Derek nodded. “I’m happy to help.”

  “It’s good to be here,” Alyssa said, truly meaning it.

  “Mama!” Kate shouted and pointed at Alyssa.

  CHAPTER 9

  ALYSSA

  “This is almost over.” Alyssa sighed in relief and lifted her face up to the gray sky.

  Lucy looped their arms together as they walked. “I know. I thought you’d be more nervous, though.”

  “I’m just glad I’ll get to see Ali today. Glad I’ll get to tell him the truth.”

  They paused at the corner as a car zoomed by, then crossed the street along with dozens of other pedestrians. Going to the doctor’s that morning without Ali had been brutal, and Alyssa was relieved beyond words that she would never have to do it again. Soon, he would know everything.

  Even though Alyssa knew her fiancé would probably be shocked to hear about the pregnancy, she also knew he wouldn’t take long to come around. Like her, he wanted kids. Also, knowing Ali, she figured he would also believe this pregnancy was meant to be.

  “I guess coming clean is enough, huh?” Lucy asked. “The truth really will set you free.”

  “I’m a little worried, sure. But I just hated having to go this long without telling him.”

  Lucy didn’t say anything, and Alyssa glanced at her friend. Face forward, heels clacking on the sidewalk and camel coat flapping in the breeze, Lucy was quiet as a grave—which was completely unlike her.

  “Okay, what?” Alyssa asked.

  “Look out!” Lucy steered them around a bike delivery guy who’d jumped the curb. “Get off the sidewalk!” she shouted at the man, but he was already gone.

  “Lucy,” Alyssa prompted.

  “No. You don’t want to hear it.”

  “Tell me,” Alyssa pleaded.

  “Okay. Fine. You didn’t have to keep it a secret from him. You could have told him on the phone.”

  Alyssa reeled back, feeling as if she’d been slapped. Her feet came to a halt and she stood there on the sidewalk, trying to process what her friend had said.

  “I…I had to wait,” Alyssa said. “He wouldn’t want to hear that kind of news on the phone.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Alyssa opened her mouth, but no. She wasn’t sure.

  Maybe she had made a rash decision in keeping the pregnancy from Ali. It was too late, now, though.

  “There’s nothing I can do about it now,” Alyssa said glumly.

  “Exactly,” Lucy said. “That’s why I wasn’t gonna say anything.”

  “Do you think he’ll be mad?” Alyssa’s stomach churned in a way that had nothing to do with morning sickness. That had been lessening over the last week or so; it had been three whole days since she last threw up.

  Lucy ran her bottom lip between her teeth in that way that said she was thinking extra hard.

  “You know him better than I do,” she said after a beat. “My guess is he might be a little upset initially—”

  “But it’s only been a few weeks.”

  “Exactly.” Lucy took Alyssa’s arm. “So no biggie. Come on. I need espresso within the next five minutes or else I’m gonna bite someone’s head off.”

  “Like another biker?” Alyssa asked with a grin.

  “You know it.”

  The café—one that Lucy swore had the best espresso on the East Side—had long windows with benches and stools full of people working on laptops, eating sandwiches as fast as they could, or chatting with friends. Alyssa reached for the door, but a woman with straight red hair was coming out.

  The woman held the door open for Alyssa and Lucy—not a very common gesture in New York. Alyssa started to thank her, but her tongue became tied when she noticed the way the woman looked at her. Her brow was knit, and within the span of a couple seconds, her frown went from barely-there to all-out.

  “Alyssa Cambridge,” the woman said. It wasn't a question.

  “Yes?” Alyssa asked. “I'm sorry, but do I know you?”

  “You know, you're giving women a bad reputation,” the redhead said. “Your fiancé has a right to know.”

  Alyssa felt like she'd been hit by a bus. She tried to process what was happening, but the woman’s words made no sense…and they also did…and then, she was gone, hurrying off down the sidewalk.

  “Do I know her?” Alyssa asked Lucy, her voice shaking. What was going on?

  Lucy’s mouth was in a silent “O”, and she looked like she was having as much trouble making sense of the interaction as Alyssa.

