Page 88 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

“Yes,” she whispered, recalling the miserable loss of her virginity. The hollow feeling when she realised he’d disappeared. The hopeful messages she’d sent, only to swiftly realise he’d blocked her. The hurt of abandonment. The loss of something that could have been.

Warren shoved his phone into her hands. “Look at this.”

Kate nearly choked on her gasp when she realised what it was. She recognised the video at once; her bedroom at home. Her miserable bedroom with fading blue curtains and threadbare carpet. In the video, Daniel covered her, twisting her nipple. Kate winced, remembering the unexpected pain. “You’ve watched this?”

“It was on Graves’s phone,” Warren explained.

Graves. Not Daniel. “I don’t understand,” she said numbly.

“Your father mentioned Graves blackmailing him. He mentioned a recording specifically. There’s business records of prostitutes operating out of your father’s club, but no money was ever paid to him. I assumed Graves had something illegal on your father, but it was this recording.”

Kate’s eyes went so wide they hurt. “You mean my father has seen this?”

“It doesn’t matter, kitten. Because you’reinnocent.” He cupped her face. “I saw the recording. I thought you’d been fucking him whilst we were together. I thought it was you who’d poisoned me. I thought the baby was his. It never occurred to me that Daniel and Graves were the same person until you saw the body, until you saidDaniel.” Pressing their foreheads together, he sighed, before looking over to Brax. “I’m sorry I dismissed your concerns, Brax.”

Brax? Was Brax really the person who deserved an apology here? Irritation prickled within her; a growing sensation. It was a chasm from which fissures began to shoot in all directions. “Concerns?”

Brax, who had exhibited a statuesque stillness in the corner since Warren’s appearance, finally spoke up. “Part of that video has been muted. It’s half a second at most, but your lips move. Because of the angle, you can’t read them, but I suspected that it had been muted intentionally.”

Humiliation fired in her cheeks, until it was all she could do not to vomit. “You’ve seen the video too?” Her throat tightened at the indignity.

“It doesn’t matter,” Warren threw an arm around her shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We can talk properly upstairs.” He seized the driving licence and passport from her hands, casually chucking them over to the metal counter.

Kate let herself be led upstairs, not taking a second look back at Graves’s body. Relief spread through her the minute the lift doors closed, sealing the cellar off once more. She’d be perfectly happy to never see it again.

When the lift doors opened into the living room, Kate could breathe again. Her brain began to fire into action with the ramifications of their conversation in the cellar. “You’re not going to have me imprisoned on false charges?”

He frowned, as though the mere suggestion was outlandish. “Of course not.”

“You’re not going to have my child—mydaughter—taken away from me?” She gritted her teeth against her rising anger.

“I shouldn’t have said that, I—”

“I need an answer, Warren.”

“No, kitten.Weare going to raise our daughter together.”

For the second time that day, a whirlpool of emotions swirled around her. This time, however, it comprised neither melancholy nor suicidal tendencies.

It was rage. An icy fury that she finally let loose.

“Our?” she whispered, deadly quiet. Venom gathered in her, ready to strike.

“Look at it from my perspective, I th—”

“No, Warren, look at it frommine.” Kate heard her voice harden into a snarl. “I’ve thought of nothing else since then. I’ve dreamt of nothing else since then. An endless nightmare of having my child ripped from my arms. Only to wake and realise that it isn’t a nightmare; thatit’s actually going to happen.” She narrowed her eyes. “All because I was too stupid to give her a better father.”

The insult struck true, and Warren flinched.

“You would have subjectedour daughterto the same upbringing you were blessed with,” she spat. “The children’s homes rife with abuse, foster parents with wandering hands.” Kate’s sneer creased her nose. “You know first-hand what those places are like, Warren—particularly what they’re like for young girls.”

“Iwas going to ad—”

“A father is supposed to protect his daughter from the world, Warren, and you tried to feed her to the lions before she was even born.” He tried to take her hand, but she slapped away his touch. “I will be damned if my daughter knows what a failure her father is. She deserves better thanyou.”

“I will do anything,anything, to make this up to you,” Warren swore, his expression as earnest as Kate had ever seen. “To make this up to her.”

“Anything?” Kate smiled then, the relief washing over her like a balm. “Do you promise?”

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