Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
“Let’s have a look, eh, and see what this madness is all about.” My soft words seemed to quiet her, and she watched me curiously as I opened the note. “Eh, what does your mummy have to say?” Seeing my voice had calmed her, I read the note out loud, “Fyfe, she’s yours—” My heart jolted. “Her name is Millie. I tried to take care of her by myself, but I can’t. She’s better off with you. You can give her a comfortable, safe life. Sorry for doing it this way. Take good care of her—Pamela.” The note tumbled from my hand as I looked at the baby girl whose face crumpled as if she sensed my emotions. She opened her tiny mouth and extremely loud noises squealed out of it. Millie sobbed like she was dying.
Oh fuck.
That’s when I smelled it.
“Have you pooped?” I leaned in and wrinkled my nose. “That is either a dangerous fart or you have cacked in your breeks, wee yin. And I bet you’re hungry too. Bugger. Fuck. Shit.” Panic coursed through me. “I should not be swearing in front of a baby.”
My immediate thought was I was fucked.
My second thought was to call Eilidh.
Third to call Lewis.
Fourth to call Callie.
A million thoughts flew through my head. Was Millie mine? I’d worn protection and Pamela had sworn she was on the pill. Not 100 percent effective but still. DNA test. I’d need to do a DNA test. Should I contact the police? I needed to get my team on tracking down Pamela.
First and foremost, however, I had to put my abject terror to one side because there was a wee girl in my house most likely hungry and she definitely needed her nappy changed.
“Right. Nappies. Supplies. Food.” I grabbed her car seat and snatched up my keys. “We can do this, Millie. You and I, we’ve got this.” My breathing was a bit shallow as we hurried from the house. “I know we’ve just met, but together we can do this.”
Her crying slowed to a whimper as I googled how to buckle the car seat into my vehicle.
“There. We’re intelligent human beings.” I tapped her nose and she sniffled, her fists curling angrily. “Aye, I understand, wee babe. I’ve been sitting in shite of my own making for four weeks and it’s uncomfortable as fuck. Let’s get you out of your shitty breeks and into a clean nappy.” I brushed her cute chubby wee cheek with my knuckles and hurried into the driver’s seat.
As I pulled away from the house, I waited for my phone to connect to the car and then I called Walker Ironside, head of security at Ardnoch Estate, and told him an emergency had come up and I couldn’t make our meeting. I hung up before he could ask questions and drove to the supermarket in Thurso.
Trying to shop in a hurry while carrying a baby in a car seat was not ideal, but I prioritized the nappy change first, grabbed the supplies, and headed into the baby changing room in the supermarket.
Luckily for me, Lewis had forced me to change Harley’s nappy a few times in case I ever needed to do it when he or Callie wasn’t there. I tried not to gag as I discarded the dirty nappy in the facilities and cleaned Millie’s red wee bum. Now that I was changing her, she’d grown docile and quiet, gazing up at me with dark blue eyes filled with childish curiosity. “That was a lot of shite, Millie,” I told her quietly. “For such a tiny wee thing, you can shoot the poop.”
She giggled, like she understood me.
That’s when it hit me.
This wee human being might actually belong to me.
Holy fuck.
“Right, let’s not think too hard on that or I might have a panic attack and you need me in good working order, don’t you?”
Millie made a gurgling sound, as if in agreement.
“Aye, that’s what I thought.” New nappy on, I pulled her floral leggings back up and shirked her wee top over her rounded belly. Soft wisps of dark hair, and lots of it, curled on her head beneath a white beanie hat and she had pale skin. She was a beautiful wee thing and had her mother’s coloring. I winced remembering how I’d been depressed at Eilidh’s distance and I’d met Pamela on a hookup app. She’d just graduated and taken on a job as a solicitor in Inverness. She wasn’t interested in a relationship, but the sex was good so we’d used each other for a few months. Then one day she didn’t answer my text, so I just assumed she’d moved on.
Now I was thinking she’d found out she was bloody pregnant.
Doing the calculations, that put Millie at around eight or nine months.
Fucking hell.
A knock at the door had me bundling Millie back into her car seat. Her face crumpled as soon as her bum touched the seat. Before she could start wailing again, I lifted her into my arms and cuddled her against my chest. Her wee soft breaths puffed against my neck as she made some gurgling noises and rubbed her face against me. Settling.