  “I…” Lucy started, but for once, she seemed speechless.

  “I'm giving women a bad reputation?” Alyssa asked. “Did I hog the doorway or something?”

  “You're letting the cold in!” a man sitting at the end of the window counter barked.

  Lucy’s brow knitted, and she ushered Alyssa into the cafe. Stopping at the snack stand in the middle of the store, Alyssa turned to face Lucy.

  “Why did she say my fiancé has a right to know?” As she said the words, Alyssa’s heart sped up and a sickening feeling came to her stomach. There was only one thing Alyssa currently kept secret from Ali.

  But no. Only Lucy and Alyssa’s doctors knew about the pregnancy. How would a random woman on the street?

  “We…we must know her,” Alyssa said, tripping over her words. “Maybe she was a client at the firm.”

  Lucy's frown deepened. “I don't forget faces that easily.”

  Alyssa struggled to speak. It felt like chalk coated her tongue, and her fast pulse was demanding all her attention.

  “It's gonna be okay.” Lucy put her hand on Alyssa’s wrist.

  “Could she know about the baby?” Alyssa hissed. Paranoia filling her, she glanced around the shop. People were still doing their own things, though. Talking with friends. Scrolling through phones. No one paid any mind to the brunette lady falling apart.

  “That's crazy,” Lucy said firmly.

  “I dunno,” Alyssa murmured.

  Unable to shake the suspicion that everyone knew something she didn't, Alyssa made her way to the coffee counter line.

  Gnawing on her lip, she ran over the redhead's words again and again. Your fiancé has a right to know.

  At the front of the line, the girl working the counter smiled at them. “Hi! What can I get you today?”

  “Two small lattes to go,” Lucy said, pulling out her wallet.

  “One half-caf,” Alyssa added.

  “All righty. Two small lattes to go.” The cashier wrote on two cups and handed them to the barista. “That's eight ten.”

  Lucy handed her a bill, and as the cashier accepted it, her gaze swept over Alyssa. Her hand stilled halfway to the register and her eyes squinted the slightest bit. It was like she'd slipped into a trance.

  A moment later and she was out of it. Collecting the change, she handed it over to Lucy.

  “Thanks!” the cashier said. Her eyes jumped back to Alyssa, but this time, they were bright, her smile confident. “And congratulations, by the way.”

  It felt like Alyssa’s eyes bugged out of her head. Had she started showing in the last twenty minutes? She looked down at her stomach. Nope.

  “Alyssa,” Lucy breathed, something frantic hidden under that one word.

  “What?”

  Lucy grabbed a magazine off the rack next to the counter. On the front page was a picture of Alyssa and Ali at a charity event they'd attended a couple months before. Sheikh Ali’s secret baby. Fiancée keeps pregnancy hidden.

  Alyssa’s vision swam. She tried to draw in a breath, but she couldn’t remember how.

  “For the magazine,” Lucy said, digging in her purse and plopping a five-dollar bill down on the counter.

  With the offending tabloid in Alyssa’s hand, the two of them hurried over to a table. Alyssa’s face burned like it was on fire, and she nearly missed the chair when she went to sit down.

  “What the hell?” she whispered frantically.

  “I dunno. Gimme.” Lucy snatched the magazine from Alyssa.

  “Hey! I’m gonna read it.”

  Lucy shot Alyssa a warning look. “I think I should look at it first.”

  Somewhere underneath the panic coursing through her, Alyssa realized Lucy was right. Pushing her fingers through her hair, she nodded and sighed.

  With the magazine spread flat across the table, Lucy flipped through it. Finding the article, she read fast, her lips moving silently.

  Leaning forward in her seat, Alyssa caught sight of a picture of her and Ali on the beach in Costa Rica. It was slightly blurry, as if taken from far away.

  Alyssa searched her brain for any memory of a photographer being on the beach, but didn’t think she’d seen one. It must have been a tourist, who had taken the picture on their cell phone.

  Alyssa’s skin crawled. She knew pop-culture fanatics in America were usually at least aware of who Ali was, but it wasn’t as if he were treated like a movie star or anything. They’d never been pursued by paparazzi, and—other than at events and occasionally on the street—strangers didn’t pay Ali much attention at all.

