Goodbye Secrets (The Lost & Found Series book #2) (5 page)

BECCA

After a little over two weeks with no change in Stacey, Grayson and I decide to finally take the drive up to my B&B. I can’t wait to see Claudia and Rocco. I can’t wait to have my divorce finalized.

“Excited to head home, sweetheart?” Grayson grabs my hand and glances over at me.

“Yes.” I try to smile, but I do have very mixed emotions.

“Why don’t we do our Christmas shopping while we’re here?” He’s been trying to get me out of the funky mood I’ve been in for at least three days now. I miss my daughter, my best friend is healing but still comatose, and I haven’t been home in over a month. To make matters worse, Christmas is two weeks away, and I have nothing done and no Christmas spirit. “Becca, sweetheart, please, honey, I need you to snap out of this. You feel so distant.” He’s worried, worried he’s losing me. But he’s not losing me—I’m losing me. On top of all this stuff, the stress has done a number on me. I haven’t felt a hundred percent for the past week. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor for a physical. That’s tomorrow.

“When would you like to get married, sweetheart?”
Oh, Gracie, baby!

“I’m hoping that Stacey wakes up soon. As soon as she’s able to stand by my side, I’d like to get married.”

“Bec ...” he starts. I can see the concern on his face.

“Gray, I know, obviously we will only wait an acceptable amount of time. I realize no one knows when she’ll be out of the coma.” I turn the stereo on. I don’t want to talk anymore.

“Okay, love,” is all he says.

We head straight to the courthouse and arrive fifteen minutes early. Attorney Brown greets us and pulls us into a room just to go over everything again. We then head into the courtroom and take a seat to wait to be called. After twenty minutes or so, I finally hear my name. Judge Sear goes over my file and asks me a few questions.

“State your full name, please.”

“Becca Kirsten Campbell.”

“Where do you live?” I give him the address to the B&B. “Where and when were you married?”

“July 15, 2001. Fort Dix, New Jersey.”

“I see your husband was declared dead for seven years and it has come to your attention that he is alive, went AWOL, kidnapped you, and is still wanted for his crimes.” He looks up at me over the top of his half-moon frames.

“Yes, sir.”

“Names and ages of your children with your spouse.”

“Morgan Alexa Campbell. Ten years old, sir.”

“With whom does your child live with?”

“Me, sir.”

“How long have you lived in the state of New Hampshire, Mrs. Campbell?”

“Six years, sir.”

“Please state what you want.”

“A divorce, Your Honor.” The questions continue about possible reconciliation ...
No.
Child support and joint custody ...
No
and
no.
Documents are clarified. After ten minutes or so, my divorce is granted. I hug Grayson fiercely.

“Oh, I can’t wait to marry you, sweetheart!” He kisses me over and over as we walk out of the courthouse. I suddenly don’t feel so well. The room spins. “Oh, shit!” Gray yells. That’s all I remember.

“There you go, sweetheart, that’s it.” I hear Gray and flutter my eyes.

“What happened?” I sit up slowly in a strange office.

“You passed out, Becca.” The woman next to me smiles and throws out the smelling salt.

“Oh ... sorry.” I offer a slight one back. Grayson is deep in thought. He holds out his hand and thanks her. We head out to the car. Grayson grabs my phone, looks up my doctor, and calls. He asks to get me seen today. Luckily, she can see me now if we head right over. “Sorry that happened.” I squeeze his hand before I get into the car. He’s silent the whole way there.

I place my hand in his as we walk into the doctor’s office and up to the receptionist. Grayson gets on his phone.

“Susanna, can you fax Becca’s insurance card to this number?” He reads the number off the business card at the desk. “Yes, both sides.”

“Grayson, I have my insurance card.” I pull it out.

“No, sweetheart, I canceled that one. You and your staff are under my company’s plan,” he says, then turns to the receptionist. “Ma’am, Becca’s card is being faxed right now. Thanks, Susanna.” He hangs up. She gives me a new form for updated info, and Grayson watches me fill it out. He squeezes my knee when I put his name down twice—as my emergency contact, and as the person to release medical information to. The littlest things mean so much to him. I hand in my form, sit, and wait. Julia, the nurse, comes out and calls me back. Grayson follows me in. She takes my vitals.

“Becca, your blood pressure is really low for you.”

My eyes widen at this information. I always have excellent blood pressure. The only time I’ve ever had low blood pressure was during my pregnancy with Morgan.

“What is it, sweetheart?” Grayson looks down at me. I just bite my bottom lip to hold back my smile. “Becca?”

“Shh, the doctor’s coming.”

Dr. Peto walks in.

“Hi, Becca. What happened?” she asks. I tell her I passed out and haven’t been feeling well, and that I’ve been under a lot of stress. She asks Grayson to leave the room so she can give me a full exam. He’s not thrilled, but I nod him out. I have a few questions for her that I don’t want him to hear.

“I think I might be pregnant,” I whisper.

“I think you might be right.” She smiles. She hands me a cup and I go into the adjacent bathroom to do my business. When I bring out exhibit A, she dips it and proceeds to give me an exam. I ask her the question I was going to ask tomorrow. We’re both embarrassed, but she gives me the answer to the best of her knowledge. “Becca, you are definitely swollen.” She smiles, then does my pap smear then pulls out the alien shoehorn. I hate that thing! She pulls her gloves off and walks over to the counter to check my results.

