Page 22 of Cinderella's Secret Baby

“I don’t have any.” Shereallywished she had stayed in bed this morning. To think, when Dad had come back and insisted on getting in the car, there had actually been a part of her that had latched on with enthusiasm to getting out of the house. She had thought the drive might be nice. Maybe they would pick up some sandwiches and eat them on the beach.

“Are we talking about the same thing?” Carina cocked her head, seeming perplexed. “Are you saying you’ve only slept with... Hunter?” Her voice rang with acute disbelief.

“I—” Amelia’s heart lurched as she realized how much she had exposed of herself.

She could feel Hunter drilling holes into the side of her face with his gaze. Her cheeks started to sizzle, and her chest grew tight.

“Yes.” Her voice cracked in the middle of the word.

“I see.” To her credit, Carina didn’t make a big deal of it, only said casually, “I’m not sure why you bothered with the paternity test, but it’s good to know it will come back as expected. Let’s talk about less favorable publicity. I haven’t had time for a deep dive online, but I saw something about your brother walking away from his job site—”

“That isnotwhat happened!” Amelia cried, lurching forward on the sofa cushion.

She was already wound tight enough to break in half. Now tears crashed into the backs of her eyes. She was suddenly short of breath, teetering on the verge of falling apart.

The cushion sank beside her as Hunter slid his hip right up against hers. The warmth of his body seemed to encompass her as his arm came around her hunched shoulders and he tipped her into his chest.

“This topic will be handled with the absolute, utmost care, Carina.”

“Yes. Yes, it will,” Carina assured him gravely. She nodded slowly and swallowed before she offered a tight smile. “I’ll freshen my coffee and give you a minute, Amelia.”

“I don’t need a minute,” she lied as she pressed her face into the hollow of Hunter’s shoulder, but Carina was already gone and she was relieved. “I can talk about him,” she insisted, even as she crushed the fabric of his shirt in her fist. “It’s just been a really emotional day.”

“It has.” He shifted so she wasn’t twisted quite so hard. He scooped her legs across his and dragged her into his lap. Then he just held her, light fingers drawing circles against the back of her shoulder. His chin rested on her hair.

She was shaking with the effort to fight grief and sorrow and despair. She slid her arm around his neck and clung to him as she clung to her composure.Breathe, she reminded herself. Breathe and let the wave of grief come up as high as it needed. It would recede in its own time; she just had to endure it while it was on her and in her.

After about four breaths, she realized he was inhaling and exhaling with her, guiding hers to become slow and steady. She clenched her eyes, and a tear squeaked onto her lashes. She sniffed.

“This is what I should have done that morning,” he murmured, breath stirring the part in her hair. “I just wanted to help, Amelia. I swear that’s the only reason I said what I did.”

The money. If she hadn’t been so distraught, she might have knocked her fist into his shoulder, but this felt so comforting, that old bruise faded into a vague memory.

“I don’t want to cry,” she said with a frustrated pang in her voice. “That has never helped. Not once.”

“Stay right here as long as you need, then.” He smoothed her hair and continued to rub her back.

She could have stayed like this forever, but hiccuped a few sobs before getting hold of herself and climbing out of his lap.

“It’s okay. Tell her she can come back. I can do this.” She just had to step into the hard shell she had worn every time she had picked up the phone or sat down to write yet another email that had wound up being ignored.

Hunter rose and invited Carina back into the living room.

“I’m really sorry, Amelia,” Carina said as she retook her seat. “I thought— Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. You’ll tell me the truth and we’ll go from there.”

Amelia started from the beginning. Jasper had been working in northern Alberta for a company that specializes in rare earth metal exploration. He was dispatched to Chile, where he was surveilling for a new project.

“The last time I spoke with him, he was excited because he’d realized they could sift through tailings from hundreds of dams. It’s a greener endeavor than pit mining. The cost for the rights was dirt cheap, he said.” She smiled faintly at that remembered pun. “The soil had already been displaced, and once the rare earth metals were extracted, it could be moved to better locations than where it had been left by the dam projects. He saw it as win all around. A couple of weeks went by and the next thing we heard, the company said he walked away with his interpreter. But why would he? Hewouldn’t. Something happened.”

“No ransom demands?” Hunter asked.

“No. And no body.” She clung to her elbows, still feeling so bewildered by this turn of events.

“Which company?” Hunter asked.

“REM-ex. Their HR manager told me—”

“I’ll speak to their CEO.” He pulled out his phone.

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