His Vanilla Girl | ✔

Chapter thirty-six

Caleb carried the little girl into her mother's hospital room. Karen's head was bandaged, much like his had been. Her eyes were closed, skin pale. Not wanting to disturb her, he sat with Grace on the chair.

"Is mommy okay?" she asked, her voice tiny and scared.

"She'll be okay," he said, kissing the youngster on the head. It was hard to believe that he was holding his long lost child in his arms, and she was alive. His emotions were all over the place, unable to make sense of why Karen would lie about getting an abortion. Did she really despise him so much that she would tell him the one thing that would hurt him most?

He was not leaving the hospital room until he found out his answer. There was so much to do. First he'd have to do a DNA test, but that was almost pointless. Grace had to be his, otherwise that would mean Karen cheated on him and that wasn't one of her character flaws.

Although didn't she somewhat cheat him out of a life with his daughter? So on the other hand she was a cheater. Man, life certainly didn't want to stay simple. Things were going so smoothly. He was going to marry Maria, and she was going to have his babies.

"Caleb," said a groggy voice from the bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Mommy!" Grace cried, leaping from his arms and rushing towards the bed to hug her mom. She tried to climb up, but the bed was too high. Caleb stood up and helped Grace onto the bed.

"Be careful, sweetheart, mommy has a boo-boo," Caleb said to the young child.

Grace held her mother's hand, and ran her other oh so carefully across Karen's bandaged head. "Do you need a kiss to make it better?"

"I could always do with a kiss," Karen replied, holding out her arms loosely, as she eyed him curiously. "What happened? Why are you here?"

"You were attacked, and Tammy said you told them to call me."

Karen frowned. "I did? I don't remember doing that."

"You also said that Grace was mine."

"Sorry, I must have been delirious." She brushed off his comment like it meant nothing.

"Don't do this, not now!"

"Look, her father isn't in the picture. You were my next best option," she snapped, and then groaned as the pressure became too much in her head. Something he remembered all too well himself.

"I can see myself in her eyes, Karen. She's mine."

His ex sighed and laid her head back on the pillow, squeezing her eyes closed as a single tear slipped through her eyelid. "I didn't want you to know."

"Why? Was I really that horrible of a person?"

"We both wanted different things. You wanted a lifestyle that I couldn't support with a kid on the way. And I knew how much you loved it. I couldn't make you give that up for me because I knew you would have eventually hated me for it, resented me."

"I was ready to make a life with you. I was ready to give up everything to be a father, and you ripped that away from me. Do you know how much it hurt me when you told me you were getting an abortion?"

"I knew you'd get over it."

"That's the thing. It wasn't until recently that I was able to make peace with it, and now I find out she was alive all this time."

"Please don't make me get into this now. I feel like I'm going to puke."

"Fine. I'll watch Grace for now."

"But she doesn't know you," Karen said, brushing her daughter's hair back from her face as she lay beside her, already half asleep.

"I've been sitting with her since you were brought in. Don't worry. I'll take good care of her until your parents arrive."