Next to Me

Chapter Eighteen: Unexpected Turns

Charlotte yawned as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she felt exhausted and didn’t know what was wrong with her; it had been a week since Sergio had travelled to Madrid and she spoke to him nearly every night since he had gone.

“Are you sure that you are okay?” Mirian asked as she sipped on her drink, she had promised that Sergio that she would keep an eye on his girlfriend while he was gone and had sworn not to tell her anything that she shouldn’t again.

Charlotte nodded her head and offered Mirian a small smile, she hadn’t been feeling well at all and she knew that if it continued then she would be calling her doctor to have a look at her; the blonde felt a little warm and it made her wonder what could be going on with her.

“It’s nothing… I think I have that bug that’s going around,” Charlotte said as she remembered how sick she had felt that morning; she hadn’t been sick but the nausea had kept her in bed for a long time before she felt well enough to climb shakily out of bed.

Mirian nodded her head concerned for the blonde, she knew that Sergio had been worried about his girlfriend and she didn’t blame him there was something clearly wrong with Charlotte.

“So how is work?” Mirian asked as she change the subject, she eyed the blonde warily wondering if maybe she should take her back home and force her to rest; she’d been through a lot in the past few months and it was going to take its toll sooner or later on her.

***

Sergio sighed as he walked into the building where he was having his meeting, he wanted nothing more than to head home to Charlotte; he was worried about her and the last thing he wanted was to be far away from her if something happened.

“Señor Ramos it’s nice to see you,” the secretary said as she showed him into the room where the meeting was going to be held; she batted her eyes at him impressed at how he looked, she hadn’t known what to expect when she was told that the Sevillian was coming to the base.

Sergio ignored her knowing that the sooner that this was all dealt with the sooner he could return to his girlfriend and look after her; he wanted to be able to care for her if she had picked up some sort of bug or something.

The Sevillian stepped into the office where a group of men were waiting for him, he nodded at a couple of them before he took his seat across from a man with blonde hair; Sergio couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen him somewhere before.

“We all know why we are gathered here today… Victor Diaz has got to be stopped,” the man leading the meeting said, Sergio nodded his head knowing that he would do anything to make Victor suffer for what he had done to his girlfriend; he didn’t know how much more damage the other Spaniard could cause and he never wanted to find out.

“He needs to suffer,” another man said making Sergio look across the table at the younger man, he didn’t know why he was angry but he had a feeling that the blonde had good reason to be.

“Now Ethan we all know how you feel about this,” the leader said making Sergio stare at the blonde as he realised who he was; he swallowed knowing that this changed everything, he had never expected to find his girlfriend’s missing brother at this meeting.

Ethan Perez Montez looked just like the pictures that Charlotte has shown him when they had been in Madrid and she was caring for him; Sergio swallowed wondering what his girlfriend’s younger brother was doing here.

“I don’t think you do… that hijo de puta murdered my hermana,” Ethan spat furiously, he had been doing a lot of research into his sister’s death and he knew that Victor had been the one to kill her; he just didn’t understand why he had targeted her like that, she had nothing to do with this life and he had left to keep it that way.

Sergio’s mobile started to ringing making everyone at the table look at him, he offered them all a weak smile before frowning when he saw it was his sister; the Sevillian knew that Mirian was meant to be spending the day with Charlotte and he didn’t know why she would be calling him now.

“Excuse me,” Sergio said as he quickly left the conference and pulled out his phone, he sighed as he pressed it to his ear wondering why his older sister was calling him now.

The last thing he needed was for the council to kick him out and ask for René to be sent in his stead, something that would only set their father off.

“Mirian, what’s going on?” Sergio said desperate to get back to the meeting, he wanted to get a little closer to his girlfriend’s brother knowing that he had a chance of reuniting the two; he just hoped he’d be able to convince Ethan that he wasn’t a threat.

“She what? Is she okay?” Sergio asked as his sister relayed the news that Charlotte had fainted, he cursed softly that he was so far away and couldn’t be there for her when she needed him most.

***

“I feel fine,” Charlotte insisted as Stefan checked her over, Mirian rolled her brown eyes as she watched the blonde knowing that her younger brother would never forgive her if something happened to his girlfriend.

Mirian checked her phone knowing that she had promised Sergio to tell him what was going on when the doctor had checked her over; she could hear how worried her brother was about what had happened.

“Good but I still have to check you over,” Stefan said as he checked her blood pressure, he frowned for a moment noticing how high it was; he knew that she had been stressed out lately and he had a feeling that there was something else that was going on.

Charlotte frowned as the private doctor walked over and Mirian, he whispered to her softly before Mirian left the room looking confused; the blonde watched her go wondering what was going on as Stefan turned to her and fished something out of his bag.

“When was the last time that you and Sergio had unprotected sex?” Stefan asked as he walked towards Charlotte, he had asked her for a couple of her symptoms and he knew that the Sevillian wouldn’t be using protection all the time; he had been warned about it often enough when he had been with Lara and it appeared that again he had forgotten the rules.

Charlotte opened her mouth to reply before she stopped, she knew where Stefan was going with this but she knew that she had been on the pill for months and Sergio had taken extra care that he had protection on him when they slept together.

“Weeks ago…” the blonde breathed as she remembered the night where Sergio had been a little off, it had been before she had known about Lara and seemed such a long time ago.

Stefan nodded as he handed Charlotte the item that he held in his hands, he watched her as she swallowed heavily and stared down at the pregnancy test; her hands shook as she realised what he wanted her to do.

“Charlotte… I need to know so I can treat you,” the doctor said as he tried to ease her mind, he didn’t want to treat her for her fainting spell if she was pregnant with drugs that could harm the baby.