Chapter 5: My Secret Uncovered.

I struggled to turn again as I heard the words “I owe you”, the sharp pain in my stomach worsened and the last thing I saw before the darkness completely swallowed me was Richard Jones’s composed billionaire mask shattering into a look of pure unadulterated terror. He was lunging across the table for me while his glass of expensive wine shattered on the floor, completely forgotten.

When I came around, the wall was white and smelled of antiseptic. The steady beep... beep... beep of a heart monitor was the only sound in the room. I tried to sit up but a hand firmly but gently pressed against my shoulder to put me down on the hospital bed.

"Hey! take it easy," Richard said. He was sitting in a plastic chair by the bed, his tie loosened, his hair disheveled, and he looked more human than I had seen him. "The doctors said you're suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration." He explained.

"I need to go back to work, I rasped with a rising panic. If I miss a shift, I lose the job and if I lose the job....." I couldn’t complete the remaining sentence. I looked desperately around the hospital room like I was searching for an exit.

"That is not a problem, I've already spoken to the manager and your job is very safe. In fact, you're on a paid leave" he said. I knew that  a 'paid leave' meant he had written a check that could buy the whole restaurant and covered my pay for as long as it could.

"I don't want your charity Richard," I snapped using his first name for the first time.

"It’s not charity but a necessity. You have been working twenty-hour double shifts, Oma. Why? What are you running away from so fast that you’re willing to kill yourself to stay ahead of it?" he asked, his eyes squinted and his brow squeezed.

I looked away, staring at the intravenous drip, but I couldn't tell him. How could I tell this man, this powerful and perfect man that I was the "disgraced" girl? That I was a high school graduate with no friend, no family, and a baby fathered by a ghost.

"I just need to take care of myself" I whispered a response.

"You're doing a poor job of it, don’t you think?" he countered. He leaned closer, his dark eyes searching mine "I've spent my life reading people, Oma. You have the integrity of someone ten times your age, but you are living like a fugitive. Let me help you, just one dinner with no strings attached.  Let me be a friend, you saved me from an accident that would have probably ended my life and I owe you"

For a moment I almost gave in. I wanted so much to lean into him and tell him everything but then I remembered my father’s face. I remembered Tasha’s laugher and I concluded that men like Richard Jones didn't want friends like me. They wanted puzzles to solve and once the puzzle was finished, they moved on.

"I can't" I finally said, my voice breaking. "Anybody could have done what I did given the circumstance. Please just leave me alone, I didn’t know you when I saved you but its fine, I’m glad you are alive"

He stood up, looking hurt but resolute. "I'll leave for now, but I'm not giving up on you Oma Johnson."

He walked out of the room, leaving a heavy silence behind. Seconds later, a doctor walked in flipping through a clipboard. "Ah, Miss Johnson, you're awake. That is very good, we’ve stabilized your fluids, but we need to discuss the ultrasound. With the stress your body is currently going through, the pregnancy is at a high-risk."

I didn't notice that the door hadn't fully closed. I didn't see Richard standing in the hallway, his hand still on the doorknob, freezing as the doctor's words echoed into the corridor.

The doctor's words hung in the air like a guillotine. "High-risk" my heart plummeted as I took in thewords. But the real shadow fell across the room when the door swung wide open again, and Richard Jones stepped back inside, his face as pale as the hospital sheets.

"Pregnancy?" Richard asked, his voice just above a whisper but it carried the weight of a thunderclap.

The doctor looked from me to Richard, obviously confused. "I am so sorry, I assumed the father knew..." he said.

"He's not the father" I blurted out, the shame I had been hiding for months finally boiling over. I pulled the thin hospital blanket up to my chin, desperately wishing I could disappear into the mattress. "He’s... he’s just a customer from the restaurant where I work. He was already leaving." I concluded looking away.

The doctor, sensing the sudden atmospheric shift, cleared his throat. "Alright, I'll give you two a moment." He scurried out, closing the door firmly this time.

Richard didn't move. Rather, he stood at the foot of the bed, his eyes fixed on my stomach as if he could see through the layers of fabric. "How far along are you Oma?”

"Four months" I answered impulsively.

"And the father?"

"There is no father" I said, my voice hardening and gaining strength. "There’s just me and I’m going to be fine. I don't need a billionaire lawyer to swoop in and fix a situation he doesn't know anything about. Please go away," I grumbled.

Richard walked toward me but he didn't stop at the chair. He sat on the edge of the bed and forced me to look at him. "Oma, now I can see; this is why you've been working yourself to death? This is why you won't let anyone in?" he asked with concern in his tone.

"My father threw me out" I confessed, the words finally tumbling out in a broken rush. "My best friend and my boyfriend... they set me up. It was a joke, a prank to them, to see if I'd keep my integrity. They drugged me Richard and I don't even know his name. My father told me never to come home until I found him. So, you see? There is no happy ending here. I'm just a girl who was a punchline to a joke."

I expected him to look disgusted, expected him to leave but instead, his jaw tightened and a terrifyingly cold anger settled into his features but it wasn't aimed at me.

"A prank" he repeated, his voice vibrating with a predatory edge. "They violated you, took your home, and left you on the street to starve to death for a joke?"

"It doesn't matter now" I choked as all the unshed tears rushed down like a broken tap. I didn’t try to stop it, there was no need to as I felt so exposed and naked that nothing made a difference again at the moment.

"It matters to me" Richard said. He took my hand and this time, he didn't let go. He leaned in until our foreheads were almost touching. "I have spent my career protecting people who don't deserve it Oma. For the first time, I want to protect someone who does. You aren't going back to that restaurant, and you aren't going back to that shelter."

 "What are you saying?" I asked, my heart hammering in my chest.

“I am saying that a woman who instinctively saved my life cannot be under this condition and I would do nothing. I owe you my life and you need to tell me how to pay you back.

I kept quiet and thought for a while. "The only reward I need from you is to leave me alone Mr. Jones." I said finally.

“Richard’s face dropped. “Really, Oma? But I’ll have you know that it’s not an option”