My Fiancé's Baby Isn't Mine, So Neither Is My Fortune novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Father Line
Bethany watches Dean sign as father of her best friend's newborn, makes one phone call to shut down every authorization under her name, and tells Dean to move out of her carriage house; a stranger waits at the curb with her mother's message.
Dean signed his name on the line marked Father while I stood on the other side of the glass and watched.
A nurse had handed him the clipboard.
He did not read the form first.
He did not look to see whether I was still in the hallway.
He signed, and Heidi smiled up at him from the bed with the baby on her chest.
I had followed their cab to the hospital in another one.
That morning Dean had taken me to the clerk's office for our marriage license, on our anniversary, with no one asking him to.
He had proposed again in front of the whole line and sworn that nothing would call him away this time.
Then his phone rang, and it was Heidi, telling him she was in labor and he was her only emergency contact.
He let go of my hand and told me to take a cab home.
That was the ninth time.
In six years we had postponed our wedding eight times, and every time my best friend had a crisis.
One time it was a flight he had to meet, and he missed the appointment with our wedding planner.
One time she fell apart, and he stayed with her all night.
One time her ceiling leaked, and he left me standing on the courthouse steps to go and fix it.
He always said she had no family, and that only the two of us could help her.
I always said yes.
I looked through the glass at the man who had just put his name on another woman's son.
He had not been rescuing a friend.
He had been building a household, and my house, my car and my cards had been paying for it.
The baby had a small tuft of white hair at the crown of his head.
The nurse laughed and told Heidi it would darken in a few weeks.
I walked to the end of the corridor and called my mother.
"Freeze everything with my name on it," I said. "Every card, every account, every authorization."
There was a short silence on the line.
My mother did not ask why, and she did not tell me how sorry she was.
"Understood," she said.
"I'm coming to Newport in the morning."
"A plane will be ready at seven. Someone will meet you at the curb."
Her voice was calm, and it sounded like the plan had been ready for years.
The call ended, and a minute later a flight confirmation landed in my inbox.
Then my phone buzzed again.
Heidi had posted a photo of three hands on the baby's blanket, hers, Dean's and one tiny fist.
Under it she had written: Welcome to the world, our little one.
The tag said NewYork-Presbyterian.
Our friends had filled the comments with hearts.
Somebody asked when the party would be.
Heidi answered: Maybe we'll skip it, Dean likes things quiet.
A moment later Dean commented under her.
Of course we're having one. Tonight at seven, at the carriage house. Come meet our baby.
Our baby.
The carriage house in Brooklyn belonged to my family trust.
Two years ago Heidi had told me her rent was going up and she had nowhere to go.
Dean had asked me to let her stay there for free, because she was a single woman and my oldest friend.
She had not even been pregnant then.
I put the phone in my pocket and walked back to the maternity ward.
Two security guards stood at the door of her room.
A nurse raised her hand before I reached it.
"Family only, I'm sorry."
"I'm Dean Mercer's fiancée."
The nurse looked back over her shoulder.
Dean stood next to the bed.
He had heard me, and he did not move.
"She's not family," he said.
The nurse stepped across the doorway.
Heidi looked up and saw me, and her face was soft and kind.
"Bethany, thank you for coming," she said. "We're having a little welcome tonight. Please come. You've done so much for us."
Done so much for them.
The house.
The car.
Every card in Dean's wallet.
In her mind, it had all been theirs for a long time.
Dean came out into the hall and shut the door behind him.
He held out his phone with the invitation glowing on the screen and spoke in his usual easy voice.
"Seven o'clock. Don't be late. Heidi just gave birth and she can't take any stress."
"I'm not coming," I said.
His face went hard.
"You're going to make a scene today of all days?"
"A baby was born. Can't you be happy for someone else for one afternoon?"
Through the door Heidi called out gently that I shouldn't be blamed, that maybe I just needed time.
Dean thought I was being childish because I would not applaud the day he took another woman's child as his own.
I could have screamed.
I looked at him and said it flatly.
"Fine. Congratulations to you both."
His shoulders came down.
"But the carriage house is held by my trust. You're moving out."
He laughed once.
"Out of what, Bethany? I have a newborn."
I did not answer him.
So I turned around and walked out of the ward.
At the hospital's front curb a black car idled with its back door open.
A tall man in a dark overcoat stood beside it.
"Miss Ames," he said. "Your mother thought you might want to see seven o'clock."
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