Page 71 of Secret Baby Daddies
“I just thought you should know that I’m pregnant and one of your business buddies is the father. I’m not sure which Silver brother, adopted or not, won that race, but one of them did and I’m knocked up. You already knew that, though, didn’t you? At least, you knew something, right? Why else would you have bothered to tell them about how much of a fucking victim you’ve been in all this?”
His shocked silence carried on a few seconds too long for me to continue believing he somehow knew. When he spoke again, his voice shook. First with awe and then with fury.
“You’re pregnant? Sweetheart, you’re…wait. The Silvers? The fucking Silvers?”
“You didn’t know that you’re in bed with men who’ve been in bed with your daughter?” I was being extra vulgar about what I’d had with the guys because that was the only way I could talk about them without breaking down. “So, are you just painting yourself as a helpless, broken man to all of your business associates then? Those optics are a lot better than the truth, huh, Dad?”
“What are you talking about, Harley? You need to come home. You need care and doctors and—”
“To be controlled? The same way you controlled Mom?” We’d never gotten down and dirty with the details but I was ready. I needed to get the poison out or I felt like it was going to consume me. “I know everything you did. I know how you abused her and stole me from her. I know everything vile you did to the woman who just wanted her daughter.”
There was no beat of stunned silence that time. There was just stammering and faux confusion.
“What the hell are you talking about, Harley? Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I know. You stole me from her, lied in the divorce proceedings and made her seem fucking insane. Your buddy, the judge, was all too happy to help his rich golf friend, right? You turned everyone in the world against her and then you left her alone and penniless.” I took a shaky breath and swiped angrily at the tears sneaking out of my burning eyes. “You killed her. You used your money to break her until she had no other option. You fucking killed my mom and I’ll never forgive you for that.”
“Harley!” His voice was furious at me then. “What the hell are you talking about? I did no such thing! I loved your mother, Harley, and I would have done anything—”
“Anything to get what you wanted!” I screamed back at him, completely unhinged by his blatant denial of what I knew to betrue. “Is this what you did to her,Dad? Did you lie and contort her thoughts until she was easy for you to break?”
“I did no such thing! Where did you get these preposterous thoughts?” I could hear someone in the background and the realization that my father had lost his control and was freaking out in front of someone else was a strange one that sat heavily in my stomach.
“Your bitch of a wife. She told me everything. Deny it all you want but that woman was proud of how thoroughly you broke my mother. She took a sick pleasure in watching me understand the monster who’d killed my mother and then abandoned me. Now you know that I know. You know why I’ve run from you for years. I won’t be broken and controlled like you controlled her. This isn’t the opening of a conversation, Harvey. It’s the closing of whatever you want to call what we share. Save your pity stories and leave me out of whatever you’ve got going on with the Silvers. I’m done with you and I’m done with them, too.”
I hung up and turned my phone off before throwing it to the other side of the car. The dam had finally broken and there was no stopping the sobs. I wasn’t willing to sit on the side of the road and wait around for someone to find me. I had somewhere to be. Reagan was waiting on me.
CHAPTER 48
Jace
I was antsy. I needed to hit something or fuck Harley until I shook the weight pressing down on my chest. I couldn’t stop thinking about her or the question she’d asked the night before. Whywasn’tHarvey’s abandonment of her enough for us to shut down any and every business venture proposed? How had we lost sight of that?
The betrayal on her face that had shuttered and been replaced with tired acceptance haunted me. Her soft admission of love before retreating to her room for the night didn’t feel as amazing as it should’ve. We’d honored her request for time to process everything and I believed her when she said she wasn’t angry. Nothing stopped my gloomy sense that the world was shifting off-course, though.
I rubbed at my chest, in pain and fucking furious we were sitting in a meeting instead of at home, taking care of our pregnant woman. She’d sounded horrible that morning but we’d gone to work anyway. At that time of the day the meeting had seemed important and missing it had felt impossible. Sitting there, listening to reports of quarterly income projections and actualities, nothing felt important enough that I’d needed to step away from Harley’s side. Especially not after everything had come to light the night before.
I looked across at Maddox and saw the same pained expression on his face. Luc was better at hiding his shit normally but even he looked sick with worry.
I just kept telling myself she was okay. She wanted to see the evidence we’d dug up and then we could talk everything out. We could cut all dealings with her dad, if that’s what she wanted after seeing everything. Wewouldcut all dealings because she was right. Even if the man had his reasons for staying away from his daughter, he’d been wrong. He’d vanished when she neededhim the most and he’d left her with a woman evil enough to tell Harley the things she had.
I wiped my forehead as I was hit with a wave of nausea. We needed to get the fuck out of the meeting that had stretched on forhoursand get home to our woman. My little girl was at home, sick, probably questioning everything in her life. She needed us. I could feel it. All my calm control was lost when it came to her. I was downright panicking.
Luc was talking, saying something about sales and bonuses but he might as well have been whispering, three offices over. I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying, couldn’t process anything beyond Harley. That was probably why I didn’t notice the reason everyone around me had turned to look at the conference room door. I followed their cautious gazes and frowned. Luc was striding across to the door but it exploded open before he got there.
Harvey Beau, red-faced, shaking with rage, and spitting mad, spotted Luc and swung at him. Luc hadn’t grown up like he had without learning to see a punch coming so he stepped back before the hit landed and then grabbed the back of Harvey’s jacket and pinned him to the wall.
“Everyone out!” Luc glared over his shoulder at the unbudging suits around the table. “Now!”
That got everyone moving. Maddox and I stood up but only to make sure Luc didn’t need help containing the older man fighting to get free. He didn’t.
The last person to leave shut the door behind them and then we were alone with our woman’s dad. Luc waited only as long as it took the door to latch to shake Harvey.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? What do you think you’re doing, coming in here like this? This is a fucking business, Harvey.”
“You touched my daughter! You touched my daughter and got her pregnant! I oughta kill all three of you!” Harvey struggled harder against Luc’s hold and then deflated so fast that it was alarming. “She hates me. The things she believes about me…”
Luc let him go and stepped back, shooting worried looks at me and Maddox.
