An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,12
know everything?”
“Yes.”
Her answer surprised him. Ben didn’t believe he had a person in his life who was entitled to know everything about him. He was purposefully insular and preferred to live his life that way. Then he realized he’d been dancing around the elephant in the car and not very successfully.
“Because we had sex,” he said.
“No, because I thought we were... It doesn’t matter. I was upset about your decision, yes. But also because you shut me out of your life when you made it. After we’d been together. Once you did that, I knew the sex meant nothing to you. I was only a convenience for you that night.”
“I told you, that’s not true.”
“You said it yourself. It just happened. Remember?”
As if he would forget anything he said to her that day. Immediately after they had sex, he thought he had escaped unscathed. She hadn’t needed a postgame breakdown of the event. Amazing. And he assumed that nothing had to change because of one night.
It wasn’t until he finally told her about the stem cell transplant that everything exploded. She’d been furious, angrier than he’d ever seen her.
Hell, she threw a snow globe.
She didn’t say anything to him after that fight, but he’d seen something in her eyes had died. Something he was certain he’d killed.
She was there for him the next morning to take him to the hospital, although they didn’t speak a word to each other. It wasn’t until later, when he was in recovery after chemo and he saw Madeleine at the hospital that he knew.
Anna was gone.
Madeleine never said anything and Ben didn’t ask. It was implied that Madeleine would handle the business end of things and she would hire a nurse to help him when he returned home after his quarantine period in the hospital.
Reflecting on that fight he entertained the possibility he’d been lying then. Maybe he wanted to believe that what they had done that night was nothing more than time-out for both of them. A temporary reprieve from the sickness, done and then forgotten. But if that were true, he wouldn’t still be thinking about it months later.
If Anna was nothing more than a convenience, then he wouldn’t be in this car right now. And if she had felt it was only a harmless night of sex, she wouldn’t have needed to quit.
And that put an entirely different light on this negotiation to get her under his employ.
“We’re here.” She stopped at the top of his driveway and he blinked, thinking he’d been so intent on watching her face that he hadn’t even recognized they were on his street.
“Come in.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m kind of drained.”
He could see it, too. Her face was pale, which made the freckles stand out. It wasn’t like Anna. Anna was always alive, always on, as if she was constantly filled with energy. This paleness worried him.
“We’re not done talking.”
“I can say what I need to. You’re going to need time to process it anyway.”
Now he was really worried. He reached over and grabbed her hand. It was damp. She pulled it away and wouldn’t look at him.
“Tell me you’re not sick.” She had to tell him that she wasn’t sick. The words had to come out of her mouth now. Panic started to bubble up in his stomach, a feeling he’d never felt before.
“I’m not sick.”
Relief washed through him. “You’re scaring the crap out of me, Anna.”
She looked over and smiled. “Yeah? Well, my news isn’t going to be any less scary.”
“Tell me.”
“I’m pregnant. Three months, to be exact.”
CHAPTER FOUR
ANNA LOOKED AT the clock on her kitchen wall. It was one minute to noon and she held her breath waiting for the minute hand to move. As soon as it did, her doorbell rang. Ever punctual Ben.
After she’d dropped her bombshell on him, he’d insisted she come inside so they could talk about it, but she hadn’t lied when she’d said she wasn’t up for it. Even starting her second trimester, nausea and exhaustion could still sneak up to overwhelm her. And given how pale he’d gotten after the words left her mouth she knew he wasn’t up for a discussion, either. They both had needed some space and time.
He agreed to let her leave on the condition he would come over today at noon when they could have a calm and rational conversation after both of them had time to rest. Anna had gone to her apartment and had