One Night Stand With My Husband’s Brother

She can join her daughter inside? Surely there had to be a mistake somewhere. Mackenzie did not have a child.

Or did she?

Mackenzie thought she would die from how fast her heart was racing.

“He knows, he knows, he knows.” She repeated the phrase over and over again in her head. Everytime she did, it was scarier than the last.

“You should leave now, Mr. Axford.”

She was doing it again, Chase noted, with an arched brow. A small frown formed on his face. She was running into her shell again.

“Are you the father, Mr. Axford?”

Mackenzie’s eyes widened. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest, and she fought the urge to clutch the collar of her shirt with trembling hands.

Chase, on the other hand, had still not been able to find his tongue.

“What nonsense. Chase Axford doesn’t have a child, at least not yet.”

The voice was enough to steal their attention. Mackenzie was grateful for the doctor’s presence, Chase had finally been able to take his eyes off her.

“Forgive her, Mr. Axford. She is still new to the hospital and is not familiar with your family yet. Please return inside, miss Garett.” The doctor spoke to the nurse.

In that fleeting moment, Chase took another look at Mackenzie. Why wasn’t she denying it?

A daughter? How was that even possible? She had looked into his eyes and told him she didn’t have kids. Could she have been lying?

She was fighting hard to avoid his gaze, but he continued to leer at her.

She lied. She lied to him.

“Mr Chase, is something the matter? You’re here to see your father?”

“I’m his worker.” Mackenzie cut in. The doctor turned to look at her, and she continued to stutter.

“He just came to… I am… it’s nothing you should worry about, doctor.”

Chase narrowed his eyes on her. The question had been directed to him. What the fuck was she doing?

She could call it guilty conscience, but she found it impossible to stay still after the doctor had asked that question, knowing that Chase was the real father of the child.

“Hmmm.” Even the doctor seemed lost, so he did not speak at all. He returned his attention to Chase, and smiled at him.

“May I see you to the door, Mr. Chase?”

Chase finally looked away from Mackenzie. His head was starting to spin, and he needed to be away from her, he needed time to think about what he had just heard.

“How is your father doing? We have been doing our best, and you can be sure that after the surgery, he would be well, and be able to return home in no time…”

He continued to speak, but Chase was far gone.

Mackenzie has a daughter.

He repeated the sentence in his head over and over again, but it made less sense with every passing second.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

~~

He was gone.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief when his back disappeared from the corridor.

It’s gameover, her subconscious taunted.

She was awfully terrified. The secret she had worked so hard to keep had blown up in her face.

She turned to look at the door once more, and swallowed hard.

Chase was aware of the fact that she had a daughter, and if Calista had stepped out, he would have known in an instant that the child was his.

She squeezed the fabric of her trousers and pressed her eyes shut.

She was in shit, deep shit.

Mackenzie shook her head, opened her eyes, and pushed the door open. She walked into the dimly lit room to find Calista seated on a small bed.

The doctor welcomed her with a smile and offered her a seat close to her daughter.

“Is she alright?” Mackenzie asked. Her voice was shaking, but she managed to keep herself together.

“Yes, she is. It is just a case of myopia. Little Calista here is short sighted, and is too young to use contact lenses. So, I prescribed this…” She reached for a pink glittering glass case on her table, and held it out for Mackenzie to see.

Mackenzie took a short look at it.

“How old does she need to be before she can start using contact lenses?”

“She needs to grow older. In the meantime, there is no serious cause for alarm. There are many more kids who are short-sighted, and many of them have lost the ability to see from far at all. We can hope that with these glasses, little Calista’s eyes defect would be stopped from getting worse. It’s a good thing we figured it out this early. She should use the glasses under strict supervision. If she is left alone, she might miss her way more often than usual.”

Mackenzie made sure to listen and pay complete attention to the doctor. Some eyedrops were also recommended, and she was given a meal plan to help with Calista’s eyes too.

When they were done, Mackenzie thanked the doctor and left, holding Calista’s right hand as they walked down the corridor.

“Is something wrong with me, mummy?” Calista asked. Mackenzie pulled herself back to the present, all she had been able to think about since Chase found out, was the fact that Chase had found out.

“What? No!” She forced a smile as she looked down at her precious daughter.

“Of course not. You’re completely fine, baby. These glasses,” she brought the lense out of the glass case, and lowered herself to place the glasses on Calista’s eyes.

“This is going to help you see from afar. Come on, tell me what you think. Can you see that poster over there?” Mackenzie pointed in the direction of a “stages of childbirth” chart, five doors away from them.

Calista started to squint her brows, but she stopped immediately. A broad smile spread out through her cheeks. She threw her hands into the air and screamed.

“I can see it mummy! I can see all the pictures! All the letters!”

Mackenzie smiled back. The joy in her daughter’s eyes was a thing she would give anything to see, anything to protect. She did not regret keeping her and Cameron away from the Axfords, and she would do it all over again if she had to.

Mackenzie stood straight and held on to Calista again.

“Let’s go find your brother now, shall we?”

Calista nodded, and they continued their walk out of the hospital.

When they got to the garden, Mackenzie looked around and spotted Felicity. She would have moved to her best friend, but her best friend was not alone.

Someone was there with her, and the sight of him caused Mackenzie to freeze.

Chase Axford, in all his over six feet glory, stood beside Felicity with a smile on his face.

Mackenzie’s throat ran dry as she watched him talk and shake Felicity’s hand. He did not look like the man who had walked away from her a few minutes ago. He was a completely different person, with a completely different aura.

She tore her eyes away from him and looked to the distal end of the garden. Cameron was there, coming out of a corner and jumping towards Felicity and Chase.

“Oh, no you don’t.” She said to herself in wild panic.

She turned to Calista and asked her baby girl to wait for her at that spot, then rushed over to grab Cameron from where he was.

Once she had secured both of her children, she left the hospital through the backdoor, before she sent a text message to Felicity, telling her she had left and needed to return to work.

She hoped her friend would see it early and come to her rescue. Mackenzie could not afford to let anything go wrong anymore.