Knocked Up by a Billionaire

KNOCKED UP BY A BILLIONAIRE PAIGE DAWSON CONTENTS 1. Forest 2. Ria 3. Forest 4. Ria 5. Forest 6. Ria 7. Forest 8. Ria 9. Forest 10. Ria 11. Forest 12. Ria 13. Forest 14. Ria 15. Forest 16. Ria 17. Forest 18. Ria 19. Forest 20. Ria 21. Forest 22. Ria 23. Forest 24. Ria 25. Forest 26. Ria 27. Forest 28. Ria 29. Forest 30. Ria Epilogue Also by Paige Dawson FOREST I was in my office when the missing drone returned to me looking like it had been in a war. I’d been taking a break from focused work to check my emails and hydrate. Around me, my office was lit up with computer monitors of varying sizes. An array of lights blinked on and off on the walls, ceilings, floor. Some I’d forgotten the purpose of. Most CEO’s offices were not like this, I gathered. I’d seen the comparatively stylish offices of my brothers. But this suited me well. The only downside of the room’s intensive setup was that it was easy to forget to drink water, eat, even breathe, when I became too focused. And these days I was more focused than ever. I put my water bottle down, pushed up my glasses, deactivated the drone, and caught it out of the air to examine it. A message was tied to it, as if to a carrier pigeon. It read: “You’re next. Apollo :)” Shit. I’d been found out. Drones weren’t exactly subtle spies, but I thought I’d managed to programme them to stay entirely out of sight based on Apollo’s specific mannerisms, body language, speech patterns. Every piece of information I had on my half-brother I’d poured into the software so that it could learn and adapt, so that the drone would know when to hide and when it could peek out and gather intel for me. For example, when he was sleeping. Now, I might sound like a maniac based on what you’ve just read. Bear with me while I fill you in on exactly who Apollo is. Apollo and I, we’re technically brothers – biologically half-brothers, in fact – but I’d never claim him as family. We’ve never been on friendly terms due to his megalomaniacal streak. And then, last year he declared war on my brother Jude. In the process Apollo almost destroyed Jude’s public reputation, his relationship, and the reputation of a worthwhile charity. Mess with me, and I might let it slide. But mess with my brothers and you deserve what’s coming for you. Apollo had basically declared all-out war on all four of us. ‘War’ in this case being the kind of war that billionaires could fight secretly, as opposed to more traditional warfare. The drones were strictly espionage, not weapons. For now, anyway. I took a deep breath and a quick photo of the note, then sent the image into the group chat with my brothers Jude, Sylvester and Winston. They were supportive and I loved them dearly, even if they were major dickheads sometimes. Replies came in quickly, as they always did for any updates on Apollo’s activities. Sylvester: @Forest... what did you do? Forest: Not much Sylvester: @Forest... Forest: A bit of espionage Winston: He must have been in one of his more irritable moods Winston: Reckon the smiley face means he’s joking? Sylvester: Oh, sweet Winston. I love your entirely undeserved optimism Winston: I just want a quiet life Jude: First I’m hearing of it @Winston Jude: @Forest, are you safe? Forest: Yeah, he attached it to one of my drones. No biggie Sylvester: I swear to god you’re a menace with those drones Forest: You never wanted to be a hundred places at once? Winston: Shut up everyone, I’m trying to concentrate. Save it for later Sylvester: Mute your notifications then you technophobe Winston: And have 9999+ unread emails like you? Sylvester: You wish you were that popular Sensing the conversation was going nowhere productive, I slid my phone into my pocket. We did have a meeting later, which Winston referred to with ‘save it for later’. It was much harder for the conversation to get derailed when I could glare at my brothers in person. Emojis didn’t quite have the same effect. I needed to compartmentalize, to not let Apollo’s threat get to me. It changed nothing. I’d been preparing for this for a while now. And what I needed at this moment was a break. Though it almost physically hurt to take a break from work when I was in full flow, I knew in the long term it was better if I was well rested and, well, sane. Plus, it gave the employees a boost when I did one of my tours. The company was big, and these weren’t our only offices, but they were our biggest, and they were where I, the CEO, was based. I couldn’t tour the whole place in an hour, or even a whole day, so I made sure to give each department and project team their turn. Today, it was the main cafeteria’s turn to receive a visit from me and my Chief Operating Officer. Perked up by this thought, I set my worries aside as best I could and departed my office. This floor of the building was cool, calm serenity. I’d have preferred to be in the thick of it a bit more, with the teams downstairs, but Mandy, the COO, maintained that we needed a place to get away from the hustle and bustle. I was sometimes grateful for her ruthlessness. I skipped over to the window to her office, pressed my face up against the glass and gave her the creepiest little wave possible until she noticed me. She’d had extra soundproof glass installed in her office, so I couldn’t technically hear the groan she made upon seeing me. But her despair was so palpable it was as if I could. She looked up from her hands, where she’d put