Page 74 of My Horrible Arranged Marriage (Bancroft Billionaire Brothers #20)

ISAAC

Three months Later

I had no idea what time it was. I think I stopped keeping track somewhere between Mina squeezing my hand so hard my knuckles cracked and a nurse snapping at me for making a fourth joke about epidurals being manna from heaven.

What I did know was Mina was a damn warrior.

Bean was stubborn. It didn’t bode well for easy parenting.

The books and classes all warned us the first baby would be a slow journey.

But holy shit, how long was she supposed to do this?

It had been fourteen hours. Fourteen hours since she slapped me in the chest. I had been dead asleep and woke up in a V shape.

It took about three seconds to understand her words. She was in labor.

As it turned out, she was in early labor.

She’d cursed me for the first six hours we were in the hospital.

I was supposed to have known it was early labor and not the real thing.

If I would have known, we would have followed our birthing plan which included us lounging around our new house not far from the Duvall estate.

We were going to listen to soft music and breathe and…

bullshit. It had all been bullshit. She was pissed and shouting at me to get her ass to the hospital.

There had been threats of removing my balls with a dull knife.

But she was right. I should have known better.

I did feel terrible for her. About eight hours ago was when the pain started in earnest. She had all these grand plans for no drugs.

I was the one that begged her to please get an epidural.

She was doing a lot better but holy shit; I was convinced we were going to be cutting Bean out.

If the doctor didn’t do it, I would. I needed Mina out of pain.

I needed her to be able to enjoy the miracle of birth without feeling like she was being split in two.

“You doing okay?” I asked her, brushing a damp strand of hair off her forehead as another contraction started to build. Her face contorted, jaw clenched tight, but she still nodded, even as she panted through the pain.

“I’m… peachy,” she muttered, voice strained.

“That’s a lie.”

She turned her head and glared at me, her eyes bloodshot and tired but still every bit the fierce woman I fell in love with.

“I’m going to punch you in the face when this is over,” she said. “And don’t think I’ve changed my mind about that dull knife.”

My balls retreated to my abdomen but I ignored the discomfort her threat always brought.

I grinned instead. “That’s fair.”

Then she let out a sound that had me wincing because I knew what was coming.

The sound was a half-growl, half-moan. She crushed my fingers all over again as the contraction peaked.

I was certain I would never hold a pen again.

About an hour ago, I had switched to her holding my left hand.

I was never a great typist. She guaranteed I would never be one.

I winced, leaning closer to her. “Okay, maybe don’t punch me. I think you’ve broken three of my fingers already.”

One of the nurses, a no-nonsense woman named Patty with a resting death glare, shot me the look of someone deeply annoyed by my presence. She’d warned me once—nicely—that the delivery room wasn’t a comedy club.

I disagreed.

“If he cracks one more joke, I’m bringing him a gag,” she muttered.

“It won’t work,” I whispered to Mina. “I’ve been un-gaggable since birth. It’s a gift.”

She laughed despite the agony I knew she was in. “Patty, can we turn up this epidural thing? I don’t think it works anymore.”

“Sweetie, it’s as good as it’s going to get,” she said. “You’re close. Just a little longer and you won’t remember any of this pain.”

Mina’s head whipped around, pinning me with a feral look. I wanted to remind her I wasn’t the one that said it, but I valued my fingers too much. “See, you’re close,” I said instead.

She groaned through another contraction, clutching my arm like she was trying to tear it off. I was about two minutes from asking for my own epidural. Or some kind of numbing meds for my arm and hand.

After hours of labor, she was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Sweaty, exhausted, and in pain but she was radiant. She was bringing our child into the world. I’d never been more in awe of anyone in my life.

“You’re doing amazing,” I told her, brushing my lips against her temple. “Seriously. I didn’t even know a human being could handle this much without bursting into flames.”

“You’re… not helping…” she muttered, teeth gritted.

“No, but I’m not passing out, so I feel like we should celebrate the small victories.”

Mina snorted again. She was drenched in sweat, her face flushed, and her eyes fluttered closed between contractions, but she was hanging in there.

“Okay, it’s time to push,” the doctor said, and everything in the room shifted.

Monitors beeped, nurses moved fast, and suddenly it wasn’t just pain-filled chaos. It was happening. It was my turn to panic. Holy shit. Ho-ly shit . A baby was about to come out of her body. My baby. Our baby. A whole damn human.

“You got this,” I told Mina, kissing her forehead again, my hand in hers. “We’re about to meet our little bean.”

“I swear, if it doesn’t come out cute?—”

“He will. Look at his mom.”

“She,” she grunted.

She took a breath. Then another. And then the doctor was telling her to push.

It felt like the entire world went quiet except for her.

Her breath, her pain, her strength. I held on to her and whispered whatever words I thought might help.

She cursed. She screamed. She squeezed my hand to the point I was almost sure I was going to need a hand surgeon when the ordeal was over.

She was incredible. Suddenly, there was crying. I blinked as the doctor lifted him into view, red-faced and screaming, arms flailing like he was already arguing with the world. Mina burst into tears the moment she saw him.

