Baby's Daddy

Baby's Daddy

Copyright © 2020-2021 by InamorataFeels

All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Except as permitted by the author, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

Blurb:

Kiersey had her life going great for her, in fact, it was supposed to have been getting better. After two unsuccessful artificial inseminations, she and her high-handed husband were finally going to have a baby.

But then a mix-up at the clinic pulls the plug out of her marital life, sending everything spiralling down the drain, when they discover she had been given the wrong sperm. Her husband's rejection and consequent divorce was the first of out of Pandora's box, fearing for her baby's life and amidst the series of heartbreaks, she has to find the anonymous sperm donor and have him tested for Triple A Syndrome, of which she was a non-affected carrier.

When she runs into Aithan Reeves, one of Springfield's rising young millionaires, on one of her clue huntings and then starts to fall for him, she discovers there's always a second chance at love. But she wouldn't stop looking for her baby daddy, she had to be emotionally prepared.

Will Kiersey let go of her second chance for her continued search, or will she embrace it and hope for the best? And just what else did Aithan have to offer her apart from his love?

Kiersey Lips tucked her hands into the hollow of her thighs to hide the slight tremor rippling through her skin. Her normally radiant face was pinched tight with worry as she waited for the clinic workers to see them.

Rocco, her stout husband shifted uncomfortably on the plush leather reception seats beside her. "You'd think they'd answer us immediately after making all that racket about an emergency over the phone," he said in a barely concealed voice. Rocco had patience the span of a fireworks's lifecycle. He glanced at his wife and frowned. "Kiersey, stop fidgeting."

Obediently, Kiersey removed her hands from between her thighs and bunched them into fists beside her to calm the involuntary shaking. She raised her head to give Rocco a slight smile. He still had his annoyed frown on his face and she wished they would be called in sooner. It wasn't a good thing for Rocco to be annoyed for a long stretch of time. Especially at her.

He was a good husband, most of the time, he just had anger issues. She wouldn't put it past him to lash out at her, verbally or physically, right here and now if she didn't stop fidgeting. She wasn't very certain, though. He hadn't vented his anger on her since she'd gotten pregnant. But that could be because he hadn't been angered at all during that period.

"What do you think they wanted to see us about?" she asked.

"I don't know," Rocco snapped, his bushy, brown eyebrows coming together in an angry conference again. "And I'm tired of hearing you ask that a thousand times over." He exhaled. "If those people don't come out in sixty seconds, I'm going to fucking break that fucking door down."

Kiersey winced and looked away. She couldn't start to imagine the number of eyes that were now turned to them.

"Dr and Mrs Lips?"

She jerked up instantly, almost getting a head rush. "That's us."

A tall, black guy in a lab coat, who looked like he belonged in high school smiled at them. "Come with me. We apologise for the delay. Our senior staffs were having a meeting about your case."

"Who fucking asked you? Let's just get this over with. I have a meet-up with my buddies in an hour." Rocco stood up, still wearing his frown.

The guy's smile only faltered for a second before he put it back on and started to walk out of the room. "The head staff's office is just in the next hallway."

"What did you want to see us about?" Kiersey asked, fiddling with a leather strap of her lilac handbag.

The guy renewed the plastered smile on his face. "I don't know, Mrs Lips. I was just told to fetch you guys."

Kiersey blew out a deflating sigh and shrugged. "It sounded like something bad."

She had worried her poor stomach into knots ever since she had picked the call from the hospital. And now her poor tummy churned like a washing machine with worry. And that also worried her about the growing baby. If she was this worried, she was bound to give herself high blood pressure and that would be bad for the baby, first trimester or not.

The lab coat guy veered off into the next narrow hallway and stopped to push open the first set of swinging double doors to the right. They entered into a large, airy room with blazing florescent lights overhead and a few gurneys to the side. A long formica-topped conference table dominated the center of the room, embraced all around by a number of high backed chairs.

The whole room gave a feeling of an operation room to Kiersey. She was sure it had been meant to be or used to be one. She rubbed the chill away from her arms. Operation rooms brought bad memories to her.

"Dr and Mrs Lips." A slightly rotund, balding man stood up from one of the nearest chairs to shake their hands.

"Good evening, doctor." Rocco's anger at dissipated on entering the room. He was a famous chemist with a wide chain of retail pharmacies all around the state and he always tried to make a good impression on anybody in the medical field.

"Good evening, sir, ma. Please have your seats."

Now that they were finally about to be told the news, Kiersey's worries escalated some more. What was the news going to be? There were about four other people at the table, all female, and they didn't look like bearers of good news. Now that she thought about the grim looks on theirs faces, she noticed a thick fog of untold horror hung in the room, thick as cotton wool. Kiersey almost choked on it.

