Page 142 of My Damaged Protector

I raise my hand to stop her. With the way I'm feeling inside, it's best she doesn't come close. I'll probably just burst into tears and make a bigger fool of myself.

She's pregnant, and not only did she not tell me, but she was going to kill my child.

Am I that terrible as a person?

“How could you?”

“Ian, I can explain. Please just hear me out.”

“Hear you out?” I bark.

It's way past time of hearing her out. She had plenty of time to tell the truth, plenty of opportunities, and last night was one of them! But she didn't say a word. Instead, she looked me in the face and lied.

She said she was doing this to protect her daughter. Somehow, that just makes me feel worse.

I get that she was backed into a corner, but that's the whole point of me asking her to trust me! All she had to do was trust me, and I would have sorted out any problem for her.

“You were going to kill my child with no plan of ever telling me, and you're asking me to hear you out?”

“I wasn't going to kill any child!”

She's still lying. Damn it.

“Why did you back out from helping your father initially?” I ask.

She scoffs and looks away from me before she speaks. “That's not important.”

“Bullshit, it's not. You found out you were pregnant! That's what you've been keeping from me all this while, isn't it?” I ask.

She won't look at me or answer, and it pisses me the hell off.

“Answer me!” I bark.

“Yes.” she hisses, now angry too.

Good, I could really use her anger right now.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Why do you think? You weren't particularly embracing the prospect of being a father.”

No, I wasn't. But I never would have turned her away, regardless.

“So, you decided to keep it away from me then, just like you decided to kill it, too?”

“Stop saying I was going to kill it. I was just stalling Peter until my plan worked out. No way I would have gone through with the surgery.”

I wish she could hear herself right now.

“And what was your big plan exactly?” I ask, not caring how condescending I sound.

What could she have planned that would have gotten Peter off her back?

“Sheila and Olivia are on their way abroad as we speak. My agent helped process the journey. If all goes well, I should get a call soon after they've arrived. The plan was to stall Peter for as long as I could, and when they were safe, I'd tell him to do whatever he wanted with Kyle because it wouldn't matter. Olivia would be safe by then.”

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