Deceived 6 - Ultimate Deception Read Online Free PDF Page A

and the doctor said I could leave, maybe I could get a celebratory dinner. I’d even take a celebratory breakfast tomorrow morning if it meant I didn’t have to eat it here.
     

Chapter 4
    Chloe
    Once my doctor spoke with Nina’s personal physician, he told me the two things I needed to do before I could leave the hospital. Unfortunately, one was eating something solid which meant that my celebration dinner consisted of an afternoon meal of rubbery hospital chicken, but it got me out of there, so I wasn’t going to complain. The second was I’d been given strict instructions not to walk any further than it took to stand up and move from a wheelchair to either the toilet or the bed. I didn’t even get to take showers. Sponge baths only until after Victoria made her appearance. While that sounded sexy in theory, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I hated feeling helpless.
    Still, as the car pulled up to Nina’s fabulous mansion, I knew I’d rather endure months of bed-rest here with Patrick than spend another day at the hospital. At least I knew it wouldn’t be months, I reminded myself as I waited for Patrick to bring the wheelchair around to my door. Victoria was due next Saturday. Ten days. Since I was on bed-rest to prevent early labor, I doubted I’d be going past the due date. I was already making the schedule in my head.
    If I went into labor on Saturday, even if I didn’t have Victoria until Sunday, the doctor wouldn’t keep us more than twenty-four hours unless there were complications. I wasn’t even going to consider that. I’d have to check with him about when I could fly, but if it was longer than a couple days, I was going to convince Patrick that we should drive home. Tears burned against my eyelids as I thought of our apartment. I’d been thinking of it a lot while confined to bed rest, and all the love that had gone into getting it ready to welcome our daughter home. I really didn’t want the first room my baby slept in outside the hospital to be a stranger’s. Nina was a good friend but it wasn’t the same.
    “You okay?” Patrick asked as he helped me into the chair. “Are you in pain?”
    “Yes, all the time.” I tried to make a joke to ward off the tears as I settled into the wheelchair. “Just missing home.”
    He put his hand on my cheek and I leaned into his touch. His lips brushed against my forehead. “I miss the apartment, too, but you are my home.”
    I didn’t try to explain it to him. In a way, I felt the same, but the nesting instinct that had prompted all of my decorating over the past few months now made me long for my bed, my blankets and my sheets.
    As Patrick pushed me up the walkway to the front door, I blinked back the tears and focused on Nina’s...well, her mansion. I couldn’t exactly call it a house, not at that size. I didn’t remember seeing it before, but I was sure I’d been just as impressed then as I was now. I openly stared as we reached the door, partially because I was searching for something, anything, that would prompt a memory, but a good portion of it was because I was completely awestruck. Patrick and I were well-off and our apartment in the city was more than I’d ever dreamed I’d be able to afford, but this wasn’t even just wealthy. This was rich. Like never-having-to-work rich. I had to admit, that made me admire Nina a little more just because she wasn’t just sitting back and living off what she had, passing off the business dealings to employees. She actually got in there and did the work.
    I stared up at the marble columns. The ones outside had been grand enough. The ones in the foyer were just...I couldn’t think of a word to describe them. “This place is amazing, Nina.”
    I heard Patrick and Nina both laugh.
    “What?” I looked at them, not getting the joke.
    “That’s the same thing you said when you saw it the first time,” Patrick said.
    “This is the first time,” I retorted. I smiled at him. “Besides, I think