Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 153

I stand very still for a very long time, my breath getting increasingly faster as I stare into space, trying to figure this out. What was what's wrong with me?

How the hell did I miss this?!

My period has, since I first got it when I was thirteen, been very regular. And unlike Janeen, who sometimes needs to take the day off and lay in bed for the whole day when her period starts, I have never really had too much trouble with it. So, generally, it's not something I think or worry about too much -

But this?! To go six weeks without noticing that it just never showed up?!

Have I - have I seriously been stuck in such a sex haze that I just didn't notice?

But wait - how did I not notice this!?

But beyond that - how did Kent, who is so precise with literally every other aspect of my life, just not notice that I've been sleeping with him every night for six weeks without interruption? How did neither of us -

I groan a little, tilting my head back, my brain quickly running through the possibilities.

Because - what does this mean?

My mind obviously turns to the clearest possibility: that I'm pregnant.

But how!? Because Kent had a vasectomy -

But...did it not work? Or is it something worse -

Am I am I sick? I press my hands low on my stomach and look down at myself, trying to feel if...I mean, did something in me...break?

But I feel totally normal - no pain.

But not all illnesses present as pain at the start...

I'm almost panting with anxiety now, because I know that either way - either way, this cannot be good. Either I'm sick...or I'm...I'm somehow, impossibly, fucking pregnant...

Or is it something else? What am I not thinking of -

"Fay?"

I spin, almost jumping out of my boots in shocked surprise as I look up at Jerome.

"Are you okay?" he asks, looking at me warily. "I've been...talking to you for like two minutes. You haven't responded."

"We need to go," I snap, my hands starting to shake a little. I step away from Healthcliff, heading towards the stall door -

"What? Why -" I push past Jerome and he glances back into the stall towards my horse. "Fay, you haven't even stored his tack or cleaned his feet -"

"Let's go, Jerome!" I shout over my shoulder, storming towards the front of the stables. Because I need answers - now. And the easiest option thing to rule out as a possibility is pregnancy.

So, I need to get to a pharmacy. Now. Right f*****g now.

Jerome, intuiting that something is seriously wrong, curses behind me and closes Heathcliff's stall door. I'm practically out of the stable and heading for the car when I hear him calling some instructions to the stable workers and then running after me. "Fay!" he gasps, grabbing my arm before we can get to the car. "What the hell is going on? What happened?"

"We just need to go, Jerome," I snap, looking towards the car and not up into his face as I usually would. "What changed?"

I work to pull my arm out of his hand but he holds tight, refusing to let me go. "Fay!" he shouts. "Tell me! Now!"

"No!" I yell, spinning my head to look viciously up at him. "This is my business, Jerome! So, get in the car and drive, all right!?"

Shocked, clearly worried by my sudden change in mood - change in entire personality, really - Jerome drops my arm and takes a step back, looking me over from head to toe. But I just shake my head once and stalk towards the passenger side of the car. I hear Jerome sigh behind me as he moves to the driver's side, apparently deciding to play along.

We drive in silence. My anxiety takes full control of me and I sit with my arms wrapped around my legs, my chin on my knees, my dirty boots flat against the leather of the seat as I stare blankly out the windshield.

From the corner of my eye I can see Jerome glancing at me anxiously every few minutes, but I don't look at him. I don't do anything on the surface, but inside my mind is screaming.

What the what the fuck am I going to do?

If I'm...

"There," I say, my voice monotone as I fling a finger out to point at the chain pharmacy I've been waiting for, the one we pass every day on the way home. "Stop here, Jerome," I order. "What?" He asks, glancing at me again. "Fay, why? What do you need? Are you - are you sick?"

I don't answer but he slows the car, pulling into the parking lot anyway. When the car rolls to a stop I unbuckle my belt, but before I can step out of the car Jerome grabs my wrist. I pull hard, trying to tug away, but again he won't let me.

"Stop," he commands, and I look angrily up into his face. "Tell me what's going on," he insists, his hand tightening around my wrist. "You were happy all day, and then I find you in the stall basically catatonic, staring at the wall, panting like you've run a marathon? And then you tell me to stop at a pharmacy? What's going on, Fay?"

"Back off, Jerome," I snap, glaring at him. "This is my business. Not yours."

And then I push the car door open and climb out. Jerome groans and lets me go, but when I glance over my shoulder as I slam the Lexus door shut behind me, I just see him staring at me out the windshield, totally baffled.

Good, I think. Because it's going to be really complicated to keep this quiet if he's watching me pick out a pregnancy test.

I stalk into the pharmacy, following the signs and quickly finding the family planning aisle. There, I crouch down and stare at my options, looking through the neatly packaged pregnancy tests with their pink and purple labels, trying to find...

I don't know...the right one?

And as I start to panic again, wondering...shit, do I just buy one? Or some kind of...multipack? And which one... Do I need the early result one? Fat chance on that, considering my period has been gone for six weeks -

So...the one that tells you in words? Or one with a blue stripe? Or...this one is...pocket sized...

But who the hell would need a pocket sized pregnancy test?

And as I crouch there, staring frantically at all the options, the words on the packages start to blur as my eyes fill with tears. And then my lip starts to shake, and I hang my head, and fall back on my ass and begin to sob in the middle of the pharmacy, tucking my face against my hands.

Fuck. Fuck. What the hell is going on with me?

"Fuck," I hear someone whisper, echoing the words in my mind.

I flinch as I look up to see Jerome standing over me, his eyes wide, looking slowly between me and the products neatly arranged before me. Then he crouches down next to me, staring at me unblinking as I sniff and try to pull myself together. "Are you...are you serious, Fay? Are you..."

I shake my head vehemently. "I don't know," I murmur, looking back towards the pregnancy tests.

"Fay," he snaps, suddenly grabbing my arm and yanking me towards him, making me gasp as I look at him. "Who the f**k is the father?!"