Chapter 14 - I hate fakers sequel
3 months pregnant
The past couple of months have been pretty hectic with trying to settle in to our new homes in a new city, heck, in a new state! Added to that is the fact that we have been flat out planning my dad and Hillary’s wedding along with trying to get back to Britian to see Troy for our family interviews before it is too late for me to fly.
Although, I must admit that our new home is absolutely beautiful and I can not wait until we welcome our little girl into the world.
That’s right! A baby girl…
Yeah, its still sinking in for me… Im going to be a mom, and Im having a little baby girl.
Everyone is ecstatic about my pregnancy and I am extremely proud of my little baby bump. Ok, it isn’t really a bump… Or a blip… Or a bulge… My normally flat abdomen is a teensy bit rounder nowadays. Just a teensy bit, but I can still see the difference.
I smooth a hand over my bare stomach while I rest my head back against Jaydens chest, smiling at the fact that I am the luckiest woman on the planet.
I have everything I could have ever wanted and more.
I have a loving family, the perfect husband, a beautiful home, our business gets finalised today, and today we are flying to Britian to see Troy tonight. I cant wait to see him, Im practically giddy with anticipation.
“Morning baby” Jayden whispers huskily from behind me as he strokes my belly lovingly.
I turn in Jayden’s embrace to face him, smiling warmly and reply “Morning JD”
Jayden takes my lips captive and wraps me lovingly in his embrace. We are caught in the moment when I hear footsteps approaching our bedroom door, followed by loud knocking.
Jayden groans into my mouth as I whisper “Maybe we shouldn’t have given them a spare key”
“Mr and Mrs Collins, time to get up” Kylie shouts from the other side of the door as she continues to knock.
“Watch this” I whisper conspiratorially to Jayden as I slip from his arms.
“Be careful” Jayden warns as he eyes me suspiciously.
“Sssh.” I hush him and then take a wondering glance over his bare torso and then quickly add “Make yourself look decent”
Jayden smirks at me, but complies by pulling a shirt on. That’s good! That view is for my eyes only.
Anyways, no point dilly-dallying, on with my plan.
I creep towards the door that Kylie is still banging on, and step clear of it. I pull the door open so quickly that Kylie and Linc come stumbling into the room. Kylie loses her footing and so does Linc, and they both end up on the floor.
I burst into laughter and Jayden quickly joins me as my eyes fill with tears of laughter.
“Not cool” Kylie mumbles as she shoves Linc off of her. I try to stifle my giggles, but its pointless.
Woops!
Kylie gives me the silent treatment as we follow her down to the kitchen.
Kylie is so lucky that she is my best friend, what with her being grumpy at me in my own house. Plus, the fact that I am starving so Kylie’s bad mood is quickly forgotten. Halfway through breakfast, Kylie forgot what she was angry about and we happily chatted about our upcoming day.
Today is the day that it becomes official, we will be become joint partners in our new business, and Hillary and my father will officially be our first clients even though we have already started some of their planning.
After having breakfast, we get ready to head off to the lawyers office where our business plan is getting its final touches made to it, before we sign it off.
Yay! I cant wait… Im giddy with excitement on our way to the lawyers office, that just so happens to be my fathers office.
We take a seat in the reception area, now usually I like to barge into my fathers office, but it is all business today so I will behave.
My father has been at his new office for about three weeks and is settling in quite nicely apart from the fact that his receptionist, Rachel, is a skank and I don’t like her. She tries to hit on Jayden every chance she gets, so as you can imagine, we don’t come here that often.
“Good morning JD” she purrs seductively to Jayden and I tense up next to him.
“Jayden” my husband corrects her in a steely tone before I rip into her. I feel like ripping those fake acrylic nails off her and gouging her eyes out with them. Wow! Violent much… I swear that my moods have intensified as the pregnancy has progressed.
Rachel giggles like a little school girl, and replies “Im sorry, my mistake”
Jayden ignores her and places his arm tightly around me and steers me away from her before I do something that will probably upset my father.
The nerve that woman has!
Gah, and what isn’t she like 65yrs old or something??? Gross! Ok, shes not really 65, shes probably more like 30 or something? I don’t know, and quite frankly I don’t care.
She just better keep her hands to herself, otherwise she will lose them.
