Considering how well our one and only meeting went, either of those options is viable right now, regardless of the fact that her son left me right when I needed him most and she no longer has to worry about me being a “gold digger” and “tainting his integrity and family name”.

I pause in front of the large, cherry wood double door and try to calm my shaking hand as I knock gently to announce my presence before turning the handle and slowly pushing the door open.

Vivien is seated behind the largest desk I’d ever seen, speaking to someone on the phone. Her auburn hair is perfectly coifed in a low bun, her flawless makeup conceals the fact that she’s a woman in her fifties and the pale pink suit she’s wearing probably costs more than what I make in an entire month. I self-consciously slide my palms along the top of my head to try and smooth back my mess of a ponytail and grimace when I glance down at my scrubs, spotted with blood and a whole mess of other bodily fluids from my shift today. Thank God there isn’t a mirror in this office because I didn’t even want to know what my face looked like. At 5 am this morning, it had a light dusting of powder and blush and I’d even managed a few swipes of the mascara wand. Twelve backbreaking hours later, the powder and blush sweated off long ago and I’m sure the mascara has melted away and given me raccoon eyes.

Vivien motioned with her hand for me to take a seat as she ended her call. I pushed my ragged appearance out of my mind as best I could, perching myself at the edge of the chair opposite her desk as she hung up the phone and folded her hands in front of her.

“Olivia, it’s good to see you again.”

I felt a bubble of hysterical laughter tickling my throat and forced myself to cough instead of allow it to escape.

“Likewise,” I muttered with a forced smile.

If she’s going to lie through her teeth, then so am I.

“I’m sure you can understand that Charles and I are just distraught over Cole’s decision to leave town. We were really hoping that he’d start making smarter choices when it came to his future, but obviously that’s not the case.”

Her pointed glare made my skin crawl with anger. Does she really think I had any involvement in his choice to leave? Does she think I wanted him to push me aside without a second thought? She got what she wanted—Cole as far away from me as possible. She should be dancing on top of her damn desk right now. He’d been gone for a little over a month, but I could still smell him on my sheets and trick myself into thinking it was all a dream and he’d walk through the front door at any moment. I was alone and miserable and my heart was torn in half. Vivien Vargas should be ecstatic.

“I’m going to get right to the point, Olivia. This hospital and my family are very important to me. I won’t allow anything to damage either one of them.”

She unfolded her hands and rested one palm on top of a manila folder, sliding it across her desk towards me. I stared at the folder like it was a snake about to bite me, but Vivien pushed it until it was close to toppling off the edge of the desk and onto the floor. I had no choice but to take it.

I licked my dry lips and swallowed nervously before grabbing the folder and opening it. My eyes scanned the document resting inside and my face heated with mortification. I knew this wasn’t something I’d be able to keep from her forever, but I had hoped to have a little more time to prepare myself. I was still raw from the loss of Cole, and I wanted time to grow stronger before I shared this information with anyone, especially Vivien. I felt betrayed and angry that she’d used her hospital connections to dig into something so completely personal. This was MINE. The one thing Cole hadn’t destroyed when he left, the one piece of him that I could keep forever. It was my secret, my body, and my life. I was naïve to think any of that was true.

Staring back at me inside the folder is a lab report with my name on it. Highlighted with a yellow marker are the words “HCG Quantitative—35,400 mlU/ml”. I have my own copy of this report hanging on my fridge at home. I thought that by doing the blood test myself and taking it downstairs to the lab on my own, it would limit the number of people who would be privy to the information. While it’s true that the hospital has a very strict policy on patient confidentiality, when one of its own has something going on, the workplace gossip line travels faster than a forest fire.

I looked up from the report, masking my feelings of anger and confusion.

“This report was private and confidential.”

I spoke with an air of conviction that I didn’t feel.

Vivien smiled and cocked her head. “You should know by now that nothing in this hospital is confidential where I’m concerned. I need to know everything that is happening with my staff, otherwise it would be complete anarchy. And when something happening with one of my staff involves one of my family members, that makes it especially my business. Assuming this predicament you’ve found yourself in is my son’s doing?”

I immediately forget the fact that this woman is my boss and could toss me out on my ass.

“Contrary to your opinion of me, I’m not a whore. Obviously, the baby is Cole’s.”

My hand rests protectively over my stomach and, for the first time since I took the initial home pregnancy test three days after Cole left, I feel a strength flow through me that I thought I had lost. I have something to fight for. I have something to live for and no amount of smugness from Vivien is going to ruin that.

“Herein lays our problem,” she continued, ignoring my outburst. “If that’s the case, and my son really is responsible for this, he’s no longer in the picture. Do you really think you can do something like this on your own?”