Page 70 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

"What do you want?"

“You know what I want. Drop your investigation,” he growled at me.

Alex told me he was going to lay low. Did that mean my father was in touch with the paralegal, or maybe someone told him about the paralegal? But who? I thought back to Marie and my fleeting suspicion of her, but she’d been with me in Los Angeles. I’d been at the office when I’d talked to Alex, and I hadn’t said anything to anyone.

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, what does it matter?” I challenged him.

His eyes narrowed into small slits. “You’ll find out how much it matters if you keep this up.” As if he caught himself, he made an attempt to calm down and smile. “I tell you what. I’ll give you one hundred thousand dollars and promise to get rid of the dirt about you and Henry if you let this go.”

Dirt on me and Henry? How could he have dirt?

“That’s a generous offer, Samantha. It’s better than you deserve.”

Should I take it? No. Whatever dirt he had, it couldn’t be much. It would be nothing once I told Henry the truth.

“You stole—”

“I stole nothing. It was mine. Your mother was mine. Her assets are mine!” He poked himself in the chest, accentuating the word “mine” each time he spoke it.

“Wasis the operative word. She wasn’t your wife anymore, nor were you her beneficiary.”

“You like playing with fire, don’t you?” he snarled at me.

I didn’t. Not at all. But I didn’t know what else to do. "Get out! You have no right to be here!"

"Or what? You'll call the police? I'm not afraid of them. But you should be afraid of what I know. I know about Pax and Henry."

My heart raced, pounding in my chest like a jackhammer as I forced a laugh. "You're insane. What are you even talking about?"

He sucked in a breath and tried to look sorry for me. “Did you know your mother kept a diary? Oh, boy, was she worried about you. Pages and pages of concerns that you were in a relationship with a married man during your internship. You were so secretive. And then you turned up pregnant when you moved west.”

Stop. He had to stop. I knew Mom had worried and even wondered about a relationship during my internship. The fact that she thought it was a married man was helpful. It would take suspicion away from Henry who’d never been married.

I waved his accusation away. “Ridiculous. You're grasping at straws. Besides, that has nothing to do with Henry.”

He laughed. “Keep lying to yourself, sweetheart. Remember, the truth always comes out.”

“Right, like how you’ve illegally stolen my inheritance?” My hands shook, betraying my fear. I clenched them into fists, desperate to maintain control.

“Don’t test me, girl. This is no bluff.”

"Really, Dad? This is what you're resorting to? Baseless accusations?" I tried to force a laugh, but it came out strained and unconvincing.

"Baseless? Here’s what your mother never considered. You weren’t fucking a married man. You were fucking Henry Banion, your best friend’s father and your internship supervisor.”

My mouth went dry.

My father shuddered in disgust. “It’s sick. He’s fucking a woman who is like a daughter to him.”

“You have no proof of that.”

“I have the fact that you were sleeping with someone during your internship and got pregnant by him. Your mom was sure of that. And now, look at you, living with Henry, your old internship supervisor.”

Surely, I could still pass that off as coincidence. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“I’ll admit, I doubted my logic. I mean, Henry Banion is a saint among saints. He wouldn’t abandon a woman he impregnated.”

“Right... so you have nothing. You need to leave.”

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