Cassandra’s POV I called Stella from my car as soon as I left the doctor’s office. I told her what the doctor had said about the paternity test and asked her what I should do. “You’ll have to ask Jordyn for a DNA sample,” she said. “Since we don’t know where Dillon is. If the baby isn’t Jordyn’s, then you’ll know it’s Dillon’s. Unless, of course, you slept with someone else I don’t know about.” She was teasing me, and I chuckled despite myself. “Nope, just the two of them,” I said dryly. She was right. I actually didn’t even need a DNA sample from Dillon. It was a simple process of elimination. If the baby wasn’t Jordyn’s, it had to be Dillon’s. If it turned out the baby was Jordyn’s, then there was no need to contact Dillon. A thought hit me then. I hadn’t even thought about what Dillon would think when he heard I was having Jordyn’s baby, if it was Jordyn’s. I’d been holding onto hope that Dillon would come back, even
Cassandra’s POV A few days later, the doctor confirmed what I already knew. I was pregnant, and roughly two months along according to the ultrasound. Secretly, I’d been hoping that maybe the ultrasound would reveal that I was further along, although I knew that wasn’t possible given the date of my last period. So it was true. I had a baby growing inside of me and I didn’t know who the father was. This, of course, caused me a lot of stress. How could I have let this happen? I never thought, in a million years, that I’d be in a position like this. And I had no idea what to do about it. Should I tell Jordyn? Should I tell Dillon? Should I wait until I find out who the father is? I was pretty sure it was Dillon’s. Confident even. I mean, it had to be. What had happened between Jordyn and I was a mistake. We’d only slept together once. Probability was on Dillon’s side.
Cassandra’s POV “Holy shit,” Stella said. “Holy shit,” I repeated. True to her word, Stella had shown up this morning with not one, but eight pregnancy tests. “Just in case,” she’d winked at me. I’d taken the first one and watched in shock as the two pink lines appeared. “Give me another one,” I’d said. I’d taken that one and it had shown the same two lines. “One more,” I’d demanded, holding out my hand. Except that I couldn’t pee, so we had to wait. That test had been the same. So had the next three. We’d basically spent all morning and afternoon taking pregnancy tests because I wasn’t willing to believe the results. But now we were standing in the kitchen, with seven positive pregnancy tests all lined up in a row. There was no way to deny this. I was pregnant. “How do you feel?” Stella asked, as we stared at the tests.
Cassandra’s POV I turned away from the toilet bowl and wiped the cold sweat off my forehead. “What?” I asked. Stella stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She joined me on the floor, sitting with her legs crossed. My nausea had passed and I felt much better. But I was struggling to understand what Stella had just said. Morning sickness? Isn’t that what pregnant women have? “What are you talking about?” I repeated, the taste of vomit sharp in my mouth. She handed me a tissue and I wiped my face. “I know you think this is some sort of strange stomach flu, Cass,” she said gently. “But I wager that’s what lots of women think. At first. Before they find out they’re pregnant.” That last word hit me like a truck. “Pregnant,” I scoffed. “What are you talking about?” I wasn’t pregnant. Stella was being ridiculous. “The strange aversion to meat? The fati
Cassandra’s POV “Just put the trays, over there, on the counter. Make them look nice please. This party is really important to me,” I told the caterer. She nodded and set about putting out the trays. I glanced around the kitchen, making a mental check of things as I did. Then I wandered into the living room. The banners and balloons were all in place, and I was pretty proud of how it all looked. The piece de resistance was, of course, the banner I’d had speciality made from a custom signage store. Every time I looked at it, my breath hitched in my throat. “Congratulations Stella,” it read in big block letters. “You kicked cancer’s ass.” It had been a miracle. That’s how we all felt. Stella had her double mastectomy and then went straight into aggressive chemo. Her odds weren’t great, that’s what we’d all been told. But doctors only look at figures and facts. They base their od
Cassandra’s POV I knew that telling Dillon was going to be hard. I just needed him to listen to me. If I could tell him everything from my point of view, maybe he’d understand, just a little. “I thought you’d slept with Laura,” I said. Dillon walked away from me and went to the window, his back turned to me. “I honestly believed that you’d cheated on me,” I told him, fixed to my spot. “So you cheated on me,” he said, his voice dry. “An eye for an eye, is that your story, Cassandra? I hurt you so you wanted to hurt me?” I didn’t know what to say to that. It was partially true, I supposed. But there was more to it than that. I’d been so hurt, so heartbroken. And Jordyn had…I don’t know. He’d offered me a sense of comfort that I needed. But how could I explain that to Dillon? “Anyone but Jordyn,” he spat out. He ran his hands through his hair. “Literally anyone, Cass. ANYONE but Jordyn.” H