Page 66 of Forever Fake

I don’t even know what to say. This revelation leaves me reeling, sick to my stomach now that I know where I come from. My skin crawls.

“To your mother, you’re her daughter, she’ll never see you any differently. But to me, you’re the most vile little creature. When you were little, I thought I could forget the truth, to pretend you belonged to me, but you’re the spitting image of him. I should have gotten rid of you when you were a baby.”

I blink back tears, I’m not sure if they’re from devastating sadness or anger. Maybe both.

The kitchen door clicks shut and we both turn, finding Blake standing in the doorway. How long has he been there? How much did he overhear?

He sneers at the man I thought was my father. “I should get rid of you right now for being the worst father any child could have. How can you blame her, when she’s completely innocent? You’re a coward, Pontrelli, for letting your guilt ruin her life. She deserves so much better than you.”

My heart flip-flops at Blake’s words.

“This is none of your business, Mr. Baron.”

“I beg to differ. Everything and anything involving Ginevra is my business. You’re supposed to be the most important man in her life and you’ve devastatingly let her down. I won’t make the same mistake.”

Father points at me, seething. “She’s tainted. Even you must be able to see she’s not good for?—”

Blake moves so quickly, neither of us has time to react. He punches my father, sending him sprawling to the kitchen floor, where he stays down, blood seeping from his nose and mouth.

“I warned you not to speak like that about my fiancée.” Blake shakes out his hand, clenching and uncurling his fingersas he stares down at my papa. “Don’t ever come near her again. She’s no longer your responsibility, you piece of shit. You don’t deserve her.”

Blake steps over him, coming to my side. He pulls me into a tight embrace, then steers us out of the kitchen. “Let’s go home, baby.”

I nod my agreement. My emotions are a wreck, and the number of questions blasting through my mind are giving me a headache. This has been one crazy birthday—both good and bad.

Tonight I sit on Blake’s lap while he scrolls through a dark web chatroom and feeds me chocolates he ordered from Paris. A satisfied rumble sounds in his chest every time my lips wrap around his fingers. Since we returned from Lexa’s no-go wedding, and my strange birthday celebration, this has been our life, and it’s been divine.

Lexa finally called Blake last week. He immediately launched into a tirade about her and Eion Bane, which went over about as well as I expected. She hung up on him and hasn’t called again since. I know he still worries about her, but he needs to chill the fuck out if he wants Lexa to talk to him.

Him chilling is easier said than done. He’s always wound so tight, unless it’s just the two of us together. Like right now.

“So, this is the secret to your reputation as theBig, Bad Black Baronthat has everyone shaking in their boots.” I suck on a piece of chocolate as he sorts through snippets of gossip from a ton of different anonymous sources who he calls hislittle birdies. “Isn’t this like cheating or something?”

“I pay for this information. That’s hardly cheating,” he rumbles. “It’s not my fault that no one else has this wonderful program to make sense of all the information out there.”

“Is there anything useful today?”

“Not really. Nothing about Yve, or the blackmail material she has on me—not yet. But it will come eventually. Someone will see something, and then everything else will click into place. That’s how this works.”

“Fascinating.” It really is. I glance at Blake, he’s fascinating too. I never would have suspected him of being a computer nerd, but he can go on and on about data and programming, the same way I can about cooking techniques. He’s truly passionate about this computer stuff. It’s adorable.

I shift on his lap. “What about your inheritance?”

“What about it?”

“What is it? One of the nights on the yacht, Liam told me that you haven’t gotten yours yet. I’m curious about what it is.”

Blake stiffens, suddenly uncomfortable, but I don’t understand why.

“I’m sorry, you don’t have to–”

“It’s why I’m fake marrying you. Yve won’t give me my inheritance until I’ve taken a wife, and I must remain married for one year.”

Oh. So that’s the reason behind our ruse.

“You seem to have everything you could possibly want, so why fake marry me? What do you have left to gain?”

Blake clears his throat and shoots me a quick glance. “In all honesty, it’s of little value.”

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