Page 79 of Secret Baby for the Boss

“It’s not just about you,” I snapped. I wanted to cry. Parker was the most amazing man I’d ever met, and now he was here, apologizing and fighting for us to be together. I would never find another man like him.

Which was exactly why I couldn’t do this to him. After his outburst about me using him, telling him I was pregnant would burn everything we could have had to the ground. The last thing I wanted was for him to decide that he would do the right thing and pay for the baby. I didn’t want him to resent me for the money he would have to spend.

“Then what?” Parker demanded.

“It’s about me too,” I said. “Did you ever consider that maybe I really don’t want this? When I said it to you the first time, you wouldn’t take no for an answer. And now, you’re doing the same thing. What about me and my feelings?”

“Tell me you don’t want this,” Parker said. “Tell me you don’t care about me, and you don’t want a relationship with me because you don’t believe we should be together.”

“I don’t have to justify myself to you!” I cried out.

“You can’t, can you?” Parker said.

He was right, Icouldn’t. I did care about him. And I wanted to be in a relationship with him because if any two people were perfect together, it was us.

I shook my head. “You’re trying to argue your way into a relationship and that’s not how it works,” I said. “I think you should go.”

“I’m not going until you tell me what’s really going on,” Parker said.

I shook my head and walked away from him. “I won’t let you bully me in my own apartment.”

I opened my front door. “Leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Parker said.

“You can’t force me to tell you what you want to hear!”

“You can’t tell me that you don’t want this.” He pushed me closer and closer to the edge. A lump rose in my throat, and I blinked my eyes against the sting of tears. I wished he would do as I said, listen to my words, and leave. I wanted him to go before I fell apart. I could only fight him for so long.

Parker walked toward the door. Thank God. I couldn’t do this any longer.

Instead of leaving, he stopped right in front of me.

“I love you, Emily,” he said.

I blinked at him.

“If you won’t tell me that you don’t love me, then I—”

“I’m pregnant,” I cried out and burst into tears.

I covered my face with my hands and cried, trying to hold back the tears that just wouldn’t stop coming.

“Oh, Emily,” Parker said softly. He wrapped his arms around me, and I sobbed against his chest.

“Don’t,” I mumbled through my fingers. I pushed against his chest. “I can’t do this.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“That’s what I came to tell you when you told me off,” I cried. “And I get it. I won’t do this to you. I won’t be the one you have to pour your money into. It’s not what I wanted from you then, and it’s not now. I won’t tie you down and—” My sobs racked my chest, and I couldn’t talk anymore. Everything I’d held back the past couple of weeks poured out of me, and tears streamed down my face.

It wasn’t even the cute crying I saw in movies all the time. I sobbed and sniveled and ugly-cried as everything came crashing down.

“I want to be with you,” Parker said. “And if we’re having a baby, I want to have the baby with you too. Let’s be a family then.”

“You can’t mean that,” I said, blinking at Parker, blurred by my tears.

“Why not?” Parker asked. “What part about ‘I love you’ didn’t you understand?”

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