Rely on Me - Elizabeth Knox

Prologue

Someday you will understand why it all happened the way it did.

~ Unknown

Riva

Over a Year Ago . . .

Life isn’t perfect. It never was, and it never will be. That being said, I’m a cautiously optimistic person. I’m not naïve, but I’m sure not someone who is pessimistic. I want to believe the best things will happen, though I’m a realist. Maybe I often contradict myself, but it’s only the way I was raised. My mother was the positive one, while my father has been the one who crushes dreams.

I haven’t seen my parents in a few years. They live in Oslo, Norway now where my father preferred to retire. He was one of those men who obtain contracts by the government to help improve their IT. If someone were to ask me what my father did, there’s no way I’d be able to tell them. I’m simply never the type who got into the whole technology bit.

Instead, I’m much like my mother and chose to travel, which is how she ended up meeting my father in the first place. They met while she had a few days off in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her airline was one of the very few who flew into that city. Long story short, she fancied him and they ended up falling in love, resulting in my older sisters, Astrid and Johanna. A few years later I came along, as a surprise of course.

I followed in my mother’s footsteps and became a stewardess for an international airline as soon as I was able. I had plans to see more of the world, more than I’d seen on my holidays with my family. Our summers were spent in Washington D.C. where my mother was born and raised, while during the school year my sisters and I were in Gothenburg.

My mother wasn’t the only person who was surprised, which leads me to my appointment today. I’ve been through this before, my thirty-eighth week appointment. I’m sitting on the table in my OBGYN’s office with an ultrasound tech next to me.

I fell pregnant when I was seventeen and gave my child up for adoption, to an amazing Swedish family who had the time for her, not only the time, but who had been trying to have a child of their own for years. At the time I was an irresponsible girl who drank while underage and had far too much fun. I wasn’t responsible in the least bit. My family didn’t support my decision, but when she came into this world their opinions changed as they knew it was for the best.

Now I’m a surrogate for two of my closest friends. Taylor and Marco Thompson. I’ve known Taylor since he was a little boy, his father having grown up with my mother, which is why they asked me to do this for them. Taylor’s always been an ambitious man determined to follow his own father’s path in the political environment. However, I don’t know much about Marco. All I know is that Taylor loved him and they eloped, not telling either of their families they were getting married. Marco comes from Cuba, and that’s about as much as I know.

“Are you ready to see if your little one has grown a bit?” The technician asks Marco and Taylor. They’ve been coming to every appointment with me the past few weeks since I haven’t been flying. My doctor advised I stop going to different elevations after thirty-six. Preferring to be safe, I stopped at thirty-five.

“Of course. I can’t imagine how much he has, if much at all.” Taylor smiles, taking my hand in his.

We didn’t go through the proper channels to do this. It was very . . . unique. Taylor’s my best friend. He has been since we were children, though I suppose our families were actually trying to see if we’d be a match. Ironic how that worked out.

Taylor had come to me about a year ago and told me of his plan. He wanted to have a child. Not only him, but Marco as well. They were at a point in their life where they wanted to expand their family and I was so thrilled for them. I didn’t realize what they were asking at first. They didn’t just want my eggs, they wanted me to carry the child.

Now, if I had worked for a surrogacy agency that would’ve been a massive no-no. I think it’s why we did things through a personal agreement. I’d been through an