Page 86 of Resurrection

“You and me. Together. Marriage. Raise Lucas as a family unit.”

“Not happening.”

“Then I suppose you won’t have much to do with your child. Shame. I guess I can always tell him you’re dead.” His eyes bore into me.

He knows about my mother. Doesn’t surprise me. My father probably told him the whole sob story with his own slant on the details. “If that baby is biologically mine, you can bet your ass I’m not letting you raise him without me.”

“If you’re not part of our family—fullya part—then you’ll have to take me to court to get access. That’ll take years. Not to mention, we’re in Russia. What are your Russian contacts like? ’Cause I’ve taken the last year to hone mine in the right circles. I’ve studied the chessboard, determined how to win no matter what move you made.”

Oh, God. He’s spent a year planning my downfall right into his arms. While I was buzzing around obsessing over Finn, overseeing his life from a distance, Eric was building a web so tight my escape appears impossible.

“We were good together,” he says. “I screwed up. I realize that. This time, it’ll be different. Wasn’t so long ago I was the man warming your bed.”

A shudder of revulsion goes through me at the memory of leaving Finn in the hallway to go to Eric. What the hell had I been doing?

“It wasn’t long ago you were fucking Valeriya. In order for me to believe you’ve changed, well, you would have had to actually change. Convenient she died before a DNA test could be done on her baby.”

“Oh, she was pregnant, was she? Such a shame.”

“I’m sure the baby was yours. I’m sure you had a hand in her murder.”

“Hmm.” His brown eyes search my face, and a smirk plays at the edges of his mouth. “Are you telling me you’ve got a problem with murder? ’Cause I’d have to call bullshit. You’ve been fucking a murderous psychopath for weeks.”

Heat rises to my cheeks, but I’m not backing down. “There’s a difference between killing someone because it’s part of your business and killing someone because they’re standing in your way.”

“Oh.” Eric raises his eyebrows. “You’re going to try to defend him. Well, I suppose to that I’d say, do you honestly think Finn’s never killed for no reason? ’Cause if you believe that, I’ve got swampland in Florida to sell you.”

Jay, who is within earshot, tenses, probably at Eric’s know-it-all asshole tone, which is out in full effect.

“You’re deluded if you consider him a better man than me.”

I’m tempted to shove the coffee in his face and laugh as it burns him. An unexpected, almost uncontrollable rage surges through me.

Jay strides to me with a sense of purpose. “Carys, can I have a word?” He tilts his head.

Eric’s gaze rakes over him before he focuses on me again. “You have a choice. You might not like the choice, but it exists. If you don’t want to have a role in Lucas’s life, I’ll raise him on my own. I’ve always wanted a son I could mold into my likeness.”

Bile rises into my throat at the realization my son could be anything like Eric. At one time, for whatever reason, his faults didn’t seem written so large, so hard to ignore. But now, it’s one character fault after another with no end in sight. Finn is a better man. Maybe not in the ways Eric counts, but he is better in every way that counts to me.

Jay’s hand is on my elbow, and he’s steered me away from Eric and down a hallway leading to the bathrooms before I have a chance to process Eric’s words.

“What?” I snap. “What do you need?”

He releases my arm and takes a step back from me. “Nothing. I just thought you’d like to be outta that conversation.”

I sink to the floor with my head in my hands. “What am I going to do?” When I glance up, his face is full of sympathy. “Did you hear everything? The things he said? How badly he’s fucked me over?”

“I did.” He deposits his phone into his pocket and leans his shoulder against the wall.

“You and Finn were searching for weeks. None of this was there?”

Jay shifts with obvious discomfort. “Maybe, looking back there were a few fertility-related things sprinkled in.” He shrugs. “When I pointed them out to Finn, he said he didn’t care who Eric was trying to get pregnant now.”

I wince.

“Sorry.” He rubs the side of his face. “I take it he doesn’t realize the shit you went through and the things you and Eric did to get pregnant before?”

“No.” I laugh, but it has no humor. “I didn’t think it mattered.”

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