Jayden helps me to a seat in the reception area and before I can say anything he captures my mouth in a kiss that melts the words away. I cant remember what I was going to say, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think it was that important either.
Some intense throat clearing breaks us apart from our kiss and I emerge with blush red cheeks and breathless. Jayden is smirking like a fool, while my father shakes his head at me.
“Hi Daddy” I chirp as I get up to wrap him in a hug. Every opportunity I get, I hug my father, or any of my friends or family for that matter, because you never know when someone might try to take them away from you. Trust me, Ive been there and it isnt a nice place.
“Lets do this, shall we?” my father says as he leads us all into his office.
After signing the contracts, we all head to a local Thai restaurant to celebrate. Hillary meets us there, and she is joined by my brother and Courtney. I embrace them as soon as we arrive, and the waiter shows us to our seats in the back of the restaurant.
“So how did it go?” Hillary asks as soon as we take our seats.
“It was all great mom. We are now official partners” Kylie expounds in excitement.
“And you and daddy are our first official clients” I add while pouring myself a glass of water.
Our family congratulate us on the good news and then we get stuck into the delectable food we are served.
After our lunch, we head home to pack for our flight out tonight.
Jayden hops in the shower leaving me in my closet to figure out what I want to take with us. I give up on that idea, and walk into our daughters room and inhale the heavenly scent that welcomes me.
Even though it is still early along in my pregnancy we have already managed to accumulate a lot of baby stuff. Her room is already quite full, with the different baby paraphernalia.
I stroke my hand over the baby blanket in her cot lovingly. I smile as I remember the night Jayden and Tyler were trying to put the cot together. Being males, they refused to consult the instruction manual so it took three times as long to assemble. Kylie and I had offered our expert advice, but we were ushered away, so we left them to it. It probably didn’t help that I had accidentally managed to step on an important bolt, that somehow stuck to the underside of my fluffy slipper without me knowing. As soon as Kylie spotted the bolt, she quickly snuck into my baby’s room and discreetly deposited the bolt without the boys knowing.
I walk over to the rocking chair settled in the corner and make myself comfortable while pulling a large soft teddy bear onto my lap.
I smile at how lucky my baby will be when she arrives. She will have parents and family that love her more than anything, and will have us all wrapped around her little fingers.
I rock back and forth on the rocking chair in a smooth rhythm as I cuddle the teddy bear close to my chest, and soon I end up drifting off to sleep.
I smile as I dream of a healthy baby girl tucked into my arms tightly. But soon, a soft jolt breaks me from my happy dream, and I frown at the interruption.
I stretch and yawn as I take in my surroundings.
My eyes widen in shock as they adjust to the darkness that has settled around me, and lights whizz past. I look around dazed and confused, and Jayden answers my unspoken question “I wanted you to rest. We are nearly at the airport”
I smile at my husband and entwine our fingers as we sit in silence apart from the purr of the cars engine.
Arriving at the airport, we meet up with my father, Hillary, Linc and Kylie who are waiting for us out front.
Jayden drops me off next to my family and then returns to the car to get our bags.
It is then that I remember that I didn’t pack any clothes. I spot Jayden pulling my suitcase behind him, as he walks towards us, and I eye him curiously wondering what he packed for me.
The flight is long and boring, and I cant fall asleep because I had a nap this afternoon.
I shuffle through the movies on offer, but nothing seems to catch my attention.
I look over at Jayden who is snoring softly, and smile at how he looks. His hair is a disheveled mess and his head hangs loosely forward. I grab a cushion and position his head so that he wont wake with a sore neck.
I lay my head back on the headrest, but within minutes Im bored again and my limbs feel weird.
I look up to notice that the ‘seatbelt’ sign isn’t illuminated, so I unbuckle myself and decide to go for a walk to the bathroom. I don’t need to use the bathroom, its just I want to stretch my legs.
I walk down the aisle while shaking my legs and arms as I go. People look at me funny but I ignore them.
As soon as I get to the bathroom, it takes me a while to figure out how to open the door, but once I do, I quickly duck in.
I put the toilet lid down and sit on it while looking around at the cramped space. I start randomly tearing little bits of the toilet paper up and use the hand soap as glue and stick it all over the mirror, spelling my name.
I smile at my handiwork when a soft knock breaks me from my revelry.
Oops…
I quickly grab a handful of toilet paper and wipe the mirror clean. Well, as clean as it can get.
