Page 17 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

Her umbrage against him eased a notch. She tried to remember what she knew of his family, but it wasn’t much. His father had died a few years ago and there’d been a drawn-out court battle with his stepmother over control of Wave-Com. He’d been in the middle of that when they’d met, not that he had talked about it. Remy had made some remark about the golf weekend being necessary to help his friend unwind, though.

In the weeks after, Amelia had been consumed by her search for Jasper. She hadn’t followed the twists and turns of Hunter’s journey to legal triumph. By the time she realized she was pregnant with his baby, he was out of the headlines and she was turning inward with grief.

To her mind, though, all of those things reported on TV had happened to someone else, not the Hunter Waverly she knew. The man she had slept with had been surprisingly human while the one on TV was a mythical legend from a dynastic family. That one had wealth and power and little empathy for mere mortals like her.

That was the one who confronted her today. He had no compunction about sweeping her into his world and mercilessly making her face how impossible it was for her to go back to the life she knew and loved. He was so armed and armored, she couldn’t touch him.

But for a second, one tiny second, she saw the man who had held her hand and called her amazing and made her feel incredible things.

She blinked, and he was turning away.

“I’ll change and meet you downstairs. Our lunch will be here any minute.”

“You said you liked sushi.” Hunter’s voice broke into Amelia’s introspection. “Do you prefer a fork? I’m not a purist.”

“Pardon? Oh.” She adjusted her grip on her chopsticks and blinked at the array of seafood before them. While she had taken a couple of rolls, Hunter had polished off half the platter and most of the teriyaki chicken and seemed to be eyeing the last of the yam tempura, which she had yet to taste.

“I’m not very hungry.” She glanced to where Peyton had just kicked a jangling toy on the play gym arched over where she lay on an activity mat.

What was she going to do? Things were so much worse than she had feared.

“You looked,” Hunter said with heavy disappointment. “Didn’t you?”

“What?” She flashed her gaze back to his, then dropped it guiltily.

This was what she got for searching his name online. She had only wanted to know more about his father and stepmother, but that hadn’t come to the top of the page. Her own name had. Apparently, she was ruining Eden Bellamy’s life.

The Bellamy family was considered a national treasure. Amelia knew that, so maybe she should have been prepared to be vilified, but it wasn’t as if she had done this on purpose! Her baby was completely innocent in all of this, yet there had been some very sickening things said about Peyton as well. Things awful enough to make her want to cry.

“They’re trolls, Amelia. Not worth thinking about.”

“But I had messages from friends. They want to know what’s going on and why I never told them you were Peyton’s father.”

“What did you say?” His words came out fast and crisp enough to lash like a whip.

“Nothing. I don’t know what to say. Other than mind your own beeswax,” she added in a grumble.

He let out an exhale. “That’s why we’re bringing in a team. They’ll clean up your timeline and craft stock answers to the most awkward questions. You’ll feel back in control very soon.”

“Will I?” she scoffed. “Or will you? Because if you’re going to tell me what to say, that’s not really me in control, is it?”

“This is a very big bus, Amelia. I already know how to drive it. I won’t ask you to lie, only stay on message.”

She snorted and picked up a round of BC roll, swirling it in soy sauce and wasabi before popping the morsel of barbecued salmon and cucumber in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, chasing it with a salty sip of her miso soup.

“I’m predisposed to hate PR people,” she explained once she’d swallowed. “The company that sent Jasper to Chile did everything they could to quiet his disappearance. It made them look bad. I would sit with a reporter for hours, pouring my guts out, hoping to get some attention and support. The story would be watered down or outright killed before it posted. If I got a government official to take an interest, they would suddenly ghost me and I’d be back to square one. I can’t prove it, but I know his employers were behind the obstruction. I realize people like Carina are a necessary evil for you, but to me they’re just evil.”

“Understood.” His cheeks went hollow. He had changed into cream-colored pants and a checked shirt. The short sleeves were rolled up once, revealing more of his tanned upper arms. “For me, they’ve always been more necessary than evil. My life has been one publicity nightmare after another since my mother died.”

That’s what Amelia had wanted to learn more about. She stopped chasing a clump of rice and gave him her full attention.

“I remember the odd headline about a wardrobe malfunction and some Twitter feuds. Were there other issues?” she asked.

“So many,” he said with disgust. “You can still find a lot of them online if you look hard enough, even the affairs.”

“She cheated on your father?”

“I don’t know if it can be called cheating if he knew about it and put up with it. Maybe it was her kink to step out, and he got off on being cuckolded. It’s none of my business if that’s the case, but she slept with married men when Dad was in the middle of cutting deals with them. Their wives would find out and everything would go to hell, so it affected the company. Thatismy business.” He tapped his chest.

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