Page 6 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

“And maybe we don’t live like you do, but we’refine,” she insisted. “He shouldn’t have made it sound like we’re starving. Dad has a pension, and the house is paid for. I get maternity benefits that I supplement by tutoring. I’m finishing my Bachelor of Ed online. In a year or so, I’ll be a teacher. That’s a perfectly good living for a single mom.”

“But you let your father believeIdon’t care if you’re starving and destitute.” That rankled. A lot.

“I don’t even know how he found out your name! I didn’t tell anyone. Not even Cheryl—You remember her? She’s the one Remy—”

“I remember,” Hunter dismissed, vaguely recalling a bubbly redhead.

“I haven’t really talked to her since I left,” Amelia continued in a distracted mumble, lashes lifting warily. “I don’t post about Peyton. No one knows you’re her father.”

Yeah. Not even me.

“But Dad got after me to make a will the minute she was born, especially since Jasper didn’t have one. I finalized it a couple weeks ago. Maybe he read the copy I left in the freezer? I only mentioned you as a last resort. My cousin agreed to raise her if something happens. She lives in Ottawa, but she and Dad would work something out.”

“I’m a last resort for custody of my child? Wow.” Very few things got under his skin. Hunter had been exposed to every possible slight at one time or another. He was jaded and impervious, but that was a kick in the stomach. “What about her birth certificate? Is my name on that?”

“No.” Her reply was prompt and remorseless. “I would have needed your permission, so it didn’t make sense to add you. Can you turn around again? She’s finished and I need to put myself back together.”

He turned his back and absorbed everything she’d said, but kept coming back to that phrase, “last resort.” He’d been tangled up in a legal mess for the last few years, but did that make him so objectionable a person she didn’t want him to have anything to do with his own child? He was gainfully employed and didn’t have a criminal record. He was about to marry—

He swore and pinched the bridge of his nose.

What the hell was he supposed to do? Parts of the merger might be salvaged if he called off the wedding, if Eden could stand to speak to the man who jilted her. She didn’t deserve this humiliation any more than he did.

“I need a paternity test,” he muttered, grasping at the off chance this was a stunt organized by his stepmother, but he knew. Deep down, he already knew the truth.

“I’ll agree to that, but I don’t expect anything from you. If you want access, we can talk about it, but please don’t feel obligated.”

“Of course I’m obligated, Amelia. Do you know who Iam?” He pivoted around again to see her shirt was down and she held the baby against the blanket on her shoulder.

Peyton’s fine brown hair was thin on top and turned up in feathery ducktails around the fringe, like a balding old man on a hot summer’s day. In response to Amelia’s pats, she released a robust burp.

Amelia was glaring at him with resentment.

“Please don’t accuse me of getting pregnant for money. If that’s what I wanted, I would have come after you a lot sooner.”

“I’ve already deduced that.” Everything she was saying added up to preferring to keep this baby from him. Which made him furious. And uncomfortable.

“Please don’t sue me to try to take her.” She tucked her chin, brows low with warning.

“Is that why you didn’t tell me? You think I would try to separate my baby from herparent? I’m not like that, Amelia,” he said pointedly.

Her scowl deepened. “I’m not going to apologize. You are in love with someone else, Hunter. About to be married. I did what I thought was right.”

“By whom? Not our daughter,” he scoffed. “My life comes with a lot of comfort and privilege. Your father is right. My child deserves to benefit from what I can give her.”

“Her needs are met,” she insisted. “She’s chubby and happy and sleeps in a dry diaper under a sound roof every night. I love her to death. So does my dad. She wants for nothing.”

“Except the father who wants to be part of her life. Were you really going to wait until she was old enough to ask about me before you sprang her on me?”

“I refuse to feel guilty over the choices I’ve made! You told me not to text you.”

He brushed that aside. “If she’s a Waverly, she’s entitled to live like one.” That much he knew.

“Fine. Organize a paternity test. Make whatever arrangements you want for her. Forher,” she stressed. “I need to live with Dad and look after him.” She inched to the edge of the love seat. “And, um, don’t think this is me being a jerk or anything, but I plan to talk to a lawyer and find out my rights. She’s still nursing. I genuinely think it’s better if she’s with me full time. I’m open to something more balanced after she weans. I want to be reasonable.”

“Nice to know,” he said facetiously. “But nothing about this is reasonable. It’s outrageous.”

She sighed. “You’re right that I should have told you sooner,” she admitted grudgingly. “I’m sorry it happened like this. I’ll get Dad and we’ll leave and—”

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