Page 238 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

SOPHIA

T he minutes tick by, and then the hours. It’s a long, terrifying night. The four of us huddle in the cold hospital waiting room, under too-bright lights, and we wait, hearts in our mouths.

Sometime during that wait, Julian brings me food and insists I eat it. His expression makes it clear that this isn’t up for debate. I shouldn’t skip meals—it’s probably not good for the baby—so I drink some soup and choke down some vegetables.

Around midnight, I find myself alone with Magnus.

Cristiano has left to take a phone call, and Julian is nowhere to be seen either.

He probably doesn’t want to be alone with me, I think with a stab.

Well, I can’t say I don’t deserve it. But even that pain is buried under a thick layer of shock.

Everything seems unreal. This isn’t right; it isn’t fair. I can’t lose Damien. I’m not ready.

“Can I ask you something?” I find myself saying to Magnus. Cristiano’s partner is tall and blond and looks like a Nordic god. Not Odin. One of the kind ones.

Magnus looks up. “Of course.”

“I overheard Damien talk.” I flush. It all seems so unimportant now. “About your surrogate. You were having some problems?”

“Ah, that.” He gives me a small smile. “A momentary scare. Lizbeth wanted fifteen million dollars and a new contract granting her parental rights.”

She wanted what? “But that’s not possible, is it?”

“She implied she’d harm the baby.” He grimaces.

“She caught us at a bad moment. Damien just had a huge argument with his mother. He was going to quit. Cristiano was stressed about that, as was Victoria. Damien insulates them from a lot of the bullshit that comes with running the Cardenas Group. Then Lizbeth called us, and I’m afraid none of us dealt with it well.

For a few days, we all collectively lost it.

” He shakes his head. “Damien sorted it out.”

“Damien was going to quit?”

He frowns. “You didn’t know? It shouldn’t really have taken any of us by surprise. After all, Cristiano and I almost broke up over his work. Damien wouldn’t have wanted that to happen with you.”

I don’t know what to say. Damien was prepared to leave his family company to spend more time with me? A weight presses down on my chest. “You said he sorted it out, the surrogate situation.”

Magnus nods. “I mean, you know how Damien is,” he says. “He’s good with people. He listens. He remembers shit about them.”

“He told me he’s bad at dates.”

“Terrible,” Magnus agrees with a laugh. “He almost forgot his mother’s birthday last year.

That would have been a disaster—Maria can be quite dramatic.

His assistant Luis runs that part of his life.

But Damien is empathetic. He makes people feel important.

And it’s not an act; he’s genuinely interested in them. ”

The health center. Brooklyn. The community garden. I have so many examples of that.

“Anyway, he talked to Lizbeth. He found out there was a greedy boyfriend involved. The blackmail was the boyfriend’s idea, evidently. I’m still furious with Lizbeth, don’t get me wrong. But we’re slowly getting back to normal.”

She’d wanted fifteen million dollars, and he’d had a really bad day. So he’d vented.

And I’d heard him, jumped to conclusions, and run away. And now, I’m pregnant.

I feel sick. How could I have made so many mistakes? How could I have been so wrong about everything?

At three in the morning, the doctor comes out. She looks at our group with tired eyes. “Are you all family?” she asks.

I grab Julian’s hand and squeeze it tight. Oh God, I’m not ready for this.

“Yes,” Cristiano replies, standing up. “I’m his brother. Sophia’s his girlfriend. How is Damien? Is he going to be okay?”

The doctor nods. Relief shudders through me. I sway, and Julian grabs me tight and wraps his arm around my waist. He presses a kiss on my forehead before he realizes what he does and stiffens.

“He’s in recovery right now,” the doctor says. “He had a broken femur, a broken wrist, and a couple of broken ribs. A punctured lung too.”

That doesn’t sound good.

“The nurse said something about a concussion?” Magnus asks.

“We’re keeping him under observation,” she says. “But his vitals are good.”

Cristiano swallows. “Did he have a heart attack?”

“His tropin levels are normal,” she says. “So it wasn’t a heart attack. We’ll test him more thoroughly in the coming days, but I don’t think it’s something to be concerned about.”

“He’s had a scare before,” I murmur. “His doctor was concerned about his stress levels. He told him to take a vacation.”

Cristiano snaps his head up. “I didn’t know that.”

“He didn’t want to worry you,” Julian says. “Is Damien awake? When can we see him? How long will he be in the hospital?”

She blinks at the barrage of questions. “He’s coming out of anesthesia now,” she says. “He’ll head to the recovery room. He won’t be ready to see anyone tonight. You should go home and get some rest.”

Home. But home isn’t a place. It’s people. And right now, there are only two people I want to be with. Damien and Julian.

Be brave, Soph.

I swallow hard and look up. “Can I come home with you?”

For a long moment, he stares down at me. Then his eyes soften. “Of course, Sophia.”