I was thinking the other day about how I've never written a 'secret baby' story. I always think for it to work, the other parent has to have been 'off the face of the earth' or unreachable for a character not to tell the person they had a baby. Therefore, 'I'm not going to tell him he has a child because I don't want to be with him' is not a good reason to deny him and infuriates me in stories. (Reminds me of Kola's ex, Sarah! LOL) I just can't cheer for that character.
However, I do enjoy the 'accidental pregnancy' trope. The 'we're only doing a casual thing. Then oops, we're pregnant and what are we going to do about it' scenario gets me excited at the conflict possibilities.
And I've written a few of those accidental pregnancies, two of them in the Essien series.
So today's teaser comes from KEEPING SECRETS and the scene where Felix finds out Ebony is pregnant. But his memory loss brings complications. Enjoy.
He turned and went back towards the hut. He had to find out the truth once and for all. He just didn’t know what he would do if the child wasn’t his. If she’d been with someone else in such a short time before their wedding. Could this be linked to why they didn’t have a wedding night?
He walked into the bedroom and saw her sitting on the bed, her head in her hands. He yearned to go to her and pick her up in his arms. But he decided against it. He needed a clear head to think without the distractions of her soft body against him. Instead, he pulled up a chair and sat astride it, facing her. He wanted to see her face when she answered his questions.
“How long have you known about the pregnancy?” The words out of his mouth were hollow and forced, but they came out, anyway.
She lifted her head up. There were no tears in her eyes. Instead, they had a fire in them, a determination he hadn’t seen before.
“Yesterday morning. I’d been throwing up for a few days, but it’s only yesterday that I suspected it could be something other than an upset tummy. So I bought the kit and did the test at Faith’s house. It turned out positive.”
It all clicked together. All her cloak and dagger movements yesterday morning. A thought occurred to him. Since she hadn’t talked to him about the pregnancy, she would have told her ex. Right now, he hated the fact he couldn’t remember all the events leading up to their marriage. Would he have still married Ebony if he’d know she could be carrying someone else’s child?
“Do you want him back? Does he know?” It hurt to ask, but he had to know.
“Does who know?” She looked at him, her eyes widened in confusion.
“The father of the child. Your ex-fiancé, I presume.”
“You think I’ve been with someone else? What kind of person do you think I am?” Her brown eyes flashed at him furiously. “There’s been no one else since you.”
Have you ever loved someone and didn’t even know it?
That’s the dilemma facing Felix Essien when he wakes from a coma to find he is married to the most beautiful and sensual woman he’s ever known. He cannot remember her or their wedding; he who had sworn never to get married or to give his heart to another. Yet, he feels an intense bond with her that he intends to explore fully.
Ebony can’t believe her good fortune when her paper husband wakes not remembering the temporary marriage arrangement with no intimacies he’d proposed, and is now the adoring husband she’s always dreamt of.
She plans to make the most of the passion blossoming between them. However, would he still feel that way when he regains his memory and realises she’s been keeping secrets and their marriage is not what he thinks it is?
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