The Attorney's Pregnant Lover Read online

  The water was nice and cool against her skin, and helped her stomach feel at ease again. The night was still hot; it had yet to cool off from the heat of the day so it was the perfect combination. She swam over to Colton and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him deeply.

  She looked deep into his eyes. His blue eyes were his best feature and they drank her in. “I’m so happy, Colton. I couldn't ask for anything more.”

  “That's the best thing I have heard all day, Meghan. I couldn't be happier myself. This vacation idea of mine was absolutely brilliant.”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “It certainly was.”

  ****

  After the swim, they both changed into more comfortable clothes. Meghan was dressed in a Victoria’s Secret jogging suit, and was snuggled into bed reading her book.

  Colton was in jogging pants and no shirt as he sat at the hotel desk in their room answering emails from clients.

  Meghan sighed, “I think I'm going to take a walk in the hotel for something to do and maybe check out the gift shop.”

  “Okay, sweetheart, enjoy yourself.”

  The first three floors of the hotel didn't have any rooms as it was home to the primary pool, several hot tubs and saunas, an exercise room and a bar. After walking around all the main floors, looking for something interesting to do, Meghan decided to have a quick drink at the bar before heading back up to Colton and their warm bed. The bar was very busy, but she managed to find a place to sit and order a white wine spritzer. She was chatting with the bartender when she saw Corinne talking to another hotel guest.

  She surprised herself, because she had totally forgotten about the woman until that moment. The evening with Colton, the sex, food and company, had totally wiped Corinne out of her mind. How extraordinary. Maybe she was only a threat in Meghan's mind and she needed to get a grip before she ruined things between her and Colton.

  Corinne finished her conversation and made eye contact with Meghan, an uneasy look crossed the woman’s face. Meghan couldn't read the look she gave her but when she started walking towards her, Meghan really wished she wouldn't.

  “Meghan, how are you, enjoying your stay here?”

  “It's a lovely hotel, thank you.”

  “Is this your first stay here?”

  Meghan laughed, “How about we cut the shit. I'm sure this isn't what you came over to discuss with me.”

  Corinne let out a laugh of her own, “Well, you certainly are direct, aren't you?”

  “I try to be. What can I do for you, Corinne?”

  Corinne stared at her for a moment deciding how to proceed. “I guess I'm a little surprised that Colton has a girlfriend. It's not really his thing.... How long have you guys been together?”

  “Well, I would say that it's none of your business, but I'm guessing you don't mean me any ill will.”

  “Of course not. Colton and I are very much in the past. I’m happily married.” She smiled holding up her ring finger to show Meghan.

  Meghan breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't really sure what to think of the current situation or Corinne, but she was interested in what she had to say. “We haven't been together for long, about a month, maybe a bit more.”

  Corinne nodded in a way that Meghan didn’t like. “He's terrible at relationships,” Corinne began, “He's got a bit of a troubled past that messed him up, and he's never really been the same since. He has massive trust issues and he will never commit to you, no matter what he tells you. Believe me, I heard it all myself.” Just then, Corinne's phone went off. “One second, please.”

  Meghan watched her take the call and when she was finished, she informed Meghan that she had some matters to attend to. “Please. You must explain. You can't say something like that to me and then disappear. I need to know what happened to him and why you think I don't have a future with him.”

  “You don't think that's something you should discuss with Colton?”

  “If you believed that was possible, Corinne, I'm sure you wouldn't have come over to warn me in the first place.”

  Corinne smiled and nodded, “Yes, that's true.”

  “Please, tell me so that I have some kind of chance here in understanding Colton.”

  Corinne stared at her unsure. She looked down at her phone. “Okay, if you can meet me in the restaurant tomorrow morning at seven, we can have a coffee together. But, I assure you, that the information won't provide you with any comfort.”

  kazzie

  Chapter 8

  Meghan lay in bed that night, extremely confused. Colton lay asleep beside her and she resisted the urge to wake him up to talk about her conversation with Corinne. She had been so confident that Colton had changed, but now one conversation with Corinne had changed all of that. She wondered if Corinne was being malicious after all. Maybe she was still in love with Colton despite her marriage, maybe Colton was her first love and she never really got over him. Seeing him after all these years may have brought up old memories and feelings for him. Maybe she was trying to sabotage their great relationship in the hopes that she could then pick up the pieces and get back together with him.

  Or, maybe Meghan was as clueless as Corinne thought she was. After all, the look on Corinne's face after she realized that Meghan had only been dating Colton for a month said it all. It may have been different had she been with Colton for years, but that wasn’t the case. Not only had they only been together a short time, but they had a rocky start too. She felt sick about meeting Corinne tomorrow, especially because she was doing it behind Colton's back. But Meghan needed to know; she needed to know why he didn't believe in love and why she can’t trust him to have a relationship.

