Pregnant by the Heir I Divorced

I was born tipsy. My head runs fuzzy most of the time. Three years ago, in a fog, I picked up a drunk, gorgeous man off the street and took him home.

He woke up, looked at me for a while, and said, out of nowhere, "Let's get married." I couldn't be bothered to think about it. I nodded.

So I spent three fuzzy years as a rich man's wife, with his card to swipe whenever I felt like it and a big house to live in. I'd just found out I was pregnant.

Before I could tell him, he slid a divorce agreement across the table. "My company is finished. This is the last of my money.

Take it and go." That was when a few lines of text suddenly drifted across my vision, scrolling sideways like the chat in a livestream. [Ha!

The first love the male lead could never get over is back!] [The male lead is probably faking his company's collapse just so he can dump the second female lead and win her back!] [He got wasted three years ago BECAUSE she went overseas.

The second female lead is just a standin!] Huh? So I'm the standin? I nodded, slowly. "Oh. Let's get divorced, then." The light in his eyes went out all at once.

I looked at him, and I kept feeling like there was something I'd forgotten to say. Never mind. I'd say it when I remembered.

Chapter 1 Donovan pressed his lips into a line and pushed the agreement and a pen across the table to me.

His eyes were a little red, and his fingers tapped the edge of the table twice, lightly. That was his tell when he was nervous.

I looked at the agreement, but instead of picking up the pen, I reached over and touched the back of his hand where it lay on the table. "Your hand is freezing." Donovan flinched, but he didn't pull it away.

I didn't bother reading the agreement. I picked up the pen to sign. Donovan caught my hand. "Wait. Read it before you sign." He walked me through the terms, one by one.

The house was mine. The savings were mine. Every debt was his alone.

He had even set up a trust for me, enough to last the rest of my life, so I would never have to worry about money again.

Comments drifted past. [Holy crap, this whole settlement is stacked in the wife's favor?] [What a man!

But I'm starting to think the male lead really is finished!] [That doesn't add up though.

Later in the original novel the male lead is filthy rich…] By the time he finished, I was seeing stars. "I don't follow.

Point is, you want me to sign, right?" I went to put pen to paper again. Donovan stopped me a second time. His throat worked, and his voice came out hoarse. "There's one more term.

Getting divorced doesn't mean we cut each other off." "If there's ever anything you need help with, just ask." I gave him a puzzled look. "You just took on a mountain of debt.

What could you help me with?" Donovan had no answer for that. He lowered his head. I thought about the last three years.

No matter how busy he got, he always answered my goodnight texts. Any dessert I mentioned in passing showed up in the fridge the next day.

Every time I came home drunk, the light just inside the door was on.

Something in me went soft, and I said, seriously, "Then if you ever get so broke you can't put food on the table, come find me. I'll take care of you." Donovan's head snapped up.

His eyes were redder now.

His throat worked several times, and in the end all he said, quietly, was, "…Okay." More comments floated by. [What is with the second female lead's attitude?

He just handed you the best of everything he has!] [My heart hurts for our CEO!

He still thinks he isn't good enough for her!] [First love, get out here and comfort him!] [The second female lead really is permanently tipsy…] Donovan said he'd found work on a construction site.

The South Waterfront district was racing a deadline, and a contractor doing disaster rebuild work was hiring. Demolition, hauling material, whatever the heaviest job was.

Overtime paid well, the contractor covered housing and meals, and he could start the same day. He stood in the entryway with one suitcase. He looked back at me once.

His lips moved, but in the end he didn't say anything. He pulled the door open and left. The second the door shut, the comments exploded. [Tearing down buildings?

Is he serious?] [An actual CEO swinging a sledgehammer… why do I kind of want to laugh] [Stop laughing, this is brutal] [Wait. So he really is finished?

Why else would he actually go do that?] I went back to the bedroom. Donovan was everywhere in it. In the closet, his shirts hung in a neat row.

On the nightstand, the business magazine he read every night. In the bathroom, his toothbrush stood next to mine. I lay down on the bed and thought about the last three years.

The night he stayed up fixing the music box I'd dropped. The warm water and painkillers that were always waiting on the nightstand when I woke up hungover.

The way he'd come home from dinners with clients, however late it was, and wash up in the guest room first so the smell of alcohol wouldn't reach me.

I was still thinking about it when a wave of nausea came over me. I made it to the bathroom and dryheaved. When it passed, I remembered. Oh. I forgot to tell him I'm pregnant.

The comments started flashing like crazy. [!!! The male lead's first love is here! She's at the front door!] I went to the window.

I saw a woman in a white dress, her makeup perfect, standing at the bottom of the front steps. Chapter 2 I opened the door.

Amelia Chandler looked me up and down and produced a smile that said, "Just as I thought." "So you're Donovan Ellsworth's wife?" She paused. "No.

