My Husband Had a Child With Someone Else While I Was Carrying His Chapter 02

My Husband Had a Child With Someone Else While I Was Carrying His Chapter 02

The numbers above the elevator climbed floor by floor until they reached seventeen, the VIP maternity ward.

At the end of the hallway, the door of a private room stood surrounded by flower baskets. I came closer and read the cards tucked among them.

Samuel signed: [Congratulations, Sally, on the baby boy.]

Summer signed: [A family of three at last.]

Lucas’s cousin signed: [You’re a dad now!]

The door to the room stood slightly ajar, and soft laughter drifted out from inside.

I pushed it open.

Lucas was sitting at the edge of the bed with a bowl of chicken soup in his hands, and he was blowing on a spoonful to cool it before he lifted it to the woman’s lips.

Sally lay back against the pillows, pale but flushed with a shy kind of happiness, and a maternity band circled her wrist.

A bassinet stood right beside her, and a card taped to the side of it read [Halls.]

Nicole was holding the swaddled baby and grinning so wide she couldn’t rein it in. “Aw, would you look at that little nose and those little eyes. He’s the spitting image of his daddy.”

Lucas set the spoon down and reached over to tickle the baby’s cheek. “Yeah. He looks just like me.”

I stood in the doorway.

Nicole was the first to turn, and the smile froze on her face. “Rachel? What are you doing here?”

Lucas turned around.

The soup spoon clattered into his bowl and splashed a few greasy drops across the tray.

He stood up, took an instinctive step forward, and planted himself in front of the hospital bed. “Rachel, let me explain.”

I didn’t look at him. “So you’re Sally?”

Sally went pale and pressed a hand to her belly, shrinking back into the blankets.

Lucas turned to soothe her right away, then looked back at me with his brow furrowed.

“Rachel, she just gave birth and she can’t take a shock like this. You’re pregnant too, so don’t make a scene here. Whatever this is, we can settle it outside.”

I looked at the man I had shared a bed with for seven years. “A scene? I’m your legal wife, and I came to see your newborn love child. How is that making a scene?”

I took the spare copy of the birth certificate out of my bag, along with my prenatal report.

“I’ve got a photo of our marriage license on my phone, and my check-in record from the OB is dated today.”

“Lucas, this morning you told me you were away on a business trip. You were actually in this building, holding her hand while she delivered?”

No one in the room said a word.

Nicole set the baby back in the bassinet and cleared her throat.

“Rachel, things have already come this far, so there’s no need to be so aggressive about it.”

“Sally’s been with Lucas for five years without any claim to his name, and now she’s finally given the Halls family its first grandson. We can’t just turn our backs on him, can we?”

I turned to look at her. “So the whole family knew, and I’m the only idiot who got kept in the dark.”

Sally’s tears fell in big, heavy drops. “Rachel, don’t blame Lucas, this is all my fault. I don’t want a title, I just want my baby to have a father.”

She sobbed and stole a glance at the bassinet. “The baby inside you is still so small, but mine is already here. Please, can’t you leave his family alone on his very first day in the world?”

The joke of it was that I was the one whose home had been torn apart, and now I had become the villain wrecking someone else’s.

Footsteps came down the hall, and Summer pushed the door open. The moment she saw me, her face changed.

She crossed the room and grabbed my arm. “Rachel, come home with me for now, don’t stay here. It’s not the end of the world for a man to have two kids, and it’s not like Lucas can’t provide for them.”

Samuel trailed in behind her and chimed in. “Yeah, Rachel, it’s not like Lucas doesn’t want you.”

I looked at all of them. These were the same people who had commented under my Instagram just yesterday, telling me to be happy.

I pulled free of Summer’s grip and slid the wedding ring off my finger.

The diamond hit the metal rail of the bassinet with a clang and bounced onto the floor. “Since the three of you make such a perfect little family, I’ll step aside and let you have it.”

I turned to walk out.

But a hand clamped down on my wrist. Lucas was staring at me, his eyes rimmed red. “Divorce is off the table. The baby inside you is mine too.”