I wanted a cheese steak sub instead. Except without the steak.
I scooted onto the exam table. Nicholas squeezed my hand as the doctor jokingly referred to him as Daddy.
“All right, Ms. Atwood.” Doctor Liam squirted a bit of jelly over my tummy. “Your weight looks okay. The bloodwork is normal. How’s the asthma?”
“Fine,” I said.
She knew better and asked Nicholas. “How’s the asthma?”
I answered for him. “I use the inhaler maybe once a week.”
“Twice,” Nicholas said. “Twice this week.”
Doctor Liam nodded. “Well, as you progress, you might find the shortness of breath worsening. I want you to schedule a follow-up with your pulmonologist after this appointment. Tell Doctor Miller it’s important.”
“I’ll make sure he sees her,” Nicholas said. “Immediately.”
And he would. Nicholas had already summoned him on a house call to the penthouse after I had a particularly bad night of coughing. Doctor Miller wasn’t thrilled by the interruption to his schedule, but the invoice was more than satisfactory to earn his personal cell-phone number.
The gel spread over my belly, and Doctor Liam pulled the ultrasound machine close. She grinned.
“Okay, let’s see the little guy.”
Nicholas took my hand. I swallowed the excitement, holding my breath as the screen blinked and then he was there.
In all his fuzzy glory.
The black and white contrast of a little head, wiggling toes, and a whole lot of bumping as Doctor Liam harassed him with the wand to make him move.
“Okay…” She took a few pictures and nodded. “The baby is growing very nicely. Getting plenty of oxygen, even if Momma isn’t.”
Hilarious. I politely smiled.
“And everything is looking just perfect. Here’s Baby’s head, and down here is Baby’s little arm. Let’s see if we can turn a little—”
The wand poked again. I bit my lip. Nicholas stared, transfixed at the screen. He pointed.
“And there?”
Doctor Liam nodded. “Toes. Baby’s a little curled up, but that should let us see everything very clearly.”
I did see everything. A beautiful, perfect little Bumper, snug and cozy in the safest place for him.
“Aha!” She took another picture. “Congratulations, you two. She is a perfectly healthy baby.”
My heart stilled, and my intake of air crashed against a rapidly closing airway.
I sat up, staring at the screen. “What did you say?”
I didn’t want her to repeat it. I couldn’t handle if she said it.
Nicholas gripped my fingers until they threatened to break. I didn’t care. I gripped him just as hard.
“I said you two will be the proud parents of a healthy baby girl.”
A girl.
Now my throat did close, but I’d never reach my inhaler.
A girl.
Oh, no.
Not this.
Anything but…
“Are you sure?” Nicholas’s voice snapped, hard. “Absolutely sure that the baby is…a girl?”
Doctor Liam pointed to the screen. “Right there. I’m sorry, you indicated you wanted to know the gender when we made the appointment…”
No.
I didn’t want to know the gender.
I only wanted to know one gender.
A boy. A male heir. The only reason Darius Bennett had ever forced his sons to kidnap me, imprison me, and rape me.
He wanted a male child, the rightful heir to my father’s ridiculous will that stated I was not worthy enough to tend to my family’s empire, to hold the power of the company, to act in any aspect.
My father trusted an unborn child more than his own daughter.
And Darius seized that opportunity to force that child within me.
A girl.
Bumper was a girl.
The thought crippled me. I wheezed, and Nicholas hurried to offer me the inhaler. I puffed, but it didn’t help. This wasn’t asthma. This was fear. Choking, gasping, terrible fear that sliced through me and threatened the wiggling little bundle of innocence who didn’t belong in a world of terror and misfortune.
Doctor Liam cleared her throat. “Ms. Atwood, Mr. Bennett, I understand some parents hope for one gender over the other, however; you’ll find that whether your baby is a boy or girl, they’re still your child.”
She didn’t understand, and her words only caused more pain. I didn’t know if Bumper was our child, and the only thought more horrifying than the baby being female was if she were Darius’s daughter.
I hadn’t dared to consider it. In my own foolishness I revealed the pregnancy and played my hand, challenged Darius and moved on the Bennett Corporation. I never considered that at the end of nine months, it’d fall apart.
He’d hurt the baby.
Worse.
He’d kill the baby.
Nicholas’s eyes hardened. His jaw clenched, but the mellow smoothness of his voice hadn’t changed, hadn’t revealed the danger.
“Doctor Liam,” he said. “I will give you one hundred thousand dollars if you alter the sonogram.”
I blinked. So did my doctor.
“Excuse me?” she whispered.
“One hundred thousand dollars if you misread the sonogram and declare the child to be male.”
“I…can’t…”
“I will write you a check immediately. To either you or your practice. Consider it a donation for the care you’ve provided Ms. Atwood.”
“You want me to lie about the sex of the baby?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I shook my head, my words lost in a tight wheeze. “Because we have no choice.”
“I don’t understand.”
Nicholas leaned forward. “You don’t need to understand. Change the result of the sonogram.”
“I can’t,” she said. “Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy will recognize that this…” She circled Bumper’s little bottom. “Is female.”
“Then find another sonogram and label it as Ms. Atwood’s results.”
“I—”
I held her gaze, unable to hide the fear prickling the tears in my eyes. “Please.”
“One hundred thousand,” Nicholas said. “You know our families. The money is good, and it’s yours for this favor.”
Doctor Liam hesitated, her eyes fluttered closed. “If this ever gets out—”
“It won’t,” he said. “Please. Find us a replacement picture and the money is yours.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She rose to her feet. The screen flicked off, and Bumper disappeared. “This is…insanity. I’ll be back. Don’t…go anywhere.”
The door shut behind her, and my tears rattled me from head to toe. Nicholas leaned over me, kissing my forehead, gripping my hand.
“Darius can’t know,” I said. “The baby will be born in four months. We can’t wait any longer, Nick. He’ll kill her. He’ll kill me.”
“Not going to happen.” Nicholas caressed my cheek. “Nothing has changed. We can hide Bumper’s gender until she’s born, and he’ll never find out. Nothing has changed.”
He kissed me. The golden halo in his eyes returned, strengthened with a sudden, fierce pride.
“We’re having a little girl.” His smile seared through the fear.
A little girl. I sucked in a breath. Then another.
We had a healthy baby.
Boy or girl, it didn’t matter anymore. She was healthy. She was perfect. She was mine.
And nothing was going to harm her.
“Your father should be terrified,” I whispered.
Nicholas frowned. “Why?”
“Because if one Atwood woman nearly killed him?” My voice steeled with a newfound confidence. “Imagine how much destruction two Atwood women will cause.”
The champagne popped. Reed chugged the bottle. I stared at my ginger ale.