Page 57 of The Fake Family Deal

Not only is it Ellis, but it’s Ellis looking ragged and breathless, like he’s just been running. His jacket is hanging limply on his shoulders. The top buttons on his shirt have come undone, revealing a sweaty flush on his chest, and the ghost of stubble lines his jaw, while his hair lies limply on his head, damp and untidy.

He looks a total mess.

“Ellis,” I manage to choke out. “What are you doing here?”

“What’s this?” he demands, holding up a magazine and waving it in my face. Lila reaches out for him and he reaches back, touching one of her paint-stained hands with his finger.

It takes all my strength not to find it cute.

Then I read the magazine headline, and my heart stops. “Come in,” I say, not knowing what else to do.

“Is it true?” he says as he crosses into my living room. All I can do is nod. His face falls, then quietly he asks, “Is it mine?”

“Yes, Ellis. He’s yours.”

“He? They can tell that soon?”

I shake my head. “No. But I have a feeling about it. He’s going to be your son. Our son.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands, and I flinch at his rage until I see the tearful hurt in his eyes. He’s not angry because he hates me. He’s angry because he wanted to know.

I shouldn’t have let him in, because I’m already starting to forgive him.

All along, I’ve known somewhere inside me that I’ve only tried to hate Ellis to make it hurt less. It hasn’t worked. All it’s done is left me with an ache and an unfulfilled desire to set the record straight. I said everything I needed to say to him on that day, but it wasn’t fair.

“I didn’t know how to,” I say eventually. “I didn’t know if you would care, and I didn’t have the words.”

“You didn’t know if I wouldcare?” he says, his eyes wide in shock. “OfcourseI care, Marina! That’s our baby!”

“Okay, sorry!” I snap. If he can have a tantrum, so can I, and Lila has barely stopped crying even upon seeing him. It seems only right for us all to lose it together. I put her down back with her paint, and, to my relief, she goes back to playing.

I wonder if she recognizes Ellis at all. I wonder if she missed him.

“You aren’t exactly the world’s biggest family man, are you?” I continue. “I was going to tell you eventually; I just wasn’t sure when would be right, okay? I thought you were back to being business Ellis, not caring about anything but money.”

“Business Ellis is dead, Marina,” he growls. “You killed him.”

“Wow,” I huff, throwing my hands up. “Thanks a bunch. I killed the only thing you ever cared about. God, Ellis, why do you have to?—”

Anything else I was going to say dies in my throat because Ellis cuts me off, pulling me in for a kiss that melts me entirely.

Damn him to hell. I still love him. This just proves it.

It’s damp and passionate, and when he finally lets go, a tear falls down his face. “I’m sorry, Marina,” he says, his voice low. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been so stupid and cruel to you, and it was wrong. I know these are just words, but I swear I mean them. I should never have done any of that to you, but I was scared.”

“Scared?” I echo. What the hell did Ellis have to be scared of?

But I let him continue because the force of the apology is threatening to bowl me over.

“Yes, scared. I was scared of the person you were helping me to become. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like him. He was kinder, gentler. He was better. I’m better. I’m better for knowing you, and Lila. All my life, I’ve thought success was what I needed in order to feel good. And for a while it was. But it’s empty. It’s so empty without anyone to share it with.”

I stare at him for a long moment, our hands still clasped together like they’re magnetically linked. “You want to share it with me,” I say. It’s not a question, but he nods anyway.

“I want you, Marina. You’re haunting me. You’re in all my dreams. You’re in all my nightmares. I see you everywhere I turn. I’ve wanted to say sorry ever since the café, but I didn’t know how.”

“You didn’t know how, huh?” I say, finally cracking a smile as tears start to fall down my own face.

He smiles back. “I didn’t know if you would want me.”

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