Page 5 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

He rolled his eyes and turned to face the closed door, stepping forward to lock it.

“I’ll insist on a test either way, but I don’t have time for games. There’s a woman next door who deserves to know.”Hedeserved to know.

Amelia muttered something and said, “Ouch. Yes, I know.” She seemed to be talking to the baby because there was a cry of protest then, “There. All better.” She sighed.

Silence resumed, broken by loud gulps.

As he warily turned back to face her, Hunter was doing some quick and dirty math, trying to work out if this was even possible. Nine months from July would take the birth to April.

Amelia had draped the blanket over her shoulder, and the baby was now hidden beneath the tent. One bare foot was kicking out from beneath it, working an invisible pump. Amelia kept her glower aimed at his shoes.

“How old is...?” He? She? Check that gender bias, he reminded himself. A child. Could he have made this baby?

“Nine weeks. Almost ten,” Amelia admitted sullenly.

May.June.

Hunter swore again, using a clear, all-purpose curse that encompassed the act that had brought him to this point and the complexity of his reaction. It spanned everything from resignation to disgrace. Irony to self-disgust. Anger to injustice. Remorse.

And, flittering around the edges, a nascent curiosity coupled with a small resentment that she had hidden the baby for months. From his eyes right now.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she mumbled. “Any of this.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before today?”

“I tried.” Her voice grew tougher. Belligerent. “I called your office, trying to reach you. You texted back that you were engaged. You told me not to text again.”

“That’s not trying. For God’s sake, Amelia. I wanted to hearthat. Why did you wait... What? Five months after we were together?” He had been engaged by then. “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you found out you were pregnant?”

“I did.”

He snorted, never quite believing thoseI didn’t know I was pregnanturban legends.

Her lashes finally came up. Her lake-blue eyes were pools of sorrow.

“Do you remember I left that morning because Dad got the news my brother had disappeared? That’s all I could think about. Finding him. When the company quit trying, I decided to go to Chile myself. I needed shots to travel, and the doctor had to screen me for pregnancy before he could administer them. I thought stress was making me sick and stopping my periods. I wasn’t doing anything except sitting at a computer, writing emails, so the weight gain didn’t seem unusual. We used condoms,” she reminded, waving between them. “It didn’t occur to me I could be pregnant.”

He always used condoms and didn’t recall one breaking. It seemed far-fetched that she could have gotten pregnant by him, but he was having trouble hanging on to his skepticism in the face of how upset she seemed.

“I wanted to have her, even though it meant I couldn’t travel.” She rubbed her brow, mouth pulled down at the corners with deep sadness. “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, but I knew Jasper would never expect me to give up a baby to go look for him, especially if...”

The catch of torment in her voice struck Hunter straight in the chest, rocking him back on his heels. He tried to imagine making a decision between his unborn child and looking for his sister. His mind refused to go there. The idea of it, the fact that Amelia had chosen to keep his baby rather than search for someone she loved, caused a visceral shift inside his chest, one that hurt in a way he didn’t understand.

He brushed aside trying to untangle that emotive knot, focusing instead on the word “her.” Such a tiny detail, but now he knew that little foot belonged to a girl. His daughter?

“I thought I should tell you, but you blew me off,” Amelia said in a lifeless tone. “Given all I was going through, it seemed like a blessing that you didn’t want to be involved. One less person to worry about.”

You didn’taskme if I wanted to be involved, he nearly growled, but she was obviously still in deep pain, so he bit that back.

“And your brother?” he probed carefully.

“Presumed dead.”

Hunter rubbed the cynicism from his expression. “I’m sorry, Amelia. That’s rough.”

“It is. Dad was in pieces. I moved back into his house, we pulled up the drawbridge, and we’ve been looking after each other ever since. Peyton’s been a bright spot, though.” One side of her mouth went up a little as she caught the bare foot that was still working thin air. “Dad’s been more like his old self since she arrived.”

Peyton. He had a daughter named Peyton. It didn’t seem real.

---