Exwife." I leaned against the doorframe and yawned. "Who are you?" Amelia smoothed her hair back and started introducing herself.

Everything she said, and everything she didn't quite say, was meant to imply the same thing: she and Donovan had grown up next door to each other.

Three years ago, Donovan had gotten blind drunk because she'd left the country. Now she was back, so of course Donovan wanted a divorce.

Comments drifted past. [The first love is gorgeous!] [Second female lead! Bet you feel small now!] [Person above me needs their eyes checked.

Real talk, the second female lead is better looking] [Don't turn this into two women clawing at each other!

Also, why do I feel like the two of them look nothing alike?] [Same, nothing alike.

Is the second female lead really a standin for the female lead?] Amelia took a photo out of her handbag. It was the two of them in high school.

They stood side by side, and though Donovan wasn't smiling, his eyes were noticeably softer than they were now.

Amelia's voice was gentle, but there was a barb in her eyes. "He never loved you.

You were only ever a standin." I studied the photo for three seconds. "He was a little heavier then. Rounder face." Amelia froze. I kept going. "Thanks for telling me all this.

Otherwise I'd never have known what he looked like in high school." "Can I keep the photo? I'd like a memento." The comments got loud. [???

Is that the point right now] [I will never keep up with the second female lead's brain] [But why is this weirdly satisfying] [The first love just got shut down hahahaha] Amelia's expression shifted, and her next words came out cold. "You really are a strange one.

It doesn't matter, though. He's already chosen me." "Do you know why he's leaving you the house?

Because he's about to move in with me." I tilted my head and thought about that. "Oh, that's good. Then he doesn't have to stay out by the site.

Tearing down buildings is exhausting." My tone was completely sincere, without a drop of jealousy in it. Amelia had nothing left to say.

Before she turned to go, she left me with one line. "Someone like you deserves to get dumped." The door closed. I leaned against it and slid slowly down to the floor.

It wasn't that it didn't hurt. It's just that my hurt always runs half a beat behind everyone else's. I put a hand on my stomach.

It was still flat. "Baby," I said quietly, "I think your dad is going to go be somebody else's dad." I sat there blankly for a while, then picked up my phone.

I wanted to text Donovan and tell him I was pregnant. I'd barely unlocked the screen when the comments started pouring in. [Oh my God!

Our CEO really is tearing down buildings!] [His hands are blistered raw… but I skipped ahead and the male lead really does end up richer than God!

Somebody explain this to me?] [Can't help you.

I want to know too] [The first love called the male lead for the address and now she's driving out to the site!] I stared at the comments and forgot what I'd been about to do.

But I felt oddly empty inside. So I went over to the liquor cabinet to get a bottle to drink. The comments came again. [???

If the second female lead doesn't want the male lead's baby she can just get rid of it, she doesn't have to drink on purpose!

Evil woman] [Right, the second female lead is pregnant and the male lead still doesn't know.

In the rest of the plot the male lead doesn't have a kid, so this baby definitely doesn't make it] My hand stopped. I put the bottle back without a word and locked the cabinet.

Then I sat down on the couch and thought about what to do about this baby. My phone buzzed. A message from Donovan. "Remember to eat dinner. Don't drink on an empty stomach.

Don't be on your phone with the lights off. And don't stay up all night." I looked at it for a while. And suddenly I couldn't bring myself to end the pregnancy.

Chapter 3 A week later, I got a Zelle notification. Donovan had sent me money. The memo read: "Half a month's pay, spend it on whatever you need." $1,847.20.

Not a big number, and not a round one either. I stared at the notification for a while.

The comments flooded in. [The male lead literally kept himself just enough money to eat ramen every day!] [His hands are covered in blisters and he's still thinking about his exwife] I got up off the couch.

I put a hand on my stillflat stomach and said, slowly, "Baby, I think your dad is about to starve to death." Then I walked into the kitchen.

A room I had barely set foot in for three years. Donovan had always been the one cooking, and never the same thing twice.

All I knew how to make was ramen, and I usually scorched that. I looked up a recipe, nearly cut my hand, and forgot the salt.

Two hours of flailing later, I finally had a pot of soup. Then I went to the drugstore for antibiotic ointment and BandAids.

The comments had let slip the words "South Waterfront district," so I took a cab out there. The site was thick with dust.

I stood at the entrance outside the fencing in a soft lounge dress and slippers, holding a thermos of soup, completely out of place.

The comments laughed at me. [Why is the second female lead's outfit weirdly adorable] I was still looking around when a white sedan pulled up.

Amelia Chandler got out, carrying an elegant lunch container. She saw me too. Her smile stiffened for a second before the polish came back. "Ms.

Marlowe?" She came over. "What are you doing at a place like this?" She looked at my thermos and gave a small laugh. "Bringing Van lunch?

