I must have had a stroke, there was no way he'd have said that. I inspected his face as if I expected for him to grow a second head.
My eyes widened as I finally realized what it was: he felt guilty.
"No."
Hugo's mouth hardened. "For God's sake, Ava! Is ‘No’ the only answer you will keep giving me?”
“Answering yes has always backfired on me. So excuse me if I go with the safest option.”
He winced at the jab but carried on. “We both know you need someone to take care of you, and who would that be? We both know you are quite limited in the friends’ department."
Well that stings,I thought at the returned jab. "I have someone." I raised my chin, happy to sound much more confident than I felt.
It would be a lot to ask Ethan, and I knew it. If I needed that much supervision and help, how could he do it while he worked?
"And who is this great Samaritan?" Hugo asked, folding his arms challengingly, which only annoyed me more.
"Your brother."
"Ethan?" Hugo replied in disbelief. He shook his head again and grasped the end of the bed. "I will not agree to that, Ava. My brother is the most irresponsible, scatter-brained person there is. He will forget you are there within 24 hours."
"And yet he is the one who has always been there for me. Be honest with me, Hugo. I'm sure you felt just a little bit relieved at the thought of me losing the baby."
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
I’d rendered Hugo St-John speechless.
Chapter 22
Hugo
Istaredather,hoping to see something that showed that she couldn’t possibly believe what she'd just said. Did she really see me as this heartless monster?
What else did you expect, Hugo? You showed her the monster far more than you showed her the man.
I hated how deeply Ava's words hurt me. That was the problem with caring for someone—you couldn’t just close the door on it. Once you did, you couldn’t stop.
I knew I would remember the hard edge in her voice and the frosty look in her eyes as she said that for a long time.
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Ava said eagerly, obviously done with me, but I was so far from being done with this conversation.
This horrible experience had been enough for me to understand everything I’d been hiding from myself, all the futile lies I had forced myself to believe. I wanted this baby and I wanted her. I just needed a way to make her see it.
I turned toward the door, ready to tell whoever was at the door to fuck off somewhere else. Anyone… except the person who opened the door.
“Mr. St-John?” Ava asked, as stunned as I was.
Why was my father here? He was supposed to be on his way to one of his Caribbean islands with stepmother dearest. How did he know where Ava even was, and why would he even come here now when he didn’t even bother to come visit me, his own son, after my polo accident at age fifteen?
“Why… Who—” Ava shook her head. “It’s very kind of you to come.”
“Of course.” He walked closer to the bed, his eyes flickering toward Ava’s stomach with every step he took.
He knew! How did—I stopped. People at the office, of course. I’d not been discreet at all and I was sure the rumor had spread before Ava had even reached the hospital. I knew that despite my father stepping down over three years ago, some of the loyalty still belonged to him.The man I was before Ava, would have found out who told my father and that person would have to get a job somewhere else. The man after Ava couldn’t care less that he knew. “I wanted to see how you were doing and I brought you chocolate. You’re my future daughter-in-law after all.”
Yes, she was,I decided on an impulse.Just with a different son.