“You didn’t answer my calls.”
“Can you blame me? Sabella really set us up, and I just thought you went back to her. Found someone better.”
He held her chin between his fingers. “There’s no one better than you. You’re all I want, my swan. You’re the only one I ever want.” Reaching out, he placed his hand over her belly. “And I’m so glad to know we have a son together. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, a family.”
“I love you,” she said. “But I still don’t know how you knew. Did Cindi tell you?”
“I did Skype her, but she told me in so many words to drop dead. You have a fierce friend. I think that she would have pulled out a shovel and offered to bury me, too.”
“Nothing says ‘you’re my best friend’ like threats of bodily harm,” she said, sniffing and rubbing at her nose. “Then how?”
“Your father.”
“Oh God,” she said, feeling the baby flutter and kick. Yeesh, even her son knew that grandpa was bad news. “You can’t be serious.”
“He snuck his way into a museum event and wanted to make a deal.”
“Over his own grandson?” She blushed and looked away, too disgusted with her family to even look at him. With how messed up everything was, how could Ravi even want her again? “I’m so sorry. That must have been humiliating.”
“Actually, it let me know about my son, and then it helped me to do something I should have done months ago.”
“What?”
“I had my guards detain him until we could call the authorities. He had a warrant out for him in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for racketeering.”
She had to laugh at that as she snuggled back in Ravi’s embrace. “Then we think alike. When he came by here, he tried to get me to call you, to use the baby against you. I told him to go to hell and I’d get him arrested.”
“I didn’t want it to come to that. I know you—”
“I don’t love my father, not the man he is now. Maybe actually paying some penalty for his crimes will make him get better? I hope someday he can actually improve, but I can’t have him in my life or our son’s life until then.” Ravi grinned, and she wasn’t sure why during such a bleak topic. “What?”
“You said our son.”
“Of course, he’s ours. I was wrong not to tell you. I was just so scared you were with Sabella and you wouldn’t want him.”
He brought his hands to her belly. “I’ll always want him. You and he are all I’ve ever wanted. So, say it again.”
“He’s your son and mine… ours,” she said, her giggles muffled as he kissed her again.
Then he carried her to the bedroom to do so much more.