Secret Mission Turned Out to Be Fathering My Bestie’s Baby Chapter 02

Secret Mission Turned Out to Be Fathering My Bestie’s Baby Chapter 02

Before Nathan and I got engaged, I overheard my mother talking to Jessica with a wistful sigh.

“You don’t have to give her everything. I think Nathan likes you better. Even the bridal shop staff said you two look like a couple.”

Jessica immediately snapped at her to stop.

“I don’t like Nathan, and he doesn’t like me! Emma would be heartbroken if she heard that.”

I was hurt, but I assumed it was just my mother’s wishful thinking.

I never imagined Jessica and Nathan were actually involved. Behind my back. And now they had a child.

I opened my messages—Nathan’s text was there.

[Mom, figure out a way to keep Emma from coming to the hospital. Jessica’s exhausted and needs rest. Having Emma around is too much for her right now.]

My mother walked out, saw me holding her phone, and lunged to snatch it away.

“Who told you to touch my phone?”

Her face twisted with fury, but I could see the guilt underneath.

“Mom, do you even still consider me your daughter? Am I really your biological child?”

She glared at me, using outrage to cover her panic.

“Say that again! Mary Emma Carter, do you have any conscience at all?”

“You were barely in kindergarten when your deadbeat father ran off with another woman. I raised you alone—I was both mother and father to you! Say something!”

Her phone buzzed again. She turned to retreat to her room.

“Tell Nathan to come see me right now. I’ll agree to the divorce and let them have each other.”

“I saw everything.”

She froze. Then she turned back, her eyes lighting up with something that looked like hope.

“Really?” she blurted out.

It hit me like a second blow.

Nathan came in. He and my mother exchanged a look at the door, then she left.

He stood there, staring at me. A long silence.

“Emma…”

“Congratulations on becoming a father.”

I looked up. I thought I could hold it together, but seeing his face—two years of missing him tangled with a hatred so sharp it burned—brought tears to my eyes and tightened my throat.

“When did you two start? When did you sleep together—before or after the wedding? Was the classified project even real?”

“No!” Finally, a question he could answer with conviction. “It was real. It just ended after six months.”

“I didn’t know how to face you. How to face what we had.”

Six months… That was exactly when I got transferred.

I’d been offered a promotion, but it meant two years at a remote outpost in northern Montana.

Jessica told me not to worry. “I’ll take care of your mom, Emma.”

Nathan supported me too. Our five-minute weekly calls were all about encouraging me.

“In two years, we’ll come back together. No more separation.”

I thought they had my best interests at heart. Really, they just wanted me as far away as possible so they could carry on behind my back.

“Don’t make it sound so ugly,” he said, his face pale and flushed in patches.

I laughed.

Was I the one making it ugly, or were they the ones who’d done something disgusting?

They’d made a whole child.

“Did you know Jessica told me the details? On her birthday, you did it three times in one night. That’s when the baby was conceived, wasn’t it?”

“Enough!”

He exploded, veins bulging at his temples.

“Emma, you know exactly why you’ve never been there for her on her birthday. Don’t pretend you don’t. You feel responsible for her mother’s death. You don’t get to judge her.”

I stared at him, then let out a hollow laugh.

“So cheating on her birthday is some kind of special exemption?”

He didn’t answer.

“Jessica is weak right now. She has postpartum depression. She can’t handle any stress. Don’t visit her until she’s out of the birthing center. And don’t let her know you found out.”

“Do you hear me?”

He smelled like hospital disinfectant mixed with baby formula, and the scent hit me up close.

I shoved him away and ran to the bathroom, throwing up like I was trying to expel everything inside me.

“Emma, here—drink some water…”

Nathan rubbed my back. The concern in his eyes and hands made me even sicker.

“Don’t touch me!”

His hand hung in the air for a moment, then dropped.

His phone rang. It was my mother.

“Nathan, I’m at the hospital, but Jessica’s gone. She’s not answering her phone. What do I do?”

Nathan’s face went pale. He whipped around to look at me.

“What did you say to her?”