Alpha Billionaire Series

MARK

I watched as they rolled Brooke out of the ballroom, followed by her babies. She was so exhausted she had passed out mid- sentence.

“Are you coming?” one of the crew asked me.

I'shook my head. “No, not me.”

“Dr. Whitmore,” I said, extending my hand. “Thank you for stepping in when you did."

“Someone in the lobby mentioned that a woman was having twins in here. I figured the help was needed. Was she your patient, you know her?”

“No, not my patient.” I didn’t feel comfortable answering the rest of her questions. I was raw with fatigue and emotional burnout. I didn’t want or need to verbally dump on this woman, who I literally just met, that Brooke was definitely the one who had gotten away, and I hadn't been more keenly aware of that until I was delivering another man’s babies.

It was clear to me now that I still had feelings for Brooke and seeing her in that much pain had hit me in the gut. I went in search of Jason to distract my thoughts.

“Jason”

“Oh, hi Dr. Bryant, is it?"

“Yeah, You were very supportive of Brooke. Have you known her long?”

“Not really. She rotated into events about a week ago.”

“So, you just stepped in because she needed help?”

“I don't know. I mean, yeah, sure. Somebody needed to do it”

I clapped him on the shoulder and thanked him for all of his help. I needed to get to my room. I desperately needed a shower, and to get out of these clothes.

The desk clerk gasped when she saw the state of my clothes. Birth can be rather messy, and I didn't have any kind of covering while I had been helping Brooke.

She let out a little sob. “Is everything okay? Did she?”

I looked down at the front of my shirt. It was pretty gruesome for the uninformed.

“Everything went very well. I never did get my room key. And could I get my bags, they're behind your desk.”

“Oh, right, absolutely Dr. Bryant.”

As soon as I had my room key and my suitcase, I ignored the looks of horror and concern at my clothes and crossed the lobby to the elevators. Once in my room, I pulled off my ruined clothes and tossed them into a pile. I would have to see if a dry cleaner could help with the trousers. There was no hope for the shirt. I stuffed it into the trash.

The shower had one of those pulsing shower heads. I twisted it and let the hot water massage my neck and shoulders. My neck ached for having to crouch down so low the entire time. I knew I wasn't nearly as sore and tired as Brooke had to be.

I braced my hands against the wall and let the water beat against me. She had been in so much pain, and there hadn't been athing I could do. I knew that childbirth hurt and hurt a lot. But I had never really felt that connection to the pain. Fathers frequently would pass out during childbirth. They couldn't handle anything from the amount of pain their wives were in, to the excess of bodily fluids that were involved. Birth was not a clean process.

I tolerated those men, but I didn't fully grasp what they were feeling. They weren't weak, they were overcome with their own pain as they realized what their wives were going through. Brooke wasn't my wife, those weren't my daughters, but I had loved her once. I still loved her on some level, and I would have taken that pain from her if I could.

Twins.

And big ones at that. Much bigger than I had expected. But Brooke hadn't seemed overly surprised that she was in labor.

I closed my eyes and remembered the last time I had seen her. I thought she had been exaggerating, pushing her stomach out to look bigger than she really was. But with twins, she could have been that big easily at three or four months. But she had only been in Chicago for a couple of months at that point. And if she had gotten pregnant...

I needed to shut down that line of thinking. I had no idea when she had gotten pregnant. Hell, those babies looked ful term to me, and that would mean she had gotten pregnant when we were together.

pe

I spun the taps off and stepped out of the shower. What had she said?

Isaid the first one looked like her. She snapped back that the baby looked like the father, and then she glared at me. ape?

I wrapped a towel around my hips and stepped into the main room. I dug my laptop out of my bag and opened a calendar. I hated that I remembered exactly when everything fell apart between us.

“Fuck.”

The timing was perfect. And I could see her being absolutely livid with me for having gotten her pregnant, no matter how careful we had been. Condoms still failed.

Isat on the bed with a heavy drop. I ran my hand over my face and held onto my jaw. Were those babies mine? I cast my gaz around the room looking for the clock that all hotel rooms had. It was too late to go to the hospital and ask her questions. She needed her rest, especially after the day she had. I could ask her in the morning.

Damn it, what time was that panel? I opened the schedule for the conference. Keynote, followed by brunch, and then the panel. It would be a long morning before I could get to Brooke. It would be my professional reputation if I skipped.

I fell asleep with her cries of pain in my ears.

In the morning the hotel had a free breakfast set up. Which meant free coffee, and I needed it. I had a rough night. Every time I managed to fall asleep, I dreamed of Brooke, only instead of everything going well, everything had gone wrong. I woke up more than once covered in sweat.

I drank my first cup of coffee as if it was a shot, tossing it back and opening my throat so it went straight to my stomach. I was pouring a second cup when I was approached by a large man with a bit of a pot belly. He wore the hotel identifying colors and a black plastic name badge.

“Are you Dr. Bryant?” he asked.

“Yeah, can I help you?" At first, I thought he was approaching me regarding something with the conference. I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending my time listening to colleagues being cheerleaders for each other.

“My name's Antoine, I wanted to shake your hand” He held out a meaty paw of a hand. “Thank you for taking care of little Brooke and her babies. She's a special young woman."

Was this guy the father? No, he wasn't using the right words.

“She is, how do you—"

“Ym the manager of housekeeping. We had a betting pool as to when she was going to have those babies” he said.

“For some reason, I thought she was early. But the babies looked full-term and healthy, not early at all”

Antoine shook his head. “She's been due any minute now. If she was early, it was only a technicality of days. I expected her to be one of those women who went long”

“So, Brooke worked for you?”

“She rotated out of my department a little over a week ago—"

“The young man who helped with the delivery said something similar to me, what do you mean rotated out? It's not exactly as if Brooke and I had any kind of conversation going”

“Oh, sure. She is part of a program that provides hands-on experience through all aspects of running a hotel. They do rotations every two or three weeks. She's a really smart girl. We got word this morning that she and the babies are doing well!

I'shook his hand again. “Thanks for telling a little about Brooke. I'm glad they are doing well. I'm always happy when I can help out”

Antoine wasn't gone for more than a few moments when Dr. Whitmore, I could not remember her first name, and another obstetrician approached me.

“You are all the gossip this morning." she said. “Brock, this is Mark Bryant. He delivered the young lady yesterday with twins! “I heard all about that. What a nightmare. The last thing you expect when you come to one of these is to actually deliver, am I right?” Brock said.

She laughed and rested her hand on his arm. I got a distinct feeling they were a case of what happens at the medical conference stays at the medical conference.

“I heard they had to spend all night cleaning the carpets and finishing the setup because she went into labor in the ballroom”

“Yeah. I was checking in when it all happened. We made do with what we had. The twins were a bit of a surprise”

“How are mother and babies doing?” Dr. Whitmore asked.

“I just spoke with one of her managers. He said they received news that all is well”

“That's so good to hear. Twins can be so complicated. We'll see you around.”

As I watched the two of them leave, I realized I didn't want to be seen. I needed to see how Brooke was doing for myself I crossed the lobby and recognized the desk clerk was the same one from the day before.

“You don't happen to know what hospital they took Brooke to yesterday?”

“I don't but hold on just a minute and I can find out”

I waited while she made a quick phone call. She looked up at me as she hung up.

“I've been told she is doing well and is at St. Mary's”Content © NôvelDrama.Org.

“Thanks.” I was out the door and hailing a cab before I could change my mind.