“Congratulations, Mama!” She laughs. I start sobbing—happily. “I’ll set you up for an ultrasound right away, since you had a strange period last month,” she says before heading out of the room to have her nurse call down. I start to get dressed.

“Becca?” Grayson’s voice is gentle. I wipe my tears and turn to him. “What is it? What’s the matter?” He pulls me to him.

“Hi.” I find myself giggling now.

“Yes, hi, sweetheart. What did she say?”

“Um, well, I have to go downstairs for an ultrasound.” I try to be serious.

“Why? What’s the matter?” His eyes widen wildly as he cups my face—complete panic mode for Grayson.

“Apparently, there’s a growth in my stomach. Well, my uterus, really.”

“What kind of growth, Becca?” His brow furrows and the intensity of his stare softens.

I laugh. “The kind that’s going to wake us every few hours at night for a feeding.” Oh, there’s the lightbulb.

“Bloody hell, Becca! We’re having a baby?” he yells excitedly. I nod and hug him. “Oh, Becca! You had me so worried—why couldn’t you just say you were pregnant?” He’s happy and irritated. He lets me finish getting dressed. We grab my prenatal prescription and head downstairs for the ultrasound.

Tina globs goop on my belly and moves the wand around.

“Nope, we’ll have to do the internal.” Ugh! Off to the bathroom I go to pull everything off. When I come back out and lay down, Tina puts a condom-like covering on the wand. Grayson gasps.

“Where the hell is that going?”

I look at him as if he has five heads, and he laughs.

“Oh, Becca, that’s awful. You women really get the raw end of the deal, aye?”

I shake my head and hold his hand as she inserts the wand, which actually looks like a boring BOB.

“There he is!” Tina smiles and points out the little bean.

“He?” Grayson asks.

“Oh, I say that for all of them until we know the sex. It’s better than saying ‘it.’”

“The heart’s beating, so I guess I am about six weeks?”

I point the heart out to Grayson. A tear falls down his cheek.

“Becca, I love you so much. Thank you.” He kisses my face over and over again.

“You are measuring at six weeks and two days, so you’re on target. That puts your due date at August sixteenth.” She prints out a picture and hands it to us.

We head out to the rental car in our new bliss.

“I can’t believe we have to wait until August,” Grayson complains.

“Oh, it will be here before you know it.” I laugh and pat my belly. Funny thing about women: as soon as we find out we’re pregnant, our hands instantly become obsessed with our bellies.

We arrive at the B&B and I take in a sharp breath. I’m afraid to face all the changes that have occurred without my knowledge or clearance. I look at Grayson. Shit! His eyelids are blinking faster than I drive.

“Fuck ...” I breathe.

“Fuckity fuck ...” Grayson adds. We both sense the calm before the storm. “Sweetheart, remember you are pregnant now. Try not to overreact.” I hear the faint sound of a bell dinging.
All Sybeccas have their gloves up. Of course, Horny Sybecca and Porn Sybecca are facing the wrong way, wearing thongs.
TRAITORS!

“Grayson, you and I have different ideas about what is a normal reaction and what is an overreaction.” I clench my teeth because he’s already pissing me off.

“Becca, please remember that everything I do, I do it for you.”

I laugh. “Channeling a little Bryan Adams, baby?”

“Huh? Oh. Stop it. You know what I mean, Becca. Please, I’m so happy today, I don’t want to fight. Promise me you won’t lose it.” He palms my face.

“I’ll try, but you know how I’ve been feeling.” Tears plummet down my face. He thumbs them away and leans in slowly. His tongue beckons for my mouth to open up, and as I do, my theme song changes. I hear the beginning chords to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. I laugh as I kiss him.

“What?” He pulls away, a bit annoyed. I imitate the chords and then sing the first line to the song. This blows his irritation with me right out the window. For the next fifteen minutes, we sit in the car like a pair of teenagers making out. Claudia bangs on the hood of the car, and we both jump.

“Jesus Christ! Some things never change!” she yells as I open the door and get out.

“Come here, you!” I grab her and hug her like I haven’t seen her in twenty years instead of a month.

“Claudia, I barely recognized you! Just blue hair these days, huh?” Grayson teases her.

“Why, yes. I need to appear more managerial now!” She laughs, but I know it irritates Grayson that I don’t ask her to look more professional.

“I see you have a new piercing!” he says with excitement, pointing to her eyebrow. I shoot him a “knock it off” look.

“Um, it’s a redo.” She fidgets a little, clearly uncomfortable now. I roll my eyes and she relaxes. “I can’t wait for you to see all the changes we’ve made! So much has happened since we last talked.” She grabs my hand and drags me. I look back at Grayson and shoot daggers out of my eyes. That fucking bastard did exactly the opposite of what I asked!

I take a deep breath and walk in the store entrance. Not much has changed in here except the color of the walls—they’re now a light grayish-lavender. There are messages about being creative and capturing memories all done in white vinyl on the Cricut. It’s very pretty. We head into the inn’s main foyer and lounge area. All the dark wood I loved is ... gone, replaced by an airy English Cottage aesthetic. It’s bright and clean, with blues, yellows, and greens involved in a mixture of plaid and flowery patterns on sofas, chairs, and drapery. All of the wood has been painted over in a bright white.
I did not authorize this!
We talked about redoing the rooms, not the main common areas! There’s also a bar and small stage in the dining room.