Page 9 of Cruel Secrets

I pause, enjoying the way her body tenses like she’s waiting for the lunge. “And why would I do that?”

“You tripped a silent alarm when you came in.”

I advance on her again, grinning when she looks around like she’s searching for an escape. She thinks she’s going to die. And maybe she is. While the baby changes things, Gia is still a liar at heart. A woman who seeks to manipulate and destroy.

Two can play at that game.

“Oh, Gia.” I stop and lean against the doorframe, trapping her in the hallway.

The only way out of the building is to wriggle around me, and we both know she’s not going to be able to do that.

Certainly not with a baby in her arms.

I cross one leg over the other, facing her. “Now, are you going to tell me whose baby that is, or are you going to stand there with your mouth open, just waiting for me to give you something to fill it with?”

“You’re an asshole.” Her words spew like venom, but there’s a rosy flush to her cheeks that tells me exactly where her mind just went. Her legs press tighter together, the crackle of electricity filling the air. “Noah is going to be here soon, and when he gets here, you’re going to be dead.”

“It’s cute that you think I didn’t do my research before coming here, Gia. Did you honestly think I was going to allow you the chance to slip through my fingers?”

“I don’t know what you want with me.”

“Nothing.” My laugh is hollow as I look at the baby again, the corner of my mouth twitching when she waves at me. “Whose child is that?”

Gia glowers at me like she would love nothing more than to strangle me right now. She always did like to try and take control in the bedroom. “I don’t know why the hell it matters to you since you were the one who walked out two years ago.”

My temper flares but I hold back the desire to get my hand around that pretty little throat and show her who’s running the show. Our daughter has to be traumatized enough, having a mother like her. I don’t need to make that worse.

Though the baby will be a good bribe.

I can see from the look in Gia’s eyes that she’s willing to do anything for the baby. I can use that to my advantage.

“Because I asked you. You can either tell me, or I can run a paternity test.” And if I have to do the second, her punishment is going to be so much worse.

What I’m torn between is if it’s going to be in the bedroom or out of it. There’s something appealing about tying her down and having her submit to me. Listening to her beg for me, only to deny her everything she’s ever wanted the same way she’s denied me.

“You may as well run the test since we both know you don’t trust me.”

I scoff, pushing off the wall and stepping closer to her again. “And I wonder why that is, don’t you? I wonder if the woman I was in love with—the one I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with—lying to me about who she was had anything to do with that.”

“My name really is Gia Esposito.”

I take a deep breath, holding back from spilling every horrible thought I’ve had since the night I found out the truth.

Gia knew who I was the entire time. She knew what her family had done to mine and what mine had done to hers. She knew everything about me and in the end, I didn’t even know who the hell raised her.

She had secrets stacked on top of secrets—ones that I hadn’t even been able to guess at—and yet she’s standing here and acting like the victim.

She sighs, shifting the baby to the other hip. “She’s your daughter.”

The world falls away from beneath my feet as I take a step closer, one hand reaching out. Just one touch. That’s all I’m going to allow myself of the woman I used to love.

One touch is all it would take to have her melting for me again.

Her gaze locks on my hand, her breathing becoming erratic. Her eyes widen as she shakes her head. I advance on her, reaching forward to take her by the chin just as she yanks herself and the baby out of the way.

Gia walks backward as far as she can, hitting the wall and glaring at me. “No. You don’t get to touch her.”

“She’s my daughter.”

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