Alpha Billionaire Series
Doctor Daddy Chapter 22

BROOKE

I stood staring at my open closet, not sure what to do with my clothes. In a few months, nothing I was looking at was going to fit. Once I got to Chicago, I was going to need a semi-professional wardrobe while I looked for a job.

I began pulling out dresses that looked like they had more room than a fitted suit would. I held the hanger of one dress up to my chest and swished around in front of the mirror. I would normally wear it with a belt, but I could wear it without one and it would have more space in the waist. I could wear it longer into the pregnancy.

As I looked at my reflection, there was a soft tapping at my door.

"Yeah," I said.

Mom opened the door a little bit and stuck her head in. "Can I come in?"

"Sure."

I tossed the dress onto my bed and began sorting through other items in the closet. I had way too many clothes that hadn't fit me for years. I began pulling them out, taking them off their hangers, and dropping them on the floor. I'd replace a bag or something to put them in later.

"So, what you doin'?" Mom asked as she pushed a pile of clothes on my bed to the side so she could have a seat.

"I am sorting out my closet trying to decide what I'm going to take and what I'm going to toss."

"That sounds like an effective way of cleaning out your closet."

I shrugged. "I probably should have done this years ago."

"Do you have to move to Chicago in order for you to clean out your closet? I mean that just seems so far away."

"It's not that far away. Angela and I had already been looking up what it would cost to fly home if we needed to. Plus, it's only about an eleven-hour drive. So that's one long day or an afternoon on 285," I said.

"Aren't there graduate programs in Atlanta you could do?"

"Maybe. But you know I've always wanted to see other places. This is my opportunity."

"It just feels like we just got you back. And now you're off running cavorting around the country again."

I hated how she was trying to manipulate me. She never tried to guilt Rhys into sticking around.

"I'm not cavorting around the country. I've been accepted into a graduate program. I thought you'd be happy about that."

Angela had been right. I had been accepted into the program within a week of applying. That had been a week ago. We needed to move fast. Classes started in less than two months. We needed to replace a place to live, and we both needed to replace jobs. Mom played with her fingers as I continued to sort through my closet. I dropped something red and sparkly on the floor.

"What's that?" she asked.

I picked it up and showed her. It was the slinky red dress I had worn that night back- had it only been six months ago? It seemed like forever.

"Oh, that dress." She hadn't liked it. And I couldn't see myself wearing it again.

"You know you could probably resell that online and make some money. You've got good clothes." There was a hopeful lift to her voice.

"That sounds like a lot of work. I was thinking of just donating everything." Mom got off the bed and took the dress out of my hands. She shook it out and held it up and looked down at herself. "This is definitely worth more than just giving it away, not that I could imagine anybody wanting to wear it."

"I wore it," I said.

"You did. And well I think it's a good thing. You're getting rid of it." The previous judgment of my choices was back.

"Mom, if you want to sell it, go for it. I'm done with it. I'm done with half the things in my closet." I sounded like a brat, but the truth was I was going to be too big, not that I could tell her.

"I'm sure you'd be able to wear some of those clothes."

"Most of this stuff hasn't fit me since before I left for Scotland," I said. "Most of these are out of fashion anyway."

I dropped more clothes that didn't fit on the floor.

"You can still wear them; classics are classics for a reason."

I stopped and looked at her. Mom ignored my size when it was convenient for her and called attention to it when she thought I would embarrass her. Most of the clothes in my closet didn't fit because they were purchased for a size that I never had been. It was easier for her to think I was vapid and vain than it was to get her to face the truth about how she viewed my size.

"I'm not going to wear out-of-fashion clothes that don't fit me simply because they're classics and they cost me money. If they fit, that would be something completely different." They didn't fit now, and they weren't going to fit after I blew up like a barge. But I couldn't tell her that.

"Well, fine, we'll put them in a box, and I'll sort through them later."

I shrugged. I knew she hadn't come in here to argue about the clothes I was packing. With that preliminary discussion out of the way, I knew the real reason she came in here was about to drop.

"I'm just nervous about you going away," she finally confessed.

"Why?" I asked. "I'm not going alone."

"Why? Chicago," Mom said with a tone that conveyed that she believed every horrible thing she had ever heard about the city.

"Have you ever been?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Oh, no. I don't think I would do well in a place like that."

A place like that meant cold winters and a bad criminal reputation. Atlanta had its own reputation.

"You'll be on your own for the first time."

"I'll be with Angela," I said. "It's not like I haven't gone off without you before. I did spend a year in Scotland, remember?" "That's different. That was school."

"This is also school. It's a graduate program. Only this time, I'm gonna have to get a job."

"Well, maybe your father can help you out there."

I turned and looked at her. "How can Dad being here in Atlanta help me in Chicago? He doesn't run a hospital up there."

"Maybe not," Mom started. "But he does have friends all over the place. I'm sure he has a colleague or some network connection that could help you replace a job at a local hospital. They have hospitals in Chicago, right?"

I laughed. "Yes, Mom. They have hospitals in Chicago." Not that I wanted to work in a hospital. But the thought of not having to go out and replace a job while I was pregnant did have a certain appeal.

She still held onto the red dress and folded it onto her lap as she sat back down on my bed. "So, what's the plan?"

I explained that Angela was heading to Chicago next week for an apartment hunting expedition. Banking on the success of that, we would be packing up a U-haul and driving up in two weeks. "Two weeks?" Mom thought about it for a moment. "Have you given notice at your job?"

"Yeah, I've already let them know. Next Friday is my last day. That'll give me one more week to pack everything up and finish getting ready."

"Do you need any furniture to take?"

We hadn't really talked about furniture. I looked at Mom sitting on my bed and then set my gaze around my room. It was all pink with blue flowers. I had a lot of memories here.

"I guess we're gonna have to figure out thrift stores up there. We can get a couch and we'll be able to get a table with chairs. We don't want to haul too much. Bigger trailers cost more money."

I put my hands on my hips and looked around my room. I remember getting the matching bedroom set when I was nine, and we were decorating my room for the first time. I had been so thrilled to pick everything out. I remembered pitching a fit in the Ethan Allen parking lot because Mom wanted to get me a white bedroom set with yellow flowers. I insisted on the pink with the blue flowers. And somehow, I managed to win that argument. But I didn't want to take my nine-year-old self's idea of interior decorating. All of this furniture could stay here.

Mom sniffled. I sat next to her and put my head on her shoulder.

"I'll be okay, Mom."

"I know you will. It's just that you're my baby and I hate having to admit that you're now a grown-up adult."

"I have grown up, Mom." I was so grown up; I was already pregnant. "I can't stay here. Chicago will give me a chance to really see who I've become. It'll give me a chance to spread my wings. Besides, Dad has been really eager to get me out of the house. Well, this is me getting out of the house. I've never really done anything on my own. Like you said, Scotland was different. That was school, and I had the college to help me out if I got in a bind."

"This is different," she sighed.

"This is me trying to figure out who I am."

"I know exactly who you are. And you're right. You will be okay. I'll miss you."

"Mom, it's Chicago. You can come and visit."

"You can also just come back for the holidays."

"Maybe." I knew there wasn't a maybe. If I did the math right, I wouldn't be traveling during the holidays. That's when I should be having a baby.