Why would the artificial insemination department want to see them? And why now? No matter how much she searched through her mind for a reason, none highlighted itself. She hadn't started any prenatal care yet, so how could it be about her baby? Even if it was about, why was it the AI unit that was seeing to her? All they did was inject? the baby in her.

They took their seats and were all settled. Kiersey and Rocco looked at them expectantly. It didn't escape her notice that they were sitted on opposite sides of the oval table with them.

An elderly woman in faded pink sweater cast a glance at her colleagues and they all slightly nodded. She cleared her throat and turned back to face them.

"Dr and Mrs Lips. We regret to inform you that there was a mistake in the insemination. We-"

"A mistake? What mistake?" Rocco cut in. His eyebrows were drawing up and he was relaxed in his seat, contrary to his facial demeanor? He was angry.

Kiersey's heart turned in the cages of her ribs. What was happening? Whatever did they mean by 'a mistake'?

The woman looked away, regret deep in her chocolate-brown irises. "There was a mix-up at the lab. The two samples were put in the wrong compartments. A disastrous error on the part of the interns."

"Please, what are you saying?" Kiersey was pretty close to tears with the horror building up inside her. She felt fit to erupt and explode with compressed worry at the news to come. She could feel, already, what was about to be said.

"What we're trying to say," an Asian woman spoke up, "is that you were given the wrong sperm. The baby is not Mr Lips's."

Rocco burst into laughter. The audience in the room were confused at his reaction and cast worried glances among themselves.

Kiersey didn't even notice her husband's reaction. It was like a loud bell had gone off in her skull at the news, it brought agony and pain and blocked out every other sound in the room. Her mouth dropped open like a parched fish and she looked down at the little bump of her stomach.

"No." That single, monosyllabic word carried so much pain and horror in it, it captivated the attention of every other person in the room. Rocco even stopped laughing to cast her a worried glance.

"You've got to be joking," Rocco said, glaring from one hospital staff to another.

The woman in pink shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Dr Lips-"

"Oh, please, save it." Rocco pushed up from his chair, filling the room with the sound of wood scraping against tiles. "How could something so stupid happen? Why would you give important jobs like that to frigging interns!" He fumed, flaring his large nostrils like a wounded cobra.

"Dr Lips, we're terribly sorry about the unfortunate incident. The-"

"How long had you known?" Kiersey asked in a small voice. There was a dazed look in her eye like her mind was stuck somewhere in the depths of a restraining limbo.

The man cleared his throat nervously and clasped and unclasped his hands on the table. "About a month now, ma'am. We were skeptical about telling you. We didn't know how to break the news to you."

"You didn't know how to break the news to us?!" Rocco bellowed.

Kiersey was silent. She placed a hand over her belly and watched a fat, hot tear drop onto her cashmere black top and roll over her palm. She was in a terrible mess.

What could she do? After trying for a baby for two years, she finally got one and then just had to find out the baby wasn't her husband's. The little life growing inside her belonged to a faceless, nameless stranger who had sold his seeds for money.

Her heart felt like a sick butterfly in her chest as it fluttered weakly and painfully against her breast. She was done for. She was going to have a fatherless child. And there was no telling what Rocco would do. He was angry with her when they all thought the baby was theirs, what would he do now that he knew the baby wasn't his? He'd turn her into a punching bag and leash out all his anger on her body. He might even make her miscarry the poor baby.

What misery you have come to in this world, little one?

The palm resting over her tummy closed into a fist. She had to be strong and healthy for her baby. That she had to do. And try her best to be on Rocco's good side and stay out of his way.

She sniffed back a tear and suddenly realized her face was soaking wet. Her nose and cheeks stung from crying, she could see the bright red tip of her nose and knew her face must be a mess. Pulling out a pink handkerchief from her bag, she wiped away her tears and blew her nose.

She became aware of the people around her. She had zoned them out in her thoughts. Rocco was still shouting at the staffs. He was jabbing his finger in the air and shouting on top of his voice. Dark veins strained against the skin of his neck, threatening to burst.

Kiersey swallowed as a frisson of fear zipped across her heart like an electric wave. She picked up her bag and stood, wobbling, to her feet. "What do we do now?" she asked in a voice as loud as it could go in her terrible, frightened state.

Rocco abruptly stopped his shouting to glare at her in disbelief. His metal-blue eyes held so much venom she involuntarily flinched and stepped back, as though he had reached a twitching, forky tongue out and bitten her.

Rocco blinked, once, twice, then smiled. It was that kind of evil, leering smile that made her heart curl in fear.

"What do we do now?" he echoed, placing his hands on his hips. "What we do now is get the frigging abortion out of your womb!"

Kiersey recoiled and found herself dropping back into the seat in helpless horror. The tears climbed back into her eyes. She closed her arms over her tummy, as if that could protect the baby. What!

