"Barbara, thank you so much for giving all of this so much consideration. It obvious that you are looking out for everyone's best interests." Bianca was trying her very hardest to sound genuine and sweet. "I have been thinking on it alot myself too of course. Honestly Tyler and I are just very different people, from very difficult backgrounds. I definitely agree that this whole controversy could be very bad for his reputation, but keeping secrets quiet in Oxford has never been easily done and surrogacy presents controversy all on its own, as does harvesting my eggs before treatment. Tyler deserves to be a father someday and to have a family all his own to pose with in photographs, and It pains me to have to admit it, but I'm not cut out to be that person. Obviously I will need to terminate and begin treatments immediately, but I dont think returning to Oxford or dragging your family through this ordeal is necessary" Bianca paused, a small part of her hoping Barbara would insist that she was Tylers future or say anything that would suggest things didn't have to be this way, but even if she had said something to that effect, it would have only served to ease the aching in her heart for the doomed relationship. Bianca was not going to terminate this pregnancy. In her isolation she had fallen in love with her baby, and what will certainly be her only chance to be a Mother. She didn't feel the baby was an accident, this healthy thriving baby surrounded by her sickness. Bianca had accepted many things in recent days. She has accepted that she had cancer, she accepted that no one could help her make the decisions she had to make. She had accepted that beautiful things, while they may flee ones life too soon...like her mother...are no less beautiful, and her baby was no exception. She would continue with the pregnancy and have the hysterectomy after she delivered and begin treatments then. If the cancer took Bianca, she felt like no matter what she did to try and stop it her fate would play out the way God had intended. If Bianca returned to Tyler, he would not have agreed with her reasoning, he wouldn't support this gamble with her life, with wasting time on a pregnancy that may be a loss. Bianca was prepared for the possibility the baby maybe lost, but she would love her pregnancy while she could, and savor the opertunity to experience motherhood this way. So this is the way it would be.
"Bianca, you are far more intelligent than I gave you credit for. I will handle Tyler. I don't think, given your decision to do what is best for your health, there is any reason to tell him anything of the baby or the cancer, do you?"
"No ma'am, I don't think it would be proactive. But, if I'm not going to communicate with him, or come back to Oxford, I'm going to need some help, until I can find a job, to help with the medical bills and to secure a place to stay."
"Of course. But I'll need you to be very sure that you won't be changing your mind about any of this. Tyler can never know that I have helped you."
"Mrs. Holt, I assure you that I am certain about my choices. I don't have insurance though, so my bills...not that I am asking for you to pay all of them..."
"I will give you $65,000, the money isn't a problem, had you remained in Oxford I'm sure that you would have cost me much more, but you will have to sign something for me, I'm no fool Bianca. I know when I'm being shook down, I am a woman of means, you aren't the first complication I have had to pay off, I'm not offended don't misunderstand, but please don't insult my intelligence further by pretending this conversation is anything other than what it is, whatever it is that you are doing, wherever you think it will lead will disconnect from our good name when you sign accepting my money."
Bianca grimaced at the reciever. All business, all the time. How different things seemed when emotions and morals weren't involved, this was a realm Bianca didn't exist in but one she would have been expected to embrace if she married Tyler. Barbaras candid disclosure of truth didn't phase Bianca. They both stood to gain, the Holts had the money, Bianca had the secrets.
" 100 thousand." Bianca countered. It was more than she ever imagined, but Barbara had initiated negotiations and the next move was to purpose a counter offer, now that it was only business.
"Very well Bianca. Now, where are you."
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