There Will Be Blood (not mine)

45. The End

JUSTIN POV

It would be surprising if you weren't tired. In some ways, your pregnant body is working harder even when you're resting than a nonpregnant body is when mountain-climbing; you just can't see its efforts. For one thing, it's manufacturing your baby's life-support system, the placenta, which won't be completed until the end of the first trimester. For another, it's adjusting to the many other physical and emotional demands of pregnancy, which are considerable. Once your body has adjusted and the placenta...

I had to stop reading after that.

I smashed my palms into my eyes and scrubbed them across my face. My heart was still pumping a little quicker than usual, and my head was pounding. For the first time in years, I wanted to take a nap.

Could this really be happening? How could this be happening?

I took a large gulp of water and tried to sooth my fiery nerves. I was pissed; I was confused. I was uncertain, but I was also terrified, and I had never in my life felt that emotion.

Maddie had just left for her walk, and I was thankful for that, because I couldn't breathe while she was around right now. It was hard for me to even think about being in the same room with her. Did she really not see how much of a bad idea this was? She was pregnant! Holy shit, she was pregnant! She was pregnant!

I had to say it at least ten times before I could even fathom the possibility of that statement. A child with my eyes or my hair or my nose... It made me sick just thinking about it. Like she requested, I had called Benny and asked him to stay behind. She needed her time alone just as much as I did.

There were so many things that could go wrong with this, and I wasn't just thinking about myself.

Maddie was fucking eighteen years old. She had her whole life ahead of her for this kind of shit. In ten years, when she had grown up and was with some man who wanted kids, then she could rethink things. But that brought about a new set of problems. I didn't want her with another man now, and I didn't want her with another one in ten years. Maddie was mine, and I planned on keeping it that way. Never mind about the marriage thing or the fact that I would make a horrible husband; some people just dated forever, right?

Last night, I was so excited to get home because I had taken care of the threat. With Felix and Demetri gone, a weight was lifted off of my shoulders, and I felt like I could finally breathe. Maddie was somewhat safer now. I didn't have to look over my shoulder every five seconds for one of the Anthis boys to pop up and kill her. Of course, the threat would never be truly gone, but I didn't have those stupid mosquitoes buzzing in my ear anymore.

My seemingly good mood came crashing down when Maddie revealed her little secret.

My first reaction was to disbelieve her. I had encountered this before, and on those occasions, girls lied because they wanted to trap me. There was never any truth to those situations, and I really hoped that Maddie was following the same path. But then the logical side of my brain stepped in. Maddie and I were already together. She had me under her finger. What need would she have to fabricate a lie like that? She didn't need to lie to me.

So, Maddie was pregnant. That was the only conclusion I could come up with. Whatever happened to modern science? I knew birth control wasn't full proof, but this was ridiculous. Why now? This was the worst possible time for this to fall into my lap. I was on the verge of taking over a major crime syndicate and still in remission from a fucking heart attack. My life wasn't really conducive for a child, even if I did want one.

I could never see someone like me raising a kid. I would be horrible; things weren't going to get any easier as I got older. I knew that it was my lot in life to produce children, but I was hoping that I could skirt around that topic. I'm sure Keegan, Jaxon, and Finn could provide more than enough kids to keep the Bieber name going. Why did I need to be a part of that?