Page 75 of Billionaire Temptations

My mom placed her hand over her mouth and lightly touched my arm. I jerked away from her.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” I snapped at her. “A few days ago, Emma gave birth to our baby two months early, and now my daughter is fighting for her life in the NICU.”

“A girl? I have a granddaughter?” She started to cry.

“No. You have nothing because you will never ever meet her, and she will never know that the two of you exist.”

“You can’t do that,” my father spoke.

I sharply turned towards him and saw the fear in his eyes. “You’re no father. You’re nothing but a filthy rich depressed man who’s so unhappy with his life that you have to go and fuck every young woman you can get your hands on.”

“Max! That’s enough!” my mom screamed.

“Turn the other cheek, Mom. Because God knows you’re so damn good at it. Stay by his side all you want. You both are dead to me, and I will never raise my child in a home like I was raised in.”

I stormed out of the living room, and my mom ran after me, grabbing hold of my arm.

“Don’t go. You’re obviously upset and hurting. Let’s talk about this and about your daughter.”

“No. I tried to talk to you for years, and you always took his side. Well, now you can be alone with him because you no longer have a son, and I suspect, before too long, you won’t have a daughter either. How does it feel to lose both your children?”

I opened the door and walked out as my mom screamed my name from the doorway. I hopped in the front seat of the Rolls Royce and told Darren to pull away immediately.

“I’m sorry, Max.”

“It’s fine, Darren. I’ve said what I came to say, and now I’m going back to Emma. I have my company and my own family to focus on. I told her that I loved her today.”

“How did she respond?”

“She didn’t.” I sighed. “I’m just going to wait for her for as long as it takes, and I pray to God she still loves me.”

Emma

I heard the door open as I lay on the couch. I sat up and looked at Max as he walked towards me.

“Are you okay?” I asked as he sat down next to me.

“I’m fine. I said what needed to be said and told them about Sarah and that they will never meet her.”

“Max.”

“No, Emma. Don’t. I don’t want to think or talk about them. They no longer exist in my life. The only thing that matters to me is you and Sarah.” He put his arm around me and pulled me into him, kissing the top of my head. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay, I guess. I can’t stop thinking about Sarah, and I want to see her so badly.”

“I know. Me too. We’ll see her first thing tomorrow morning.”

There was silence for a while before I decided to bring something up. “I never talked to you about how I felt before we called off the engagement.”

“What do you mean?”

“I never told you how I felt about you. I never told you that I was falling in love with you because I was scared that you didn’t feel the same way, and I didn’t want you to feel guilty. Maybe I should have told you, but you were so excited about going to Chicago and starting your own business, and I didn’t want to ruin that for you. It was your opportunity to shine, and I wasn’t going to take that away. But when you left, I hated you for leaving me, even though you didn’t know how I felt.”

“But I knew, Emma. I knew you were in love with me. Why do you think I wrote you that letter? I swear to you I nevermeant to hurt you, and the more time I spent away from you, the more I drank to get you off my mind until, one day, I couldn’t take it anymore. I missed everything about you. I missed your smile, cute laugh, how you smelled, kissing your beautiful lips, and waking up to your body wrapped around mine. You had dreams here in New York, and I couldn’t risk you losing them for someone like me. I would never ask you to give up your dream of going to Parsons. When I finally came back home and saw you were pregnant, the worst feeling in the world washed over me. I was so scared that she wasn’t mine. If you’re scared that I’ll become my father, you don’t have to be. I would never do that.”

I needed to ask him a question, but I was too scared to know the truth if he would even tell me the truth. I took in a deep breath.

“Did you sleep with anyone while you were in Chicago?”

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