  Colton hadn't told her anything terrible from his past and to his credit, she hadn't asked either. No matter what she found out tomorrow, she would have to talk to Colton about her concerns. Otherwise, their future would fail regardless. She wanted to believe in Colton, but this woman knew so much more about him than she did. So much more, that she believed that Meghan didn't stand a chance of having a future with him. It would have been hugely insulting, except for the fact that Meghan herself had worried about the same thing. Corinne wasn't some angry fling coming back for revenge; she had spent three years with Colton. Three years!

  She should listen to what Corinne had to say. She must have known him well back then to have spent so many years with him. And he admitted he had loved her. Something he said weeks ago that he was incapable of, something he said he didn't believe in. So, when had he stopped believing in it? After Corinne? Or was she the reason why he stopped believing in love?

  It certainly wouldn't be the first time that a woman broke a man's heart bad enough that he was incapable of being in a relationship with another woman. Meghan wondered if it was as simple as that. Was Corinne going to tell her how she damaged Colton forever, only to move on with the man of her dreams?

  Fear kept Meghan awake for most of the night.

  ****

  Meghan awoke exhausted. She looked over at her phone on the nightstand and saw that it was 6 am. As much as she didn't like it, she had to get up and meet Corinne on time or risk losing the chance altogether.

  She rolled over and realized that Colton wasn't in bed with her. She quickly got up and checked the rooms as well as the bathroom, finally finding her way outside. He wasn't anywhere to be found. She walked back into the room, got dressed and put on some makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes.

  Nausea overtook her body again and she retched in the toilet. She cursed the chicken last night and made a mental note to talk to the desk clerk while she was downstairs about making a complaint about the chef. She wondered if Colton felt sick as well, maybe that's why he had left so early.

  It was probably more likely that Colton had gone out to a local Starbucks for coffee since he didn't like the hotel coffee. She grabbed her purse and headed down to the lobby. She made a quick stop to the desk and complained about the food order the night before. The clerk se
emed surprised and assured her that it had not happened to anyone else in quite some time. They had a great chef on staff but he assured her that someone would have a word with him.

  She headed to the gift shop again to get some anti-nausea medication in the hopes of stopping the vomiting. She snapped up a bottle and some dark chocolate before heading to the checkout. Something on one of the shelves caught her eye. She grabbed it on impulse to add to her purchases and headed to the cashier to pay for everything.

  Meghan arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early and saw no sign of Corinne. She hoped the woman hadn't changed her mind about talking to her. Meghan decided to go to the washroom while she waited. Ten minutes later, Meghan left the bathroom a nervous wreck. Her suspicions that it wasn’t the chicken had been confirmed and she now had much to discuss with Colton. She anxiously looked around for Corinne and found her sitting at a table alone. She headed over and sat down across from her. Corinne smiled kindly at her.

  “Good morning, Meghan.” Meghan smiled nervously at her.

  “It doesn't look like you got much sleep last night and I hope that wasn't my fault.”

  “Oh, it definitely was.”

  Corinne laughed, “Fair enough, I'm sorry. My intention was to prevent you from any heartache. I didn't want you to get hurt as I had.”

  “Did you break Colton's heart?”

  By the look on her face, Corinne was clearly surprised by the question. She took a moment before she answered, seeming to find it difficult to answer. “Yes and no. I did break his heart, but not in the way that you mean. I'm not the reason why he is the way is he but I certainly didn't help matters.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Well, like I told you, Meghan, Colton has massive trust issues and those issues are deeply rooted in who he is as a man. He may not even realize how deep those issues are. While it's very likely that he does love you and wants to settle down with you, I don’t believe that he will. Those same issues will pop up one day sooner rather than later and he will shut down or worse, bolt.”

  Fear completely took over Meghan. She didn't want to lose Colton. She loved him dearly. She couldn't imagine him running from her scared, nor could she imagine him shutting down on her and pushing her away. Maybe before, but not now. Now he was the perfect man for her and she didn't want to believe what Corinne had to say. But again, Corrine knew Colton so much better than she did.

  She felt the nausea creeping up again and she prayed that she would not throw up in front of Corinne. It was bad enough she was being told by an ex-girlfriend that she didn't stand a chance with Colton but she wasn't about to vomit in front of her to top it all off either. The whole conversation was humiliating, although Corinne seemed to mean well.

  Maybe Meghan was a complete fool, it certainly wouldn't be the first time she was a fool over a man. Yes, there definitely was a chance she was going to puke all over the table.

  Coffee and water arrived at the table and Meghan downed the glass of water, feeling the nausea pass. She mixed her coffee while avoiding the strange look Corinne was giving her.