  “It’s pretty short,” Lucy announced. “Despite the cover making it seem like it’s the biggest article in here. It says that you’re several months pregnant, and that Ali has no idea. A ‘source’ says that you’re worried he will be unhappy with the pregnancy and you’re planning on keeping it from him for as long as possible.”

  “What?” Alyssa cried.

  Lucy looked up from the magazine, a sympathetic look on her face.

  “What source?” Alyssa demanded.

  Lucy shrugged. “It doesn’t give a name.”

  “Let me see that.” Before Lucy could stop her, Alyssa snatched the paper from under her nose. “Who wrote this?”

  But there was no name.

  “This is bull,” Alyssa spat.

  Lucy’s eyebrows rose. “Part of it is true.”

  “But it’s not as bad as they made it sound!” Realizing several people were looking at her, Alyssa lowered her voice. “They make it seem like I’m going to keep this from him forever. I’m telling him tonight.”

  Lucy cringed. “You might have been relieved of that task. This magazine is all over the city.”

  “Oh my God,” Alyssa whispered, horror filling her. She slumped back in her seat. “What source?” she murmured. “Who could have said that? Lied?”

  “Sometimes, these supposed sources are made-up. They’re based on rumors and then attributed as belonging to someone.”

  “Two lattes to go!” a barista called out. “One half-caf.”

  “Hold on.” Lucy hurried over to grab their coffees. Alyssa swept her gaze around the cafe. Would she ever be able to shake the feeling that everyone watched her, that everyone knew about her personal life?

  Lucy sat back down, lattes in hand.

  “I haven’t told anyone about the baby, Lu.” Alyssa’s eyes filled with tears.

  Lucy pinned her gaze to Alyssa’s. “I haven’t either. I promise.”

  “I know you haven’t.” Alyssa nodded, hesitant to wipe away the tears because then everyone would know she was crying. “So then, how did this get out? My doctors? A nurse?”

  Lucy’s lips twisted. “It could be that another patient saw you at the OB-GYN.”

  “But what about the other part?” Alyssa whispered. “About me keeping it a secret from Ali?”

  Lucy’s lips parted like she had the answer, but then she seemed to reconsider. “I don’t know, Alyssa. I’m sorry.”

  It seemed like such a vile lie. Sheikh’s fiancée keeps pregnancy hidden.

  Too bad it was the truth.

  CHAPTER 10

  ALI

  The women's clothing section of the upscale department store stretched before Ali, a foreign land he had never even considered traversing. If there was an order to it all, he couldn't find it. The clothes seemed to be arranged more by style than by types of clothing, such as pants and blouses.

  Ali rubbed the back of his neck, his uncertainty growing. “Where do I begin?”

  His friend Kurt laughed. “What does Alyssa not have?”

  Ali thought about that. Of course, there were plenty of objects in the world not in her possession. But Ali knew that material things did not matter to Alyssa. It was time spent with loved ones that she cherished most. A movie on the couch with him and the cats. Coffee with Lucy.

  Alyssa enjoyed the little things in life, because she realized they held the most worth. Before her, Ali had had trouble appreciating the sunset from his building’s rooftop or a stroll through Central Park. Alyssa had opened him up to the world’s simple beauties.

  “Ali?” Kurt waved his palm in front of Ali’s face. “Did you hear me? What does she not have?”

  “There is nothing she needs,” Ali said.

  Kurt grinned. “Oh, you think this store exists because it fulfills some kind of obligation to society? Look at this.” He picked up a broach from a nearby table. “Is this functional at all?”

  A nearby saleswoman wearing a dress suit and a tight bun noticed the way Kurt was dangerously waving the broach around and hurried out from behind her counter.

  “Can I help you gentlemen with anything?” she asked, her eyes on the broach.

  “We’re looking for something for my friend’s fiancée,” Kurt said. He put the broach back down, and Ali swore he heard the woman sigh with relief.

  “Lovely.” The woman clasped her hands and smiled tightly. “Is it for a special occasion?”

