The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (13 page)

“
Maybe
we should put out a statement and explain what’s really going
on,” she suggested to Max that night as they have dinner.
Martha was still working as housekeeper because she refused to quit
just because Christine is uncomfortable with the situation. She told
her to deal with it; after all she’s been Max’
housekeeper for fifteen years without Christine finding it to be a
problem. Max told her he’s giving her notice that she’s
to move to head of housekeeping at Lestrange Enterprises by month’s
end and she was annoyed until he mentioned that the salary is three
times what she’s making. She decided she could probably live
with that as long as Max wasn’t doing it just because he’s
about to marry her granddaughter. He is…but he isn’t. He
wanted to keep Martha close but he knew she couldn't be his
housekeeper. Not when she’d be obliged to take orders from her
granddaughter. It just would not do. And she refused to stop working
and just retire in splendor as matriarch of their new family so what
was a man to do?

*****

As soon as Christine
was through with work, she dodged Leandra’s persistent
invitations to go ‘have coffee’, as well as Mary Jane’s
wanting to corner her to tell her all about the latest going on in
her life with her mentally abusive yet apparently irresistible
boyfriend. They broke up and made up almost on a weekly basis and
Mary Jane seemed to think Christine wanted to know all about it. In
truth, she couldn’t care less so when she saw MJ headed toward
her she fished out her phone and called her cousin Sadie.

“
Houston,
we have a problem,” she said into the receiver.

“
What
is the mayday about?” Sadie wanted to know.

“
Somebody
be snitchin,” she said.

“
About?”
Sadie asked.

“
About
me and my situation.”

“
Who
they snitchin to?”

“
Paps,”
Christine said. “You need to call a meeting and find out who it
was.”

“
How
do you know it's not me?” Sadie asked.

“
Is
it?” Christine asked.

“
Nope.”

“
Good,
so you’ll call the meeting?”

“
Just
us girls or everyone?”

“
Everyone
who knows.”

“
Okay
for when?”

“
It's
urgent. If you can gather them tonight all the better. I’m
headed to grandma’s.”

“
I’ll
get back to you.”

“
Thanks
Sadie.”

“
Uh
huh.”

*****

Sadie was as good as
her word and she had everyone save Martha and Misha gathered in
Martha’s living room by 8:30pm that night. She’d even
managed to get Kevin and Cordelia to attend on the pretext that there
was some money to be discussed; she was vague about it but she might
have implied that Max was giving out checks to enable them to shop
for the wedding. She’d thought about padding the lie with
implications of a private jet to New York for the shopping spree but
the prospect of money alone was enough to get Cordelia there so she
figured that would do.

As soon as everyone
gathered Christine stood up.

“
Ladies
and Gentlemen, we have a problem,” she said looking at every
face. Uncle Andrew lifted a brow at her. He had been expecting to be
fed but Martha wasn’t even home yet.

“
What
problem?” Uncle Carl asked.

“
Somebody
is trying to extort money out of Max otherwise they go to the press
and tell them about us. Now the thing is not many people know about
our deal, and the majority of them are in this room,” Christine
said looking around the room and bracing herself for outrage.

“
And
you think maybe somebody in this room is the culprit?” Uncle
Carl asked his eyes on Cordelia.

“
I
think it’s a distinct possibility, yes,” Christine said
also looking toward Cordelia with narrowed eyes.

“
Who
would want to do that?” Cordelia asked. “Are you saying
one of your cousins is maybe jealous of you?”

Christine looked toward
Sadie, Angela and Aisha, grouped together on the sofa. They looked
back at her as if in challenge. She shook her head.

“
I
don’t think it was them,” she said and Angela beamed at
her while Aisha and Sadie merely nodded.

“
Then
who?” Kevin demanded in an aggressive tone.

Christine said nothing
for a while.

“
Nothing
irrevocable has happened yet. There is still time to change your
minds.”

She
caught and held each and every one’s eye trying to see who
would flinch. Nobody did, but then her mother’s glance slid
away from her after a second of eye contact. She made as if to pick a
non-existent piece of lint from her skirt and wouldn’t look at
Christine again. Christine sighed in tired resignation. It was always
something
with
her mother; she really wished sometimes that she could just cut
Cordelia loose and forget she ever existed. But then Cordelia was
still her mother and try as Christine might she still loved her and
still wanted her mother to be part of her life. It was stupid and it
was probably going to get her in deep shit one day; in fact that day
might be here right now but…blood was blood.

“
Mother?
Do you have anything you’d like to say to me?” she asked
trying to still the tremble in her voice. Cordelia shook her head but
didn’t look up.

“
Sis,”
Uncle Andrew hissed.

“
I
haven’t done anything! Why y’all always pickin on me?”
Cordelia shouted.

“
Nobody’s
pickin on you C. We just asked you a question and you jumpin down
peoples’ throats and shit…”

Cordelia stood up. “I’m
leavin,” she said, she bent over and pulled at Kevin. “Come
on Kevin, lets go.”

Everyone watched them
rush out like their hair was on fire and their tails were catching.
Christine felt a knot in her chest, like a heaviness. It was there on
and off every time she interacted with her mother. She always had
hopes that never came to fruition. And now her mother had sicced
lawyers onto her…er, she had no idea what to call Max; partner
in crime? Fake husband? Marriage of convenience mate? Baby Daddy? She
thought that last one might be the most accurate description.

“
What
now?” Sadie asked startling Christine out of her reverie.

Christine shrugged. “I
have no idea. Uncle Andrew could you talk to her maybe? Make her see
the error of her ways?”

“
I've
been
talking to her. I love your mama like a sister but she is the
messiest bitch I've ever known and she’s not going to change
now. It was a mistake to tell her anything.”