After washing my hands, Im ready to exit the bathroom, when I remember that I should flush the toilet considering that is the whole reason people come into this room.
I quickly flush the toilet and the loud sucking noise startles me and I stumble out of the bathroom in shock.
Strong arms grab me so I don’t fall on my face, as a deep voice whispers “Easy there”
The stranger helps me steady my footing, and I flush in embarrassment at my own clumsiness.
“Thank you” I sheepishly reply while removing the strangers hands from around my waist.
“No problem” he replies, and I look up into his deep chocolate brown eyes.
Immediately, a shock goes through my system and my eyes widen in shock.
The stranger looks at me curiously as I struggle to settle my nerves.
I nod and then quickly walk away from him crashing into a chair on my way, with the stranger probably thinking Im some sort of freak.
As soon as I reach my seat, I quickly buckle my belt and watch the lavatory door with wide eyes, as I clutch the sides of my seat tightly.
The stranger exits and from my seat I am able to take in his full appearance.
He looks a little taller than Jayden, by about an inch, and is muscular. His broad jawline is dusted with stubble, but this doesn’t detract from his handsome features. Looking at him properly, I can tell that he is probably four or five years older than me.
After taking in the rest of his features, I slowly start to relax and my breathing returns to normal.
There is nothing familiar to me about this guy.
It was just the colour of his eyes that gave me the shock of a lifetime.
I shake my head at my own stupidity, and chastise myself for being so jumpy.
Conrad is locked away in prison. This guy doesn’t even look the same, he just happened to have the same colour eyes.
I sigh to myself as I rest my head against Jayden’s shoulders while my heartbeat returns to a regular pace.
Over the past couple of months I haven’t spared a thought for Conrad. Now, all of a sudden I see a stranger with brown eyes and have a freak attack.
The rest of the flight goes on uneventful, and we soon disembark and then check into our hotel.
The following day, everyone is up bright and early and getting ready for our meeting with the case workers for Troy’s adoption.
I bounce my legs up and down in excitement in the cab ride to the office. I haven’t seen Troy is so long, Im anxious to give him a great big hug.
Unfortunately, Troy isn’t at the meeting place, and we have to wait until after the interviews before we can see him.
My father and Hillary are interviewed first, and the rest of us wait in the waiting room getting bored because of the long wait.
My father and Hillary return after an hour with sullen looks on their faces. My heart stutters at the dejected look on my fathers face. I quickly wrap him in a tight hug and ask “Is everything ok daddy?”
“Yes baby girl. Everything is fine. You’re up next” he mumbles at me. Although his words contradict his facial expression, I nod and then follow behind Jayden who leads me into the interview room.
After all the pleasantries with the case worker, Natasha, handling the adoption, we get asked a whole series of questions. Most of them relate to my father and Hillary and we answer honestly knowing from experience, that they are excellent parents.
After a while I get bored with the questioning, and Jayden continues to answer for us as I stroke my hand over my belly while listening to Jayden’s responses adding a couple of things here and there.
Natasha notices me stroking my belly and she asks “May I ask, are you expecting?”
I smile brightly and reply “I sure am”
Natasha then asks “Have you considered adoption?”
I clench my fists tightly and resist the urge to hit her, that will definitely not bode well for my fathers action.
“This is my child” I say through gritted teeth as I glare at her.
Natasha gulps and then dismisses us saying “Thank you for your time.”
Still seething from her stupid question, Jayden leads me out of the waiting room and outside of the building. Jayden wraps me in his arms but Im too tense to reciprocate.
I pull away from Jayden and lose my temper shouting “Can you believe that woman!?!” as I wave my hands around frantically.
I pace along the sidewalk as I grit my teeth and clench my fists, while muttering.
“Give up my baby! Who does she think she is!?!” I growl as Jayden comes up next to me. Jayden is trying to pacify me, but I wont have a bar of it.
I continue to rant as I pace up and down the side walk and then stop and look at him “The nerve of that woman!”
“I know baby. She was out of line” Jayden says as he stops me from pacing by gripping my shoulders.
I stop and stare up at him, and then I look down at my belly whispering “This is our baby. Im not giving her up. Not for anything”
Jayden wipes a tear away from my cheek and replies “No one will take our baby from us.”
I look up at him and see the conviction in his eyes, as he adds “I promise”