  Kurt looked to Ali.

  “Uh…” Ali licked his lips. “No. It is merely a gift. I’ve been away for a few weeks.”

  And I forgot to bring Alyssa something back.

  Ali knew she would not expect a gift, but almost a whole month of being apart marked the longest they had been separated since they’d started seeing each other. Though they’d emailed back and forth, the time difference had made talking on the phone difficult.

  “Let’s see, then.” The saleswoman pressed her finger to her lips and surveyed the floor. “Do you know her size?”

  “Small?” Ali suggested. “She’s a petite woman.”

  The look on the saleswoman’s face told him that had not been an appropriate answer.

  “How about an accessory?” she asked, waving her hand. “A name-brand purse. A necklace?”

  “That’s a good idea.” Kurt clapped Ali on the shoulder. “Thanks. We’ll go take a look. Let you know if we need any help.”

  Turning Ali around, Kurt steered him for the far wall.

  “I saw that only getting worse,” Kurt whispered.

  Ali snorted. “She doesn’t like us.”

  “Eh.” Kurt shrugged. “I saw her clocking your shoes and wristwatch. She likes your checkbook just fine. What about this?”

  They stopped at a table of jewelry, and Kurt held up a bracelet made of pink stones.

  “What does Christine like?” Ali asked.

  Kurt shook his head. “She wears leotards half the time, and whatever costume the play of the season requires the rest of the time.”

  Ali nodded. Kurt’s wife was a dance teacher and—when she was able to—acted in plays around the city.

  “Alyssa doesn’t wear much jewelry,” Ali said.

  Stumped, he looked around at the racks of shoes and clothes and wondered what he was doing there. He should have stopped at the art store and gotten Alyssa a new sketchpad instead.

  Habits were hard to break, though. Before Alyssa, whenever Ali wanted to give a woman a gift, he stopped into the nearest designer store and picked whatever seemed the most fashionable.

  But that had been then. Different women. A different time.

  “A scarf.” Kurt pointed at the table stocked with folded scarves. There were striped ones, checkered ones, and paisley ones ranging in almost every color.

  Looking at them reminded Ali of a day several months before, when he and Alyssa had had a picnic in Central Park. She’d worn large sunglasses and a light, silky scarf around her neck.

  “Yes,” he decided with a smile. “That will be good.”

  “How about this one?” Kurt held up a blue paisley one. “Blue looks good on everyone, right?”

  Ali chuckled. “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Oh, come on. You have impeccable style.”

  “Only when it comes to the simplest form of dress.”

  “Suits?” Kurt asked.

  “Exactly.”

  They took the scarf up to the desk, where the saleswoman rang Ali up and waved them off. Buttoning up their coats, they emerged into the windy day full of traffic and people glued to their phones.

  “Not much has changed here, I see,” Kurt commented.

  Ali grinned at him. “You’re tired of New York, my friend?”

  Kurt shrugged. “Getting there. Ask me on any random day and the answer is sure to be different, probably.”

  Two weeks into Ali’s Baqar trip, Kurt had flown out to consult on a couple of accounting issues. The two had spent most of their time working, but they’d also enjoyed a few evenings free. Showing his friend his hometown had brought Ali great pleasure, but the whole time, he had felt something was missing.

  Or, rather, someone.

  An ache began in Ali’s chest. Three weeks away from Alyssa, and now he only had fifteen more minutes before he made it home—and yet, he missed her more than ever.

  In his coat pocket, his phone buzzed twice, a sign that he had an email. He ignored it and kept walking for the corner, where he and Kurt could catch taxis and head home. The last several weeks of work, though fulfilling, had been exhausting. He was done being constantly on-call.

  Making a mental note to shut off the email notifications once he got home—and keep them off for good—he raised his hand for a taxi.

  Next to him, Kurt looked at his own phone, a frown pulling his face down. “Ali…”

  Ali’s phone buzzed again. And again. It started buzzing so much that it felt like a bee was trapped in his breast pocket.

  Taking the phone out, Ali found four texts and three emails. Before he could open any of them, a call came in from his mother.