The ringing of his desk phone brought his musings to an abrupt end. He reached out and pressed the button for the speakerphone. “Yes?”
“Ryder. I’m glad I caught you. Miss Ebbinghaus is here to see you. Shall I send her right in?”
Ryder almost used an expletive. What the blazes was Karin doing back at his office? He would gladly tell Elizabeth to get rid of her but as far as his assistant knew he was still in a relationship with Karin, who had dropped by the office many times before. There was nothing to do but see her and then rid himself of her as fast as he could.
“Send her in.”
Ryder hung up the phone and dropped back down into his chair. Whatever it was Karin was here for, he knew it wouldn’t be anything good.
Within minutes there was a rap on his office door and when it opened it was to reveal Karin standing there, looking poised and elegant, as usual. Her auburn hair was longer than he remembered and now it fell in soft waves around her shoulders. Her green eyes, though, were as sharp as ever and the pout of her crimson lips told him she was not pleased.
She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “Weren’t you told that I was trying to reach you? This is my second trip here.”
“I heard.” He didn’t get up to greet her as he normally would have done. Those days were gone. He sat right where he was, regarding her coolly as she approached.
It was when she’d come close up, only a foot from his desk that a sudden question popped into his mind.
By this time Karin should be three months pregnant. He was no expert but shouldn’t she be showing a baby bump by now? She didn’t even look like she’d gained weight. Eyes narrowed, he subjected her to a scrutiny that must have made her uncomfortable because she blushed, a reaction that was rare for the usually super-confident Karin.
As if seeking refuge, she grabbed the chair closest to her and sank down onto the seat then folded her arms in front of her. Her pout became more pronounced. “Will you stop staring at me like that?” she practically hissed at him.
His eyes never left her. Had Karin lied to him? Had she made up that story about being pregnant to get rid of him? It didn’t make sense. She’d never been afraid to speak her mind. All she’d had to do was tell him it was over. He would have respected her decision. She knew that.
“Stop staring, I said.” She was glowering at him, her green eyes flashing in her flushed face.
He stared at her for several seconds more and when he spoke his voice was deceptively calm because what he was feeling inside was anything but. “Is there something you’d like to say to me?” he asked. “Why are you here?”
She opened her mouth as if to say something but then she dropped her eyes and tilted her face down and away from him. When she finally spoke it was in such a low whisper that Ryder had to strain to hear her.
“I’m not pregnant,” she said, her voice strained, as if she could barely get the words out.
Ryder frowned and sat forward in his chair. “You’re not pregnant?”
She shook her head and she did not look up at him.
So he’d been right. Karin had been lying to him all along. The little witch. “So you cheat on me and lie to me and then you decide you haven’t hurt me enough. You’ve got to come here to rub it in that you played me for a fool.”
At his words she raised her head and her eyes flashed with anger. But, to Ryder’s surprise and chagrin, they were also glistening with tears. “I didn’t lie to you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “I was pregnant. Truly pregnant.”
He frowned. “Was?”
She nodded. “I’m not anymore. It was…” she bit her lip then shook her head, “…it was a chemical pregnancy.”
“A what?”
She sniffed. “A chemical pregnancy. I took the pregnancy test too early, only a day after I missed my period. It showed positive. Both times I did the test it was positive. But…a couple of weeks later I had my period again. I wasn’t pregnant anymore.”
To say Ryder was confused was putting it lightly. So Karin was pregnant and then she wasn’t? “I…don’t get it. How-”
“It was a chemical pregnancy, all right? That was what the doctor called it. Just a nicer way of saying I had an early miscarriage.” She gave a snort of disgust. “He said I shouldn’t have bought those kits and done the tests so soon after my missed period and that a pretty high percentage of pregnancies end up like that. He was like, what are you grieving for? It’s not like it had the chance to even become an embryo.”
Ryder drew in a sharp breath. That was a whole lot more information than he’d expected and on top of it all he was stumped. Why had Karin tracked him down to tell him this? Shouldn’t she be discussing this with the new – or maybe not so new – man in her life?
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Karin.” He really was. Even though she’d cut him to the quick with her betrayal, he could never wish her any ill will. She was obviously grieving her loss and it gave him no joy to see her suffer.
He waited for her to speak again, to explain herself, to say why she was sitting in his office, divulging her most private affairs.
It took a while before she drew in a shaky breath then lifted her face to gaze at him. “I came to see you,” she said quietly, “because we need to talk. I made a mistake. A big one. I know that now.”
Ryder went still then, slowly, he drew away from his desk and sat back in his chair. He didn’t like the sound of that. It almost sounded like Karin was about to make an apology, even suggest that they should reunite. It was a prospect he wasn’t even going to entertain.
“I shouldn’t have messed around with Clive. I…he seduced me and I gave in. He was…hard to resist.” She had the grace to drop her eyes at that confession. “I let you down. I’m…so sorry.”
It was the first time Ryder had heard those words from Karin’s lips. When she’d confessed to sleeping with his friend, when she’d told him the child she was expecting was Clive’s, never once had she expressed remorse. Never once had she shown anything but decisiveness and a resolution to move on.
And now this?
“I…know you must be wondering why I’m here…telling you all this.” She sounded hesitant, almost afraid to go on.
Slowly, he nodded. “I am.”
She nodded, too. Then she drew in her breath and tightened her lips, looking like she was trying to figure out the best way to say what she had to say. “Clive and I…we’re not together anymore. I broke up with him. I told him it was all a big mistake. I told him…I wanted to go back to you.”