It's a Fugly Life (Fugly #2)(40)

I glanced at the stick and felt my innards dissolve.

Plus sign. “Oh shit.”



I didn’t know how long I stayed in the bathroom, peeing on the other two sticks, wondering how the hell I’d forgotten to take my pills, but the results did not change.

I threw everything into the trash and washed my face with warm water to clean off the sweat. Hanging my head over the sink, I looked into the mirror at my face. What if I had a little girl, and she turned out to look like me? The thought broke my heart. Not because I wouldn’t love her, but because I knew how cruel the world could be. I didn’t want to watch my or any child endure that sort of pain. I just didn’t.

I suddenly felt a huge amount of respect for my own parents. They’d never once led me to believe they’d had these same thoughts and feelings, but they must’ve.

I shook my head and patted my face dry.

A loud knock on the bathroom door startled me. “Lily!”

“Max?” Holy Jesus. I jerked open the door, and there he stood looking wrinkled and beaten down. “What are you doing here?” I threw my arms around him and hugged him hard.

He peeled me off. “Why weren’t you answering your phone just now?”

I blinked up at him, taking in that sublimely beautiful face with several weeks’ worth of thick stubble. “You should talk! I haven’t heard from you for two days!”

“I forgot my phone at the hotel in Buenos Aires, and I didn’t have time to replace it since I had to get to the airport to catch a plane home—the Wi-Fi was also out on the plane. But forget that. What’s this I heard about you hitting my mother and getting arrested?”

I winced. “She had it coming.”

He shook his head, and I saw the raw anger in his eyes. I hadn’t expected him to be so upset.

“I need a drink.” Max headed for the living room, where he had a bar in the corner. I followed him, feeling every nerve ending spark with adrenaline.

He served himself two fingers of scotch. “Care for one?”

I stood opposite him across the narrow counter. “No. Thank you.”

He took his glass, raised it to me, and threw it back. Frankly, I’d never seen Max looking so volatile.

“Are you all right?” I asked. Because there was a lot I needed to talk to him about—the ownership of the company, our very complicated relationship, Patricio’s little issue, but really, there was only one topic I needed to get off my chest ASAP. Baby.

He set his glass down and refilled it. “No,” he barked in reply to my question.

I was about to ask what happened with his sister when the front gate buzzed.

My lips twisted sideways. “I’ll get that.”

Max was too busy pouring another drink down his throat, determined to anesthetize himself from something awful.

I walked over to one of the intercoms stationed in the little hallway just off the foyer. “Yes?”

“Lily! You open this gate right now!”

“Patricio? What are you doing here?” Oh, hell. He must’ve been calling me from the airport earlier.

“I am here to see that bastard! Open the gate.”

Hell no. He’d clearly come for a fight, and Max’s foul mood would guarantee he got one.

I heard the gate buzz open.

What in the… I hadn’t touched anything.

“The man wants to see me? Let him the f*ck in.” Max stood behind me with a remote of some sort in his hand and then walked back to the living room.

“Are you out of your mind?”

I heard a car’s engine roar up the driveway, tires screeching, followed by the front door bursting open. “Where is that disgusting mudder f*cker!” Patricio pushed past me and stormed into the foyer. “Get your ass out here, Maxwell Cole, you dirty bastard!”

“Patricio!” I grabbed for his arm. “You need to leave…”

“Max! I’m going to beat your ass!” Patricio yelled.

“Go, Patricio. Go!” I tried yanking him out by the arm, but he wasn’t budging.

Max appeared in the doorway, rolling up his sleeves. “What the f*ck do you want, you piece of shit meatball?”

Patricio pointed at him. “I want to kill you. That’s what! You think you can frighten me?”

“Clearly, I cannot.” Max went to work on the next sleeve.

Oh shit. They’re gonna fight again.

“No. You cannot!” Patricio shook his finger at Max. “And Lily is mine.”

“No. I’m not,” I protested. “Now go!”

Patricio swiveled on his heel in my direction. “You and I both know that Sunday wasn’t really about doing me a favor.”

“What favor?” Max looked at me.

“Okay. This is getting out of hand.” I looked at Patricio. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. You said your mother would practically die if I didn’t show up for brunch.”

“Because she has wanted nothing more than to welcome you into our family. You don’t know them, but they love you already. And so do I! You only need to see it with your own eyes.”

Lightbulb. Sunday’s brunch was Patricio’s underhanded way of trying to win me back.

“So you what?” I waved my hand through the air. “You thought after our breakup three weeks ago that I’d meet your family and just swoon and agree to marry you?”