His stomach is bad, he can't handle anything heavy." I looked down at my soup and considered it seriously. "It's chicken. It's not heavy.

I skimmed the fat off." Amelia stepped closer and lowered her voice. "Ms. Marlowe, there may be some things you don't understand." "This is the hardest time of Van's life.

What he needs is someone who can help him get back on top, not a clinging vine who only knows how to make soup." I thought about that for three seconds. "But right now he's tearing down buildings.

Tearing down buildings takes muscle, not getting back on top." I paused, then added, "And I'm not a clinging vine. I'll make my own money.

I just haven't figured out how yet." The comments were stunned. [The first love just got shut down with nothing to say back] [The second female lead's logic is always this bizarre and always impossible to argue with] The silence was still hanging there when Donovan came out through the fencing.

He was in dusty work clothes, hard hat in one hand, BandAids on his fingers, sweat on his forehead. When he saw us, he stopped short.

Amelia went straight to him. "Van, I brought you lunch—" Donovan walked past her, right up to me. His brows drew together. "What are you doing here?

There's dust everywhere." I held up the thermos and the drugstore bag. "I brought you soup. And medicine." Something moved in Donovan's eyes.

His fingers shook a little as he took them from me. The color left Amelia's face. "Van, I came all this way—" Donovan turned to her, polite and distant. "Ms.

Chandler, thank you for the thought. But I don't need it.

Don't come again." Then he said to me, quietly, "I'll take you home." He walked off without another glance at Amelia, who was frozen where she stood.

In the cab, neither of us said anything. I looked at the BandAids on his hand and said, out of nowhere, "You've got dust in those cuts.

They'll get infected." Donovan drew his hand back. "It's fine." I said, slowly, "Amelia Chandler says the two of you are moving in together." Donovan's head whipped around. "She's lying!" His voice came out fast, with an anger I'd almost never heard from him.

Then he realized he'd lost his composure, and explained more quietly, "There's nothing between me and her. I'm staying at a motel the contractor set up.

There are several of us packed into one room." I said, "Oh," and left it at that.

Comments drifted past. [Wait, are we still in the dark about why the male lead is so rich later?] [Has any male lead ever had it as rough as our CEO?

I can't take it!] The cab reached the house. Before I got out, Donovan said, "Use the money, don't worry about it.

Tell me if it isn't enough." His eyes were bloodshot, but the look in them was serious. I nodded, and remembered my prenatal appointment was tomorrow.

I took two steps and turned back. "Are you going to the site tomorrow too?" Donovan said, "Yeah." "Okay. Go do what you need to do, then." And I walked straight into the house.

Before bed, I got a text from a number I didn't know. "Leave Donovan Ellsworth.

You aren't good enough for him." I looked at it for a while, then typed back, slowly. "Is this Amelia Chandler?

You've got the wrong person, I'm his exwife." Then I blocked the number, turned off my phone, and went to sleep. Chapter 4 Early the next morning, I went to the hospital by myself.

I checked in at the front desk, sat down, and waited for my name. The morning sickness was bad, and I lost all my color while they were drawing blood.

After the ultrasound, the doctor told me I was a little anemic and put me on iron.

I came out of the exam room holding my folder of results, dizzy enough that I wanted to sit down somewhere. When I looked up, there was a crowd over by the emergency department.

And in the middle of it, I saw Donovan. He was sitting in a chair in the ER, his left hand wrapped in bandages. Amelia Chandler stood beside him, bent down, saying something to him.

She had a cotton swab in her hand and was trying to clean the scrape on his face. Donovan turned his head away. Amelia wouldn't let it go. She reached out to steady his shoulder.

The gesture was intimate, and people noticed. I stood where I was and watched. The comments were scrolling like mad. [Holy crap!

All three of them just ran into each other!] [The male lead got hurt at the site saving a coworker!] [The first love's information network is really something, look how fast she got here] [Wait!

I've got it!

I know why the male lead gets rich later!] I was about to read what came after that when Donovan's voice came from behind me. "Portia Marlowe!" I turned my head and saw him pull free of Amelia and come toward me.

Amelia tried to catch his arm. He shook her off. He walked fast, and it took him only a few steps to reach me. He looked down and saw the folder in my hands.

OB/GYN was printed right across the front of it. Then he saw my face, how pale I was, how unsteady. Donovan went completely still.

He stared at the folder, then lifted his eyes to my face. The rims of his eyes reddened by degrees, and the whites went bloodshot. His throat worked hard.

His voice was so hoarse it barely came out at all. "You… you're pregnant?" I blinked. I was trying to remember whether I'd forgotten to tell him about this.

Yesterday I'd wanted him to come to the appointment with me today, but he had a shift. When I didn't answer, his lips started to shake. He raised his left hand.

His fingers were trembling badly, but he didn't dare touch me. His voice broke, and there was something desperate under it. "…You got rid of our baby?" Chapter 5