia could to do fix the situation but distract Cecilia, so they watched videos on her phone until her alarm rang for work. Then Mia said goodbye with a kiss on the cheek and promised to text Cecilia later. “I’ll check in on you, okay? So keep your phone close,” she said. Then she gathered her purse and left.
Cecilia wiped her hands up her face, feeling the stress rock through every muscle in her body. She picked up her phone to text Grayson, but just before she hit the send button, she spotted him, walking in through the cafe doors. “What are you doing here?” Cecilia asked. “Were you waiting for her to leave all this time.”
“I couldn’t hang back at the mansion and wait,” Grayson said. He looked distraught, dark rings under his eyes and his skin pale. “There’s something I’ve been keeping to myself since we heard the news about Asher.”
Cecilia nodded and listened attentively. “What is it? You can tell me.”
“The doctor said he had a head injury, but he was shot in the abdomen.”
“Right,” Cecilia said. “He said it was a past injury. Is that what you wanted to talk about?”
Grayson nodded, looking sick to his stomach. He stared down at his hands which rested in his lap and said, “I was there when it happened.”