Page 6 of The Bratva's Pregnant Bride

“I’m impressed,” he said, tilting his chin up. “She raised you well.”

I frowned in response. “You don’t even have the decency to say her name.”

He took off his cap and stroked his silver hair with a weary look. “You see, I will tell you everything you want to know. I’ll do it now; I have nothing left to lose. You can decide whether you want to believe it or not.”

“I just want to know the truth, Connor,” I said firmly. “Tell me what happened between you two. I'm tired of being kept in the dark. You owe it to me to tell me, and it had better be the truth.”

“Fine,” He let out a sigh. “Your mother was the only person I cared about at that time. I loved her, and she knew I did. When she left, it killed me...”

My brows drew together, and I pursed my lips. This wasn’t how I expected the story to go, but I didn’t attempt to stop him.

“... Jennifer and I were attracted to each other from the moment we met. I made no effort to hide my attraction to her, and you know how brave your mother is; she didn't hide it from me either. We'd been dating for a few months when she told me you were on the way.”

That piqued my interest, and I leaned forward. I had to know what happened from then on. Were my theories coming true? Had his love for my mother suddenly fizzled and had he sent her away?

“When she told you she was pregnant, what did you do?”

The sadness in his eyes became even clearer. “That day was not a good day, Grace. It just happened to be a bad time. She surprised me in my office, and I'll never forget the look in her eyes when she realized she'd caught me completely off guard.”

A scowl appeared on my face. “You were fucking a whore, weren’t you?”

“I wish,” he scoffed and put his cap back on. “She saw my people, my men.”

I couldn’t have looked more confused. “Your men?”

He straightened up in his chair and said with a steely look: “I run the Irish mob, Grace.

Your mother, who wanted to join the police, learned this secret that day and decided she wanted nothing to do with this life. She cut me off and rejected all my attempts to help her, even with financial support.”

I was stunned and couldn't speak for a while. So, it was my mother who turned her back on him. But wait... he said something about an Irish mob that I only just registered. My eyes got bigger, and I leaned backward.

“You, are what?”

He raised his arms and chuckled dryly. “That's what I am. I can’t run away from it, even if I try. The mafia is the only world I’ve ever known. But you know, your mother raised you well. It's a good thing you didn't grow up in that world; it's cruel and merciless, and nothing you could handle. And that makes you the best candidate.”

“B-best candidate?” I stuttered. “For what?”

He scanned the room subtly and his voice dropped low. “I called you here because I need your help.”

I was still stunned by the information he was dishing out to me. I wanted answers and now I had them: My father is a fucking mobster! “I can’t promise I can help you. This,” I waved back and forth between us, “this is all still new. I need some time to process it all.”

“Trust me, Grace, I wouldn’t have called you here if it wasn’t a matter of life and death.”

Okay, if I wasn’t nervous before, I was scared shitless now. My heart raced against my chest, and I raised my hands in the air, eyes wide. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, just a second.

What do you mean life and death?”

Connor looked cool and composed, but there was a frightening change in his eyes. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a brown padded envelope, and handed it to me. I didn’t want to take it, but he practically pressed it into my hand, and I could feel a small, hard device. “Listen to me carefully...”

“No, I don’t want this. I don’t want this,” I shook my head and tried to resist, but his grip was firm.

“Grace,” his tone was clear and insistent. “You're the best person to keep this safe. You're clean and you don't have a target on you. None of those bastards know I have a daughter and that you exist.”

“None of these... What are you talking about?”

“The only thing you need to know are these two rules: One. You can't give this envelope to anyone else. No one, Grace. Never give it to anyone else. Secondly. Never open it. Keep it sealed. I’ll take it back from you as soon as I can, but if I don’t...”

“Nope. No....” I shook my head even harder. “There are no buts.”

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