“Congratulations, you have a son!”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Is he—He’s okay?”

“He’s perfect,” I choked, my voice suddenly thick.

They placed him on her chest, and my heart cracked clean in half. He was small. So damn small. But he had ten fingers, ten toes, and the most impressive set of lungs I’d ever heard. Mina looked down at him like he was made of stardust, crying and laughing at the same time.

I pressed my hand to the back of his head, gently, completely floored by the fact that he was real. Love bloomed so violently in my very soul it nearly took me to my knees.

“I’m a dad,” I whispered.

Mina looked up at me, her eyes soft and teary. “And I’m a mom.”

We looked down at him together, his tiny mouth already trying to root against her, and my heart swelled so big I didn’t know how my chest was supposed to contain it.

Later, when the room had cleared and everyone had been cleaned up and wrapped up in warm, soft bedding, Mina and I lay in her hospital bed, crammed together like we were teenagers sneaking into one twin-sized mattress.

Our son was nestled against Mina’s chest, bundled up in a blue hat and a swaddle that made him look like a very cute, very angry burrito. I wasn’t sure if babies were supposed to be so pissed. Our son looked like he had a bone to pick with the entire world.

“You sure he’s not just a very tiny lawyer?” I whispered, stroking the little crease between his brows.

Mina smiled sleepily. “Why?”

“He looks like he’s preparing opening arguments.”

She giggled and pulled him closer. “He has your scowl.”

“I have a rugged scowl. His is pure judgment.”

“He’s definitely judging us,” she said, glancing up at me. “You know that, right? Like, we’re going to be responsible for him for the next eighteen years.”

I grinned. “We get to be responsible for him. That’s the wild part.”

She leaned into me a little more. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, drawing her close as we both stared down at our baby.

He was sleeping now after a very aggressive feeding on Mina’s breast. His little fists were curled up by his face like he was ready to knock anyone out that got too close to him and his mama.

This was the feeling my brothers had always talked about. That thing I never quite understood, even when they tried to explain it. That sense of instant, irrevocable love. That full-body knowing that you’d do absolutely anything to protect the tiny creature that you helped create.

I used to roll my eyes at them. I figured they were just being dramatic, caught up in the moment. But now I knew better. There was no exaggerating the feeling. It was the kind of love that hollowed you out and filled you at the same time. The kind that changed your DNA.

“I get it now,” I murmured.

Mina looked up at me. “Get what?”

“All of it,” I said, my voice thick. “Why they kept telling me I wouldn’t understand until it happened. Why they went soft after having kids. Why they started tearing up at commercials. Why they’d drop everything for their families without a second thought.”

She reached up and laced her fingers through mine. “I honestly don’t think I’m ever going to leave him. I don’t want a nanny. I know we talked about it, but nope. No way. I’m never leaving him.”

I smiled. “Works for me, but we’ll see how the next six months go.”

“Good point.”

I kissed her temple, letting the words catch in my throat. “You were amazing today.”

She let out a soft sigh. “I’ve never done anything harder. And for the record, Patty was wrong. I remember the pain.”

“You made it look easy.” It was a little white lie, but I knew there was no way I could have survived that torture.

“I wanted to give up so many times,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “But then I kept thinking about him. And about you. And about how he deserved to come into the world knowing that we were both there. Loving him.”

“You gave him the strongest start possible.”

“ You gave me the strength,” she said, eyes wet again. “Even when you were being an annoying little shit in the delivery room.”

I laughed. “Guilty.”

She looked at me for a long beat. “You know what scares me?”

I blinked. “What?”

“How much I love him already. Like, this part of me I didn’t even know existed just activated. And now I’d walk through fire for this tiny human.”

“That’s not fear, baby,” I said softly. “That’s parenthood. And I’ll carry you both through the fire. You’re never going to be alone in this.”

She smiled. “We’re really doing this, huh?”

“We’re in it. Sleepless nights. Blowout diapers. Teething. Colic.”

She groaned. “This is going to be a wild ride.”

“And all of it is worth it,” I whispered, kissing her hair.

She nestled against me, her breathing slowing.

“I don’t even care that I haven’t slept in twenty hours,” she said. “I just want to hold him.”

I adjusted the blankets around her. “Sleep. I’ll be right here watching over both of you. I’m not going anywhere.”

***

Want more of Isaac and Mina’s story?

***

Want more Bancroft Brothers?

Go back and read book 1 in the series, My Last Love Affair! !

Get Married. Have a child.

These are the only two rules to get my inheritance.

Neither of which I want. My billionaire life doesn’t play well with either idea.

But no one asked me. My father’s company is up for grabs, and whichever of my brothers makes it to the finish line first wins.

In no time, I’ve found the perfect woman to play my fake fiancée while I figure things out.

Beautiful. Smart. Strong.

Everything I crave in a relationship and more.

But there’s a problem. She’s got a past I can’t ignore.

Not with just anyone.

With my younger brother.

To top it all off, she gets pregnant.

And the one person she doesn’t tell?

Me.