Page 35 of Secret Baby Daddies
“Is the greenhouse nice?” When he nodded I stuck my hand out to him. “Okay. We can go to the greenhouse. Just the two of us, though, right?”
He helped me out of bed and brushed my hair behind my ears once I was in front of him.
“Just us.”
He held my hand all the way to the greenhouse but let me go to explore once we were inside. I went through rows of plants, breathing in the earthy scent and feeling like I’d fallen into a dream. I thought of my check for the auction and promised myself I’d use part of my money to set up a big greenhouse for myself.
Only after I’d explored everything there was to see did I walk back to Maddox. He smiled and nodded at the plants.
“Happier now?”
I bit my lip and looked around.
“I’m not unhappy. Now or earlier. I’m just…scared.”
He sat down, right on the ground, uncaring there was dirt and soil spilled all over the place.
“Talk to me, please. Tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours.”
Reagan’s words bit at my heels as I clumsily sat down a few feet away from him.
“I don’t like unlimited wealth. The things it allows people to do, the way it allows them to exist in the world without boundaries…”
He tilted his head as he studied me.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
I played with the hem of my shirt and stared at a vein in his forearm to avoid his eyes.
“My dad. He’s…he’s an asshole. Worse than that. He’s a monster.”
“What’d he do to you, sweetheart?”
“It’s not so much what he did to me. It’s what he did to my mom.” I let out a bitter laugh and ran my hands over the ground, needing to feel something more. “I only have a few vague memories of her. She was so pretty. I can remember her smile. She was happy when she was with me. My dad divorced her when he wanted his secretary instead of her. It should’ve ended there. It should’ve been enough that he divorced her and worked the system so she got nothing. She spent years taking care of him and his house and he just tossed her out.
“He, um, decided to take full custody. I found the court transcripts a few years ago and he trashed her. He made her seem crazy. She couldn’t afford a lawyer so she faced off with him by herself. He was friends with the judge. Growing up, I saw that judge at my dad’s fancy parties all the time. My dad basically bought me with his friends acting as the liaison. Mom never stood a chance.”
Maddox’s arms had tensed and that vein stood out angrily as he cleared his throat.
“There’s more?”
“He destroyed her. He didn’t quit going after her until she took her own life.” I blinked back tears and swallowed down the lump in my throat. “I grew up thinking my mom had just gone insane. He made me think she’d abandoned me and then killed herself later on. I hated her. For years and years when I thought of her I cursed her very life. The kicker was that Dad didn’t even want me. He just didn’t want her to have me. He sent me away to school and when I came home for breaks he’d be on another continent.”
Swearing, Maddox shifted over until he could wrap his arms around me.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. You deserved so much better than that.”
“My own personal evil stepmother informed me when I turned eighteen that I was as crazy as my mother had been, despite my dad stealing me away. She said those words exactly. That he stole me away. It started this search for the truth in me which ended with me coming to the understanding that my dad is a bastard who pretty much killed my mom and then had the nerve to shit all over her name in the years that followed.” I rested my head on his chest and squeezed my eyes shut. “He ruined a woman’s life because he could. The power he had, and has, is terrifying. My mom would’ve survived if she’d gone up against a normal person.”
“What’d you do when you found out?”
“I ran.” I looked up at him and sighed. “That’s why I’m terrified of you. You have the power to destroy me. History could repeat itself and I’d be as helpless as my mom was. I didn’t set out to get pregnant and I hardly think I’m anyone’s top choice of mom but now that this baby is coming, the idea of losing it is the most horrible thing I could ever imagine.”
Maddox leaned back and cupped my face in his hands.
“Never. Never in a fucking million years would we do that to you. There will never be a secretary, there will never be a divorce which leaves you destitute, there will never be a court battle to harm you. From what I’ve learned about you already, you will probably never leave the workforce. You’ll have your own money if you ever decide you hate us and can’t possibly make it work. We’ll sign whatever we need to sign to show you, sweetheart. You are safe with us.”
I grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer.