She couldn't possibly abort the baby. She had always wanted a baby, it had been a dominating aspect of her childhood fantasy- four girls and a boy; five lovely, rosy kids that would surround her with love and laughter. And whether it was Rocco's baby or not, she was still going to keep it. Nothing he said or did was going to change her mind. If he was going to be so heartless, she'd show him she could defy him. It was high time she tried to stand up for herself.

Kiersey looked up at her husband, her tears in her eyes hardening to a gleam. Her heart skipped at what she had to do. "No."

Rocco gaped at her in disbelief, but only for a second. Anger took over his face instantly, robbing it of other normal colours. A storm was brewing on his forehead, his teeth bared like a savage. He looked like someone about to commit murder.

He started to advance towards her. "What the fuck did you say?"

Her eyes widened in fear as he continued to close the distance between them. He was going to hit her, she just knew it. He was going to beat her up till she could hardly breathe again. But she was going to stand her ground and protect her baby. Let him do whatever he liked to her, she wasn't going to abort her precious baby.

"I said, no. I'm not aborting the baby, Rocco."

Rocco reached her and started to raise his hand. "What-"

"Now, let's not hasten to behave, sir." The man doctor held Rocco's wrist firmly in a tight grip. His eyes were hard with anger and what looked like disgust. His cold look warned Rocco not to try anything funny.

Rocco's nose flared more in anger and he sputtered, trying to wrench his hand from the man. When the doctor continued to squeeze his wrist, he calmed down and shook his head. "Let go of me now, jackass. I ain't gonna do shit."

His mouth was pursed tight in bottled anger. Kiersey knew he could easily take on the man and break his bones, but he had probably been thinking of the lawsuit that was sure to come. And the consequent damage to his professional reputation and stand.

"Let go," he growled and snatched his hand from the man's grip.

The doctor stepped back, casting Kiersey a look of deep regret and sorrow. The latter looked away, blinking back her tears. She was so embarrassed she wished the ground would open up and swallow her on the spot. She couldn't even look up to see the looks of pity and regret that was bearing down upon her.

"Maybe you can go discuss this at home and come to a common decision. Without violence," the elderly woman added.

Mutely, Kiersey stood up, sniffing back her tears. She couldn't bear to remain in the room anymore. It felt like the walls were closing in on her and, put together with the heavy throb of tension in the air, she would suffocate to death, before she could even save her baby.

Whatever happened to her next, she would try her best to deal with it. Making a wide berth around her volcanic husband, she started out of the room. It was a miracle one leg moved in front of the other to carry her out of the room. Her mind and body was numb with fear and worry. And sorrow. They seeped through her pores and latched unto her soul like leeches.

She was aware of Rocco calling her name, but she didn't think she had the energy to turn back. To answer him. She pushed out the double doors and slipped into the narrow corridor. A young nurse wheeling an IV-drip patient stared at her with worry. Kiersey blanked out her form and walked down the hallway. Into the next hallway. Out of the hospital.

A hand suddenly grabbed at her biceps roughly as she pushed open the hospital door into the open hot air and busy traffic outside.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm going home, Rocco," she slurred.

Rocco glared at her but released her limb. "What the fuck is wrong with you. You look like an hangover case."

"That's because I'm in shock, Rocco," she said. Funny she was in shock and knew she was in shock. A laugh tried to upheave from a sick part of the abyss her mind had become. It didn't quite make it into the open. The absurdity of the situation and the laugh itself shied it back into the dark recesses.

Rocco's anger came back full on. He brought her to a stop with an iron-like grip on her shoulder. "Don't go all stupid on me, Kiersey. I'm telling you for the last time to have that thing aborted."

Her cheeks reddened as she swung her gaze to him. "Rocco, that thing is a foetus in my womb. My baby." Her eyes moistened again. "Please, I don't want to abort the baby. We can always take care of it. No one would be any wiser."

Rocco's face remained stoic as he glared at her till she was sure she'd turn to stone. "Rocco, please," she continued to plead. "It's my baby, and that automatically makes it yours, too."

"We should just sue the hospital for the mix-up and move on with our lifes."

Rocco continued to stay silent. His face got angrier and angrier by the second. The grip on her shoulder tightened till she winced in pain.

"Fuck," Rocco said, releasing her from his grip with such speed that she thought she had burned him. He worked his jaw from side to side and the venom returned to his eyes.

"Look, Kiersey, I can't do this. I can't. Keep the abomination if you want." With that, he made for the black Mustang that happened to be just ahead of them and unlocked it with the remote.

He got into the car and revved the engine, rolling down a window. "I'm going for the meet-up with my friends. Find your way home."

Kiersey stared, open mouthed, as the car reversed out of the hospital parking lot into the busy traffic.

She was Fucked, with a capital F.