Page 46 of Vengeful Secret

“When did you even get pregnant?”

“On my birthday.” A smile tilts my lips up at the memories. “Or somewhere around there. Remember, we went to that little bed and breakfast?”

“Sullivan’s.” His eyes go tender for a moment. “Of course, I remember. That was a couple months before you broke up with me.”

I nod. “When I found out I was pregnant. I had to think about her, Gray, not just you or me.”

“Would it have been different? If you’d made the decision for yourself?”

I nod. “Of course, it would, Gray. It would have been us, all three, as a family. But you weren’t the kind of guy to?—”

“To what? To be a father? To keep her safe? What, you thought I’d take her along when I worked?”

“Of course not! But it’s just… What kind of life would she have had so far with a target on her back, Gray? If I had stayed, if I had chosen anyone else but her, she would never have been the free and careless little girl she is now. She’d be constantly watched. By your men, by your enemies. Never free to just be who she is.”

My face is burning up.

I was wrong in hiding her from him, but I was not wrong in wanting to keep her safe. That will always be my priority.

And that I can’t seem to make him understand my position is so frustrating, but I realize that I’m in the wrong here.

I take a long breath to calm down.

“I understand. But that doesn’t mean I’m not angry about it.”

“You have every right to be angry, just please try to see it from my side. Just as I’m now looking at it from yours. And I really am sorry.”

Gray is right. I kept this secret from him. A piece of him that he lost so much of because of me alone.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to protect you, Sutton. Did you think it’d be any different if I knew you were pregnant with my baby?”

“I don’tknow. We were still getting to know each other, still young and reckless and… It all happened like a whirlwind. I knew what you did for a living, and I got scared. Of the world, your world, and what that would mean for me and the baby. That’s why I made this decision.”

“You made the wrong decision.”

“Maybe. But I can’t take it back.” I pause. “I wondered if the choice was right so many times. I couldn’t work for so long, andmy mother couldn’t help since she was so sick when Ciara was a newborn. I was completely by myself, and in the wee hours of the morning, when Ciara was still screaming bloody murder, I used to wonder what it would be like if you were there, if I had made a different choice.”

But I don’t wonder anymore.

“You wouldn’t have had to do any of that?—”

“Like I said, I made the decision and lived through the consequences. Am still living through them as we speak. No pun intended.”

He nods, his shoulders slumping. “But now I want her to know I’m her father. I want to be there.”

I nod slowly. “All right. We’ll talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Sutton. She’s my daughter.”

I nod once again and swallow hard as I leave the room, guilt and other emotions washing over me.

She should know she is her daughter, and he has the right to be her dad now that he knows about her. But his life hasn’t changed at all, has it? The danger is still there. The risk. The targets waiting to be set on our backs.

And she needs to get to know him a bit before being told he is her father.

She isn’t mature enough to have a revelation like this and not be overwhelmed. He is a stranger to her. Her whole life is changing, she was just taken from her home, and he wants to do this now?

I get it he wants to be her dad without restrictions, but we need to respect Ciara’s feelings too. Her timings.

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