Page 87 of These Family Ties

Nodding, I smile weakly at him. As he eats his breakfast, I drink the water and pour another glass. While I’m staring at the clear liquid, my phone rings. A jolt of panic shoots through me. I may not have the number saved, but I recognize the last five digits like they’re burned into my brain.

Taking a deep breath, I answer.

“Where the fuck are you!” West screams angrily down the phone and somewhere in the background I hear traffic and a car horn blares.

“Weston,” I say, trying to stay calm, but my palms were sweating. How could I miss the sound of his voice when it had only been a few days? We’d only spent a month together; it was irrational of me to feel like this.

He growls, and I don’t need to see him to know that his brows are probably pinched together and his eyes are narrowed. “Don’t you Weston me, Delphine! Where are you?”

Another wave of sickness hits me and I take a sip of water, ignoring the way Hugo watches me. Sighing, I rub my face. “I’m not feeling great, West. Can we talk about this later?”

There’s silence down the line.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong?” His voice is lower now, calmer, almost as if he’s worried about me.

“I’m just exhausted from the flight and it’s making me a little nauseous. It’s nothing serious.”

“Baby.”

My chest tightens, and I rub at my sternum anxiously. “I…I don’t think it’s appropriate that you call me that anymore.”

In the last month, I’d become used to being called his babe, baby or sweetheart, along with some less savory, endearing names. The filthy ones were usually saved for when I was sucking his dick, or I was cutting him and marking him up as mine. The power dynamic between us shifted, depending on the mood and where we were—it kept me on my toes and I was already missing the excitement of being around him.

Curling my hand into a fist, I remind myself—the Harrington reputation. Nexus. Then me. It was so easy to forget your priorities when someone made you feel like the center of their universe. If only it wasn’t all an act.

“Ohhhh, I know. Our agreement has now reached its natural conclusion—I got your text Delphine.” He spits out, sounding bitter as I flinch. I’m surprised when he chuckles a few moments later. “But I think we need to re-negotiate our agreement.”

Tilting my head back to look at the ceiling, I sigh again. “What more could we possibly want or need from one another?”

He laughs darkly, and the sound makes me wonder what I’m missing. Sounding much happier, the gravelly seductive tone he used on me when he was trying to get me naked returns. “Well, I want my baby, Delphine. And I want you. I want our family.”

“Baby? What ba—” It slowly dawns on me. I wasn’t unwell. I was pregnant. “You did something, didn’t you?”

There’s not a shred of guilt in his voice as he admits, “I may have tampered with your birth control.”

“What? Why would you do that?” I ask, not sure whether I’m prepared to hear his answer. What if this had been his plan all along to steal Nexus from me? What if he was going to use the baby to blackmail me?

There’s silence, and then he quietly says, “Because I love you. Because you’re mine.”

Shocked, I hold the phone away from my ear, my mind desperately trying to interpret his words. He couldn’t mean that, could he? He didn’t really love me…not the way I loved him. That wasn’t possible. It was a stupid pipe dream. Loving partner, bouncing baby, that was never on the cards for me. It couldn’t be…

“Delphine? Darling? Are you going to be sick?” Hugo pulls his chair closer, placing his hand back on my forehead before he rubs my back in soothing circles.

I don’t need the phone to be pressed against my ear to hear Weston. “Tell that fucker to get his hands off you. Right now.”

Blinking, I turn in my seat, glancing around the bar. “What? Where are you?”

“I’m right here.”

Epilogue

West

“Where’s Jessa?” I ask, as Delphine enters the bedroom wearing a lace chemise, her blonde hair secured on top of her head with a pink hair stick. The toddler usually glued to her side was noticeably absent.

“With the nanny.” The corner of her mouth lifts into a flirty smile and I marvel at how beautiful she looks as she crawls onto the bed.

Wrapping my arms around her waist, I hold her against me as she places a kiss over the initials scarring my skin. “Does that mean, dear wife, I finally have you all to myself?”

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