  “Meghan, are you sure you want to have this conversation? You seem very upset. Maybe you should go talk to Colton and see what he says about the future.”

  “I already know what he will say about the future. What I want is to know why you think his past means my future is not the same as the future he has promised me.”

  Nodding, Corinne began, “When I met Colton at Harvard, he was very much the same man he is now. Confident, self-assured, and ready to take on the world. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Colton was going places....”

  Meghan listened, wishing that she had known Colton back then. She wished that she was the one that he loved while at University; maybe she could have changed him, made it so he never became damaged.

  “I fell in love with Colton instantly. He was extremely charming and he was a hot commodity at the time. All the girls pictured him as their future husband and I was the lucky one that he chose for his life, or so I thought.”

  Meghan sipped at her coffee trying to be patient, trying not to scream at her to hurry up and tell her what she wanted to know.

  “We were probably together a year before Colton opened up to me and told me about his parents’ relationship. When Colton was seven years old, he had been watched on and off by an eighteen year old nanny. The girl was the daughter of some family friends.”

  Corinne paused and took a sip of her coffee. It then occurred to Meghan that Colton was probably back in their room, wondering where she was. It wouldn't be long before he came looking for her, and she didn't want him to find her talking to his ex-girlfriend. This was an issue, but Meghan had no intention of leaving the table without finding out everything she needed to know.

  Corinne began again, “Colton adored this girl. Although she didn’t live with them, she often stayed there on the weekends as his parents liked to go out to big parties. Colton and his nanny had a wonderful relationship and it looked like she would be hired on permanently.”

  Meghan couldn't figure out where Corinne was going with this story and she was becoming irritated by the minute. “What does this have to do with Colton's commitment issues? I don’t understand.”

  “I’m getting to that, please be patient, it's all connected I assure you.”

  Meghan motioned for her to keep going.

  “One night, Colton woke up crying in the middle of the night from a nightmare and went to find his nanny. He walked into her bedroom and found his father having sex with her.”

  Meghan gasped. That was not at all what she expected and the idea that his father would have sex with the nanny was outrageous.

  “The girl?”

  “While the girl was of legal age, she was young and impressionable. Although it was inappropriate, it wasn't rape or anything. The girl didn't say no and she wanted to be with his father; she was in love.”

  “But her parents, they were his friends.”

  “Yes, it's all rather sordid and it gets worse.”

  “Poor Colton. That must have been quite a shock and so hard for him to understand.”

  “Exactly, it all came out of course. Colton ran from the room and told his mother. It blew wide open. Even the parents of the girl got involved.”

  “No charges were pressed?”

  Meghan knew the answer to her question already; the girl was over the legal age.

  “No. It was all swept under the rug to avoid any scandal. Colton's father set up a substantial trust fund for the girl to keep the parents quiet. The girl's father had some gambling debts and was more than happy to take an additional payoff in exchange for Colton’s father avoiding the humiliation he would face if others found out.”

  “I’m appalled. I don't know what to say.”

  “Neither did I when Colton first told me this. His parents stayed together but there was no love there, Colton's father cheated on his mother all the time. He grew up knowing that his parents’ marriage was a fraud.”

  Meghan was beginning to understand the significance of the story. Horror overcame her in one swoop and she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear more.

  “Colton never believed that he would fall in love. In fact, he didn't want any part of it, as it was always in the back of his mind that it could never be real love. Relationships only brought heartache and betrayal.”

  Tears welled up in Meghan's eyes as she thought about the man she was now in love with. Being exposed to that at such a young age made Colton not believe in love. How could he not? To have been faced with that and then to watch his parents’ marriage disintegrate.

  Meghan wasn't sure what she was going to do with all this information.

  “Colton said he never believed in love until he met me.” Corinne smiled remembering back. “It was everything a girl could ever want to hear. Not only did he want to learn to love, but I was the one that he chose to do it with.”

  Meghan felt hurt by this information, hurt that there could
have been any other woman in the world that he could have loved.

  “What happened to you guys?”

  “It didn't last. We were together for another two years after that talk, but old doubts kept creeping back for him and he could never get over his past. No matter how much I loved him, or what I did to show him that what we had was real, he would drift farther and farther away from me.”

  “You mentioned that you did something that didn't help his view on love. What was it?”

  “He broke my heart and I handled it wrong. I should have left when we started drifting, but I was young and stupid.” Meghan felt her heart sink in her throat. “There came a time when I felt that it was time for us to get engaged. We had talked about it many times and he had always assured me that he wanted a future together. But, then he would always put off the conversation. So, I finally gave him an ultimatum that I would leave him if he didn't propose. I wanted to get married and start a family.”