The Carrero Effect - Falling for the Boss (Billionaire CEO) novel Chapter 224

“She’s here, isn’t she? I got her back. I’m not going to be that dumb again, I swear.” He huffs and squeezes me a little tighter. Sylvana scowls at him, then her face drops, and she heaves a sudden sigh, remembering her dilemma.

“This is what the so much worse is.” She flaps her hands with a dramatic sigh. “Marissa is here. In the sitting room.” She grimaces and both Jake and I tense up instantly. My breath catches painfully, but Jake is the first to speak.

“What the hell for?” He sounds angry, no, he sounds pissed as hell. Meanwhile I just feel sick, and emotional, and about ready to cry and storm away. This is turning into the day from hell for me.

“She’s staying with her family for the weekend and just showed up asking to see me and talk about things … She’s carrying my grandchild remember. I couldn’t turn her away!” Sylvana slaps her hands on her hips and glowers at her son.

Great. Of course, she lives near here, or is from here. When Jake met her, he was only fifteen! Why didn’t I realize this before agreeing to a house here?

“For the love of fucking God!” Jake curses, and moves me to a seat nearby, helping me slide down into it. He strokes me across the shoulder and plants a kiss on my cheek despite his obvious agitation. He moves off and gets me a glass of iced water before coming back to stand behind me, resting his hands on the back of my chair. He’s pacing to control the war of emotions going on in his head. I know his tells almost as well as he knows mine nowadays. “Fuck.” He grinds through gritted teeth.

I drink the water slowly, glad of the small task to focus

on and the cool liquid to quell my nausea; my head spinning out of control with a million emotions and crazy thoughts. The bitter pit of anxiety in my stomach expands at speed.

I wonder if you can blame murder on pregnancy hormones? Some sort of mental breakdown and loss of faculties?

“Language, Jacob!” Sylvana glares at him, then pats me on the shoulder, and walks to the fridge hauling out a bottle of wine.

“We need something stronger,” she exclaims, waving the bottle toward us with a wicked smile.

“Umm. No alcohol for Emma, Mamma.” It’s out before Jake even thinks about what he’s saying and Sylvana

spins. In an instant I see it and so does he. The clicking mind of a very sharp woman who has just registered that he carried me in looking sick, he’s been clucking around me ever since; more so than normal, and now, he’s refusing alcohol on my behalf in a tone that suggests … well suggests I’m pregnant. Her eyes widen, and her hand comes to cover her mouth in a swift gasp.

“Really?” Tears prick her eyes and she visibly shakes herself.

“Depends on what you’re asking?” Jake turns sheepish, trying to gauge his mother’s reaction, trying to figure out if she’s shocked happy or shocked pissed. I’m not counting on one more than the other as I just don’t know. Marissa’s baby puts a different spin on what would normally be a grandmother’s dream.

I, meanwhile, am still sitting thinking about the fact that Demon Bitch is sitting a few rooms away. The woman carrying my boyfriend’s baby. The woman he kissed not so long ago. She’s right here in his family home looking to talk to Sylvana about her future as the mother of Sylvana’s grandchild. The ironic timing of this situation is not lost on me. My stomach thumps hard and my heart aches with shattering pain. I still hate the bitch with a vengeance even if I am learning to forgive Jake.

“Are you pregnant?” She watches Jake closely, poised and still, barely breathing. Her voice is almost a whisper as though she daren’t believe it.

“Well not me personally, Mamma, but yeah, Emma

and I are having a lil’ Carrero.” Jake sounds pleased

and proud; for a tiny moment, I forget about her and

look at him with sheer love. It never ceases to surprise me seeing his reaction to our baby. The genuine happiness in his tone and no doubts whatsoever despite how crazy in turmoil I still feel every day. Any time he says it he always looks fit to burst with sheer joy. I can forgive him anything when he looks like this.

“Oh, my God.” Sylvana runs to her son, throwing

her arms around his big frame, dramatically, hauling him down to her height and kissing him on both cheeks in a