Page 33 of Her Impossible Boss's Baby

“Statistically, maybe, but when one of the parents is a genius billionaire, and the other one is financially solvent herself, I’m pretty sure that they might be able to defy generalized statistics.”

“If you care about this baby then you must want what’s best.”

“Of course I want what’s best. Don’t forget that you found out about this baby fifteen minutes ago and I have known for a while now.”

“You weren’t going to tell me.”

He might have gone his whole life never knowing. She had thought it would be best.

It was like a stab wound. He did not indulge his feelings. He never had. If he did...he would never get anything done. He practiced perfect control in all areas of his life because if he did not, the world would control him.

His father had despised him. Everything he was. Everything he thought and did. To live in that sort of environment and feel the weight of his every disapproving breath would have killed Luca. And so he had learned to close off his own sensitivities and focus on his mind, not his body or his heart.

But she had gotten to him.

Deep.

She shook her head. “I really wasn’t. Because I knew that it would end... I knew that it would be this. Proclamations and demands, and forcing me to meet your expectations.”

“You knew that I would want the baby, and you were going to withhold them from me?” Any guilt that he might’ve felt at forcing her hand now was completely mitigated by that.

“That isn’t exactly...”

“You will marry me. Or I will fight you for full custody of the child.”

“How dare you?” She took a step toward him, and he was almost certain she was going to strike him. “How dare you threaten me.”

“It isn’t a threat, it is a fact. One of us has to have primary custody of the child, you think it should be you simply because you’re a woman, simply because you’re the mother. I do not. I think that it should be me because I possess greater resources than you do.”

“Financially, maybe, but when we are talking about the thimble where you keep your emotions, believe me when I tell you your resources are not greater than mine.”

“Do you think I’m this way because I feel nothing?” He leaned closer to her, the rage inside of him building, growing, expanding, claiming every part of him, taking control of him. “I am this way because I feel everything. And if I paused every moment of every day to ponder those feelings I would never get anything done. I would never do anything. If I felt all the things within myself, there would be no new screenings. There would be no new discoveries. I would be lying on a floor somewhere probably addled out of my mind on some substance or another trying to figure out a way to stem the tide of pain that lived within me. Do not ever tell me that I don’t feel as much as other people. The air around me offends me. Why do you think I need everything managed the way that I do? I feel everything.”

She looked shocked by that. Good. He did not speak about himself. It wasn’t an interesting topic of conversation, and he wasn’t friends with anybody. So there was never a reason to try and explain to another person how the world worked for him.

It had never been a reason. But there was one now.

“And if you have a child who was like me, if you have a child who cares only about toy cars, and doesn’t know how to speak to other children, then what? Because I know... I know what it’s like.”

“It doesn’t give you the right to force me into things,” she said.

“The way I am doesn’t give you the right to exclude me from them either. And because we are both immovable, we are at an impasse. And the one with the most power is the one that can force the bend. I have the power, cara. You can decide what you wish to do in response. Bend or break.”

Any guilt he might’ve felt was stemmed by his resolve.

Her eyes filled with tears. And he did not let himself care.

“Fine. I’ll marry you. Legally. I’ll give you what you’re asking for, but on paper only. You will... You will make me second-in-command at your company. But I will not work directly beneath you. I will work in the public relations portion.”

“That is acceptable.”

“I want my own wing of your house. I will not encounter you in a hallway unless I choose to.”

“Done.”

“That means we will not be living in your penthouse.”

“I don’t care. Consider it vacated.”

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