Page 81 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

“Not a chance.” Mark’s voice was stern. “I’m the father of the bride, and I’m going to pay for the wedding. End of story.”

“But you can’t afford to pay for the wedding,” said Sam. “That’s the whole point.”

“I can’t afford to fly them to Paris, sure, but I can afford to cover the cost of my own damn daughter’s wedding!” He sat forward in his chair.

“Mark, please,” said Dad. “I understand where you’re coming from.”

“Is that right? Because I don’t think you do—not even a little. You’re bringing me into this ridiculous house of yours, trying to pour me scotch that costs god-knows-how-much a bottle, and then tell me you’re going to take away one of my duties as a father.”

“It’s not about that at all,” said Dad.

“Then what’s it about?” asked Linda.

Cass and I shared another look. Things were getting bad if even her mom was joining in.

“It’s about giving them both a wedding to remember.” Dad was digging in, and this wasn’t going to be pretty.

“And you don’t think a man like me who makes the money I do can provide something like that?”

I stepped in. “Guys, please. We can talk about this after the holidays.” Preferably never, because the wedding would be called off before that. But my words didn’t do any good—not one person in the conversation even looked over at me.

“Frankly, no.” It was like Sam was trying to provoke a fight. Little shit.

“I can and I will,” said Mark. “And I’m not going to hear another word about this shit.”

Dad raised his palms. “Please, let’s keep calm about this.”

“Oh, I’m plenty calm,” said Mark. But he was anything but. Couldn’t blame the guy.

Dad went on. “Think about it like this—we give these two the wedding of their dreams. Look at the ring Joshua’s already given her.”

“Not the ring I wanted her to have,” said her mother.

Dad pushed forward. “She’s going to have that ring for the rest of her life, something she can show to her kids and pass down to them. And the wedding will be the same way, a treasured event that a hundred years from now their grandkids will still have the photos of.”

“Kids.” Cass’s voice was as far away as the expression in her eyes.

Then, before anyone could say anything else, she got up and ran from the room as quickly as she could.

“Cass!” Katie was soon on her heels and they were gone.

“Shit,” said Dad.

“Look what you’ve done.” There was anger in Mark’s voice. “You just can’t resist throwing your money around, trying to make us feel less than you. It’s a load of bullshit.”

Then he was up and gone, Linda following after him. It was me and Dad and Sam.

“I think that went well,” said Sam.

Dad only shook his head in response. “I really fucked that one up, huh?” He turned to me. “Might want to start on damage control with the future missus.”

“Good call.” He didn’t need to tell me twice.

I hurried through the house, looking for Cass. After some time, I found her on the back patio with Katie, who appeared to be comforting her. This was bad—I knew it. Steeling myself with one deep breath, I stepped outside. The two women locked eyes onto me right away, and the feeling wasn’t good.

“You need to talk to her.” Katie’s voice was sharp. “Right now. And really, really talk.”

That was all she had to say before storming past me. When I took a look at Cass, I saw there were tears in her eyes. What the hell was going on? This seemed way worse than a simple matter of being stressed out by a family fight.

“Cass.” I approached her, and she seemed uneasy, not comforted. Very bad sign.

She said nothing. Instead, she bit down on her lower lip, and not in the way I liked.

“Come on, talk to me. Are you upset about what happened in there? Dad’s stubborn, like yours, but I think we can get them to play nice.”

“I’m pregnant.”

Time froze. Snow had been falling down softly, and it seemed to stop. I cocked my head to the side, as if she’d said words that weren’t real, that didn’t make any sense.

“You’re…what?”

“I’m pregnant. I’m going to have a baby, and there’s not a single doubt that it’s yours.”

For one of the few times in my life, I was totally speechless. But that was good—Cass appeared to have a lot she wanted to say.

“And I don’t know if I can do this anymore. The lies, the pretending, the looking my family in the eyes and saying complete bullshit—I can’t do it. It’s killing me, like I’m tying a knot inside of me that gets more intolerable with each passing minute. I know I agreed to do this with you, but I don’t know if I can anymore. And that makes what’s going on with me now even more difficult, because we’re going to need to figure out something because I don’t know if I can do this on my own.”

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