Alpha Billionaire Series
Coming Home Chapter 9

MAKENZIE

Several months later, end of November...

I wheeled my suitcase toward my room. I had help with the few boxes I was moving back in.

"So, they finally kicked you out?" Travis leaned against the door frame to his old bedroom, arms crossed, a judging smirk on his face.

I stepped out of the way of the help and stared at him. I felt very little these days, so I'm sure my expression was empty, an emotional void.

"What?"

"Mary Brooks finally decided they wouldn't tolerate harlots in their student body. No unwed mothers, time to go?"

I shook my head. I don't know why I bothered explaining anything to him. But this was my choice. I ran a protective hand over my distended pregnant belly.

"I'm moving most of the stuff out of my dorm room. After Thanksgiving, I only have a few tests and then the semester is over. It seemed like a good idea to get moving out of the way early." "Ah, so you're a dropout now?"

I started walking again, pushing my bag ahead of me. Let Travis think what he was going to think. It didn't matter. He would argue and disagree with anything I said or did, even if it was a money-making great idea. If I was involved, he predetermined it to be a bad idea.

When I found out I was pregnant at the end of July, back when my life was still wonderful and Holden still loved me, I was much further along than I could have realized. I was now closer to seven months along than to six, and with the baby due in February, there was no logistical way to complete my last semester and have a new-born. The workload would be too much.

With the advice of my parents, I decided to take the Spring semester off, and finish up the following summer. Of course, Travis would see that as dropping out of school.

I had to be more than perfect for him to see the value in anything I did. As much as I wanted to be independent and not rely on Travis to play with me just like when I was a little girl, I still really wanted my brother to like me. Those protective older brothers that were in the movies were completely fictional as far as I was concerned. My brother was determined to destroy my self-esteem. He didn't need to try very hard; my self-esteem was already tanked.

I walked into my old room. It seemed like the girl who had wanted a pink princess room was someone else, not me. Coming back to this room felt almost like losing, and somewhat foreign. I wasn't a little kid anymore, but here I was back in a little kid's room. I sat on my bed, weary both mentally and physically. This baby was causing me all kinds of issues, constantly feeling tired was the most consistent of them. At least she was letting me eat without the constant morning sickness. Whoever said that lasted roughly for the first three months was a bold-faced liar. I didn't have any morning sickness until after the first trimester was over. And then it was morning sickness any time of the day or night, and heartburn, so much heartburn. I probably chewed down as many of those chalky tablets as I did real food.

The most recent issue this little one liked caused me to swell. If I was on my feet too long during the day, my ankles would swell. My fingers had started to swell, and I could no longer wear any rings.

Travis barged into my room. "Okay, future welfare queen, I'll pony up twenty grand if you tell me who the father is."

"Get out of my room Travis. Just because neither of us lives here full time anymore doesn't mean the rules about my room have changed. You didn't knock."

He stepped into the hall, knocked, and stepped right back in. "Happy now?"

That man twisted every rule to his advantage. He thought the world owed him what he wanted simply because he wanted it. But he had me for a sister, and I had learned at a young age to do my very best to not let Travis win simply because he thought he should. I rolled my eyes, too tired to do much else. It was going to be a torturous long weekend with him here the entire time.

"Twenty grand, take it or leave it."

"Leave," I said.

"Fine, forty grand."

I stood and walked toward him. I grabbed his arm and swung him around and pushed him out of my room. "I don't need your money, Travis. And I'm not telling you."

The fact that he was too egotistical to figure out that Holden was my baby's father astounded me. Travis just couldn't put two and two together, because he couldn't accept that Holden would be interested in me.

I closed the door behind him and locked my door. The next time he knocked I ignored him.

Laying on the bed I curled up around my belly and cried, again. Between the hormones and the sadness over losing Holden, I cried daily.

I cried because I had given up the last few days I had to be with Holden in my selfishness. I cried when I wrote to him every week and he never responded. I cried when I thought about him and thought about writing but I didn't because what was the point? No matter what I wrote to Holden, he never responded.

My classes were a completely different set of stressors. It was my senior year and I had thesis papers to write. Research to conduct, and I was overwhelmed. I was barely passing my classes.

There was a knock on my door.

"Go away, Travis."

"It's Dad, not Travis."

I swung my legs over the side of my bed and sat up. "Give me a second."

I took my time crossing my room and opening the door.

Dad stood there with another box, a big one.

"What's that? All of my things are already in here." I gestured at the stack of boxes in the corner of my room. I stepped back to give him room to come in. "This isn't yours, but it is for you."

He put the box down in the middle of the floor and turned it around so I could see the label on the front.

"A crib?"

"Your mother picked it out. We thought about giving it to you as a Christmas present but realized the baby is reason enough. I thought Travis and I-" "Travis isn't going to help. You know how he is," I said.

"I think you underestimate your brother."

"You overestimate him. He hates me, Dad. He might help you with the crib, so he can do something with you. He won't be doing it for me."

Dad shook his head.

I knelt down and looked at the picture on the box. It was pretty, and it would look beautiful set up in here. "I'm going to need to pick out bedding."

I looked around the room, maybe princess pink wasn't such a bad color choice if I was having a girl.

"Your mother wanted to surprise you with bedding as well, but we don't know if you're having a boy or a girl yet."

"Well, neither do I. I do love it. Thank you." I sat all the way back onto my butt and cried.

Dad awkwardly patted me on the shoulder. A crying daughter wasn't something he had dealt with much; Mom was the one who usually handled my tears. I leaned against his leg.

"When your mother was pregnant, she would cry at everything. It's perfectly normal."

I wiped my tears. "Thanks, Dad. Help me up?"

I held my hand up to him.

With a grunt and a heave, he pulled me to my feet.

"I'm going to go replace Mom and tell her I love the crib. Maybe she will want to go shopping for the bedding?"

"Does your mother ever turn down an opportunity to go shopping?"

Dad wasn't wrong, but the shopping I had in mind wasn't high up on Mom's list of fun. I wanted to head out to the fabric shop. I suddenly had an urge to use my sewing skills to learn how to make a quilt, and a baby quilt seemed like the perfect first project.