Page 34 of The Billionaire's Accidental Legacy

He laughed. Because at least that jarred him out of the moment he had found himself sinking into. The thoughts of the past that were threatening to reach up and strangle him.

“I am aware, as you achieved that status in part by taking a substantial amount of money from me.”

“That’s incorrect. Youlosta substantial amount of money to me. And this estate. I am quite well, and taken care of.”

“I’m not here foryou,” he said. “I’m here for the child.”

But his head was beginning to pound and the ghosts of this place hung thick around him, pressing in hard, harder.

“What could you possibly want with a child?” she asked.

“What doyouwant with a child?” And suddenly, everything crystallized for him. She was a con artist. Beautiful. The sexiest woman he’d ever been with, but a con artist all the same.

She was not fit to be a mother. Any more than he was fit to be a father.

One thing he knew, as he stood there in this oppressive place, was that he could not consign a child to a life of misery.

But they’d made one.

The poison had done its job. It had spread.

He was looking at the devastation.

Not only was she having a child neither of them were fit to raise, she also seemed to not understand the danger such a thing could represent.

But he knew.

He knew all too well.

“I’m having the child,” she said. “It’s kind of out of my hands now.”

“That isn’t true, and we both know that.”

“I’ve decided to have the baby. So. That’s what I want with the baby. I’m having it. And I want to see where it goes.”

This girl had no idea. She was treating this like it was nothing. Like it couldn’t be the death of her.

“It isn’t a poker game, Jessie. Pregnancy is dangerous. And that is only the shortest bit of this. You cannot simply have the child and see if it goes your way, and fold if it doesn’t.”

Color mounted in her cheeks. “Howdareyou? I’ve spent the past four months coming to terms with this. Deciding what I was going to do. Do you think it was easy? And now you’ve come and you questioned me and you’re acting as if you’ve put more thought into this than I when we both know you could not have known about the child for more than a few hours.”

“It’s clear to me. I don’t need months to think about it. The baby is mine.”

“Again...”

“Liar,” he said, his voice fierce. He took a step toward her, and he pressed his thumb against her lips. “This mouth is mine. That lying tongue is mine. You did not spend all those years of your life untouched because you lacked opportunity. What we had was different. And you would not have gone off into someone else’s bed after. You know that.”

“Do I?”

“Yes,” he growled.

Why did it matter? Why did it matter to him that she’d been with no one else? If she had, he could walk away.

She let out a hard breath. “Why are you here? Because we both know that you don’t want a baby.”

“And you do?”

She shrugged. “No. And yet, like you it seems as if I’m having one. What is there to be done? What is there to be said?”

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