Chapter 24

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"Shall I call 999?" Gabe could hear Natalia ask his mother as he laid the petite Black woman in his arms on the couch.

"Let me check her out first, I used to be a nurse," his mother said. He had forgotten that little tidbit about his mother. She had met his father barely a year out of nursing school, not that she had even needed to go. His grandparents had come from old Louisiana money, she had gone to school to amuse herself instead of being a society girl like her peers.

The look that she gave him was withering and would have made lesser men cry, but he was standing but by the grace of the million dollar survival training the Marine Corps had invested in him.

He left her to it as she examined her patient carefully. Natalia was in the kitchen gulping down a steaming mug of liquid. Gabe raised an eyebrow at her clandestine drink. "It's either that or I down an entire bottle of wine. Pick your offspring's poison carefully," she said sardonically, but she was also turning her body sideways so her mug was out of his reach. She was so damn protective over her tea. As if he was going to remove it from her grip. He rather liked living.

"Who is that woman?" she asked finally after observing him for a long, silent beat.

"I don't know her," Gabe shrugged.

"Well she knows you," Natalia returned bitingly.

"So it would seem," he said carefully.

"You really don't know why a pregnant woman is looking for you?" Natalia questioned sceptically.

"What are you asking, Nat? I'd prefer it if you just said what you mean," Gabe ground out. He was tired and hungry and all he wanted to do was have a relaxing evening at home with his small and growing family.

She was running a hand over her bump. Was she comforting herself or the baby? She was silent as she looked down into her cup, as if she was divining the tea leaves for an answer. She sighed and put the cup in the sink after pouring the hot liquid out slowly and deliberately.

"I've never known you to lie to me. I trust you," she said turning around to face him across the kitchen island. It wasn't meant to comfort him, it was just a simple statement. A fact. Gabe was a lot things but he seldom lied and he wasn't a cheat.

She crossed her arms across her chest, her dress strained with the motion. Everything, all the physical things he loved about her were just so amplified with her pregnancy. It had him wanting to father tens of children with her before the first one was even out.

He crossed the room, and folded her into his arms. It had been far too long since he had held her. She looked surprised but settled into his embrace. He rubbed her lower back in slow circles with the heel of his palm, just like he knew she liked. She made small noises of satisfaction that did wholly inappropriate things to his body for the company they currently had.

"I love you, Nat. I would never risk our relationship. I can't and won't live without you."

She went still at his words, her gaze locked on his with an intensity that sent a jolt through him. She didn't know the extent of the power she had over him. She could kill him with a look had she wanted to. Dismember him with a gesture. Bury him with a sentence.

He was vibrating in anticipation of her touch, and it came in the form of her clasping her arms around her neck and drawing him down to her height so her full — fuller since her pregnancy — lips could plant themselves, repeatedly on his cheek and the corner of his mouth.

"I love you too. So much."

And when that wasn't enough he leaned forward, his mouth finding hers. She opened for him, letting him taste her and he kissed her for long, luxurious minutes; this woman that owned the sum of him, his tenderness and violence and everything in between. He pledged himself to her with his mouth and lips.

"She's awake." Gabe's mother swept into the kitchen. She went into the fridge for a bottle of water. They had completely lost themselves in each other, his mother's presence reminded them both of the issue at hand. Their sick guest. Their very pregnant and sick guest.

"Is she okay?" Natalia asked, pulling herself out of Gabe's arms but his hold on her still lingered on her shoulders.

"She's fine, she was just shocked. She wants to speak with you, both of you."

Gabe and Nat exchanged a look. No matter what she had to say, they were on the same page. They trailed after Elizabeth into the living room. She was handing the cold and perspiring water bottle to the woman who was now sitting up on the couch. She guzzled the water down and then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Gabe sat down on the one seater adjacent to the couch, and Natalia followed, sitting at the arm of his seat. Her hands splayed possessively on his arms in a silent warning to the woman.

"I was looking for Gabriel Mercier but when I saw you, I realised I was mistaken," she explained.

"You're looking for a Gabriel, but not this one," Natalia clarified.

"You see I had met this man, a couple of months ago. He didn't tell me his name..." she paused and chewed her lip in embarrassment. If the rich brown tone of her skin had allowed it, Gabe was sure she would be blushing a bright crimson. "When he left my house, he drove away in that car. I remembered the model and some parts of the registration, and the colour is pretty unique...my brother is law enforcement and he helped me look up the owner of the car..."

