Expecting my Billionaire Stepbrother's Baby (a Stepbrother Romance Novel) by Emilia Beaumont

listened before braving the long walk towards the living room.
    Sounds of laughter travelled down the hall, tearing at my heart strings.
    You can do this, Vi. Put a brave face on it… thirteen more days to go, then you can re-evaluate.
    Forcing a smile upon my lips I joined the happy family on the couch. Leah was beaming up at Christine, wrapping her pudgy fingers around her long gold necklaces, which glimmered under her bright teal scarf.
    “No, that’s not for children,” Christine warned the small child and unwound the necklaces from her grasp.
    Drake stiffened as I approached. He didn’t know where to look, and his jaw, teeth clenched, began to pulse. Awkwardness radiated off him.
    “Oh, there you are,” Christine said in her sing-song voice, barely managing to look at me. “We were starting to wonder where you’d got to. You’re supposed to be looking after Leah, you know,” Christine said in a mock tease, but I knew she meant every word.
    I raised an eyebrow, almost losing my shit before coming to my senses. I put on a neutral face and smiled, keeping everything I wanted to say to her at bay. I shoved my fidgeting hands under my thighs and between the couch cushions to keep them still.
    “She’s a quiet one, Drake,” she said, as if I weren’t even in the room.
    He grunted a response.
    “So, I was thinking we could leave Leah with the nanny, and you and I could go somewhere a little more private to talk? Sort out the kinks, you know, ease our way back into this,” she said.
    “I can’t, not right now,” Drake said, glancing at his watch. “Tonight, when I get back.”
    “You’re leaving?” I spluttered out, surprised he was thinking of going after everything that had happened.
    “For a few hours, yes.”
    “Drake, you can’t,” I said, not caring about the weird expression on Christine’s face.
    “It’s Mr Millar to you,” Christine interrupted.
    “It’s OK, Chris, we’re pretty informal around here. Right, anyway, I better be off. I won’t be gone too long, I’m sure you ladies will get along just fine,” he said, and I could’ve sworn the tone of his voice indicated that he didn’t believe his own words.
    Coward! I shouted in my head. How could he have the audacity to leave me with her?
    “Go, go. Me and… what’s your name?”
    My head shot up, that was my cue. “Viola.”
    “Viola and I will have a ball with this little bug,” Christine said, an ugly smile pinned upon her lips.
    I turned and watched Drake leave; he didn’t even glance back. I was on my own to deal with her, and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and hide.
    “Viola?” Her normally smooth forehead wrinkled as if she were straining out a thought. “Unusual name, you didn’t happen to go to St. Stephens High School, did you?”
    Swivelling back to face her, I nodded. “I was in your English class in the final year.”
    “Oh that’s right. I remember you now. Weren’t you were the one that got locked in that cupboard with Drake that one time?” Her face darkened, yet she laughed as if it had all been a hilarious joke. But she and I both knew she’d been furious that night, had shouted the house down, screaming for Drake to come out.
    Reluctantly I blushed. I didn’t want to think of that night, the first time Drake had kissed me, and have it marred with her lingering fake laughter. In my version of events, in the daydreams I’d played over in my mind, Christine was nowhere to be found.
    “So, how on earth did you end up becoming Leah’s nanny?” she asked.
    I was thankful to change the subject. “Barbara persuaded Drake to take me on,” I said, almost adding that I was his step-sister, but I refrained at the last minute. If Drake didn’t feel it was important enough to mention it, then I wasn’t going to, either.
    “Oh, wonderful,” she said, waving her hand as if dismissing the topic as inconsequential and quickly added, “I’ve been away on business, you see, have