“
Yeah
thanks for that input; not really helping with the situation,”
Christine said miserably.

There was a strained
silence for a few minutes.

“
Pre-emptive
strike,” Sadie said.

“
What?”
Christine replied.

“
Release
a statement to the public, telling them what’s really
happening,” Sadie said.

Uncle Andrew was
already shaking his head.

“
Absolutely
not; that would just open a whole new can of worms,” Christine
said. Uncle Andrew nodded his head in agreement.

“
So
what then?” Sadie asked.

“
Pay
them off, one time only and make them sign an NDA.”

“
Do
you think they’ll stick to it?”

“
We’ll
emphasize to them that the penalty for talking would be compensation
of twice the money they’re paid. Since I absolutely guarantee
they won’t have it; they’ll have to keep their traps
shut.”

“
Unless
they’re offered substantially more than twice what you pay
them,” Aisha pointed out.

“
Yeah,
well that doesn’t stop them from experiencing jail time.”

“
You
would have her arrested? For real?” Angela asked.

“
Yep,”
Christine said though she wasn’t as confident as she tried to
seem. Her mother was so complex. “God this sucks,” she
exclaimed.

Uncle Carl came over to
her and enveloped her in his arms.

“
Don’t
worry baby. It’ll be alright,” he said soothingly rubbing
her back.

Just then her phone
beeped. It was a text from Max.

Are you coming home?

She had clicked on the
reply option before it occurred to her to wonder why he would care.

Not tonight.

She hit send and then
turned back to her uncle and leaned into him.

“
I’m
gonna have to tell him. I’m gonna have to tell Max,” she
said almost hyperventilating.

“
Shhh,”
Uncle Carl said.

The phone beeped again.
Max again.

Why?

Christine frowned
wondering at all this sudden interest.

I’m taking
care of business.

She replied barely
restraining herself from being rude. She stared at her phone waiting
to see if he would reply and what he would say. She was startled when
the phone rang. Beautiful loser permeated the room before Christine
pressed answer.

“
What?”
she said into the receiver as her family watched her.

“
Where
are you?” he asked.

Christine opened her
mouth to tell him how he wasn’t the boss of her when she
remembered her audience. She put up a hand and murmured ‘excuse
me’ before disappearing into the dining room.

“
You’re
not the boss of me Max,” she whispered into the phone.

“
I’m
concerned for you that’s all. Can I come pick you up? It's late
and you need your rest.”

“
I
know what I need Max; and I’ll thank you to back off.”

“
All
your stuff is here. You’re moved in. This is your home. This is
where you sleep. So where are you?”

Christine sighed in
irritation. “I’m at gra’s house okay? Getting to
the bottom of this snitch situation. Happy?”

It was Max' turn to
sigh, “How about I come over, and help you out?”

“
Thanks
but I can manage.”

Max began to say
something else but Christine wasn’t listening. “Listen,”
she said over his voice, “I’m gonna sort this shit out
and then imma spend the night here. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She could practically feel him wanting to protest but all he said
was;

“
Okay
then.”

Max was pacing. He
didn’t want to be; it was late and he was tired and he needed
his rest. Especially after last night. But here he was unable to
rest, unable to sleep; pacing. It was annoying as hell because a few
months ago, he was a free agent with nothing on his mind except
gambling and sex; he’d had his money on Mayweather in that bout
and he and Kendal were going to ‘take their relationship to the
next level’. He wasn’t too bummed that the latter hadn’t
happened but he had yet to collect his winnings from the former.

His life had been so
much simpler then; he was coasting – escaping from the
necessity to really grow up. Now he was confronted with his
mortality, and was attempting to bring new life into the world. A
wave of dizziness hit him at the thought and he staggered, aiming for
the bed to avoid a face plant on the floor. He expected the dizziness
to dissipate as he sat down, maybe a result of all the back and forth
pacing but instead his vision blurred and he felt like the world was
getting black around the edges. He had just enough presence of mind
to hit the call button before he blacked out.

*****

When he came to, he
found that he was in a moving vehicle going at speed. There was a
mask over his face but as he tried to move his hand to remove it, he
found that he could not. His hand was attached to several tubes that
impeded his movement. He opened his eyes slowly to see a young blonde
man with a buzz cut and vivid green eyes staring intently at him.

“
Mr.
Lestrange, are you alright?” he asked.

Max nodded his head
trying to indicate with his eyes that he wanted the mask off his
face. The man ignored him, listening to his heart beat with a
stethoscope. Max recognized the uniform as belonging to his emergency
rescue service but he hadn’t met this particular EMT before. Of
course it wasn’t like he was a geriatric used to taking regular
emergency trips to the hospital.

“
Mr.
Lestrange you seem to have a flare up of inflammation around your
prostate judging by your elevated temperature and the slight shake in
your extremities. Are you in pain? Just nod for yes or shake for no.”

Max was about to shake
his head when he felt it; a burning just above his pelvis. He nodded
his head and tried to turn his eyes down toward the correct spot but
the EMT was not paying attention. He was injecting something into the
IV that was stuck in Max’ arm. Max wanted to ask if someone had
notified Christine; surprised at how much he wanted her by his side
at this time. But then he remembered that Martha had been in the
house when he passed out. She would inform her granddaughter and then
Christine would come to him.

*****

Martha did try to call
Christine but she was dead to the world and didn’t hear the
phone ring. She shrugged to herself, leaving a voicemail and then
calling Whitby and Constantine to notify them that she’d had to
call an ambulance to the house which probably meant someone would get
hold of the news by tomorrow. She went to check on Max but they’d
sedated him so she called Stevens and he drove her home. Tomorrow
would be soon enough to find out what went wrong.