"And you need to find him because...?" Natalia asked.

She looked down at herself as if to point out the obvious. "He's the father of my child."

"What's your name, Sweetie?" Elizabeth asked, joining the conversation and derailing it to Gabe's chagrin.

"Amber."

"Amber, my fiancée and I are the only people that drive my truck," Gabe said, addressing the strange woman for the first time. "Unless you're saying I fathered your child then I'm not sure what we can do to help you."

"I didn't say that." The woman snapped, "I do remember who I slept with, I don't make a habit of this, I'm not the type to..." she let out a half sob and then dissolved into tears. Natalia was by her side immediately putting her arms around her and glaring at Gabe presumably for making her cry.

"It's okay, Amber. We're going to get to the bottom of this," Gabe changed tact. He did not want to end up on Natalia's bad side. She was hormonal and at times irrational.

Just last week she had pouted for half the day because he had eaten a donut without offering her some. Never mind that she had been teaching at the time and he had been working in the school office. She sniffed out sweet treats like a bloodhound.

"Where did you meet him?"

"I'm a nurse at the hospital, I met him there while I was working — you know, this was a mistake. I'm leaving. This is my mess and it has nothing to do with you folks. I'm sorry for interrupting your evening." She got up surprisingly fast for someone that looked like a couple of basketballs were stuck up her shirt.

"He was Black right? That's why you looked so shocked when you saw Gabe?" Natalia asked.

The woman paused, she was hoisting her handbag around her shoulder.

Natalia started laughing. She laughed until she was red in the face and tears were streaming down her face. "I'm sorry, it's just —"

Gabe shared a look with his mother, who was just as much in the dark as he was. Amber looked apprehensive and on the verge of bolting against she watched Natalia's shoulder shake in time to her laughs.

"— He's tall, light brown skin, lean with a muscular build and with an accent just like mine?" Natalia added when she had composed herself.

"Yes."

Natalia started laughing again, and Gabe finally understood who she was describing. Her brother. One Ashley Burton, and Gabe chuckled too. That man had given him such a hard time about Natalia's out of wedlock pregnancy and now the universe was dealing him the same set of cards. Wasn't karma beautiful?

"Would you two like to share your inside joke with the rest of us?" Elizabeth grumbled.

"My brother, he borrowed Gabe's car when we were in hospital a couple of months ago and that led to — " she gestured with her head to Amber.

Amber visibly deflated, she had been so tense standing up, her shoulder relaxed and she looked exhausted from the emotions of the whole encounter.

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Amber?" Natalia invited. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me."

"I already have taken up so much for your time. I'm just going to write my number here for you, if you could give this to your brother for me. I don't want anything from him, I just thought he should know that's all." She held out a piece of paper with something scribbled on it.

"My brother will get in touch with you, if it's the last thing I do," Natalia vowed, darkly with enough menace to make everyone in the room concerned for the absent brother. "And I...I would like to keep in touch with you. If that's okay. I mean — "

"— I'm not so sure," Amber said, rubbing her middle in that way that pregnant women did.

"Why don't you think about that before you make a decision?" Elizabeth stepped in diffusing the situation.

Natalia looked crestfallen. She loved to adopt stray animals and humans and when she wasn't adopted back it was deeply upsetting.

Elizabeth walked Amber out into the hallway. They exchanged words that they couldn't hear from the living room.

"Why doesn't she want to be friends with me?" Natalia wondered aloud, sadly.

"It probably has nothing to do with you, Baby. Don't take it personally," Gabe soothed. Her mood had switched more times than Kim Kardashian's face in the last hour.

"Mm...okay," she sighed, lost in thought. Gabe knew that her imaginative little brain was conjuring up images of their child and Amber's frolicking in the park or something equally saccharine. "I'm hungry," she announced a few moments later already on to the next mood.

She rushed to the kitchen in a movement that could only be described as a waddle. "Oh my god, my pasta..." Gabe heard her moaning from the kitchen, and he stifled a chuckle as he scrolled through the food delivery app on his iPhone. Takeout Chinese was the perfect remedy for this situation and he was going to take a shower while he waited for it to be delivered.

"Don't leave me with her," Elizabeth whispered frantically as he passed her in the hallway.

"You wanted Grandchildren, Ma," he shrugged.

"Gabriel!"

"She likes backrubs," He offered laughingly as he ascended up the stairs.

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LOL y'all didn't expect that did you?
An update and a plotwist?

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