“Is it mine?”
I froze. And turned.
Too late…
Too late, I saw Phantom sitting on the bench in front of my four-poster bed.
He stood, his face unreadable as he took in my swollen four months pregnant belly.
“Is it mine?” he asked again.
29
“Is it mine?”
I’d prepared for this. If the time ever came, I had an explanation all ready.
No, this happened after we broke up—not the day I agreed to be your wife.
Yes, I’m sure. I had a period between you and when I got back together with Garrett.
It’s not yours. It’s not yours. It’s definitely not yours.
I’d rehearsed my answer in the mirror while refusing to think about what would happen if the baby came out with his upturned shark eyes.
Yes, I was prepared for this. Ready.
But when I opened my mouth, all that came out were tears.
Phantom didn’t say anything. Just quietly stood up and closed the space between us.
“Did he touch you?” He dipped his chin, his voice low and rough. “Did you let him in?”
I mutely shook my head. Once in answer to his question.
Then twice when he tried to reach his hands toward my face. Tried to touch me for the first time in four months.
I knocked his hands away. I’d shellacked over myself, made everything perfect just like Garrett had demanded. But underneath, I was too fragile. I couldn’t. I couldn’t let him touch me. If I did, I’d break.
But this was Phantom. He didn’t care about my fragility. He hooked me roughly, cupping a massive hand around my neck so that I couldn’t back away.
And then he….
Oh my gosh, he laid his other callused palm against the side of my belly and asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?”
All wasn’t lost yet. I hadn’t said any actual words.
I could still save myself. Save him.
But then the word escaped from my mouth like a freed bird flying despite its broken wing. “Girl.”
He looked down, then away as if he didn’t trust himself to speak for a moment.
Then he said one more thing. And this time, it wasn’t a question but a command. “Now. Without him watching. Tell me that shit again. Say you don’t love me to my face.”
I opened my mouth. There were ways to salvage this—custody agreements signed along with NDAs.
Everything was at stake. Everything. But I was too weak.
“I love you,” I gasped out. “I’m so sorry—”
“Fuck, I knew it!” He pulled me into his chest, hugging me to him before the words were even all the way out of my mouth. “You almost had me. But I knew what we shared was real, even when I told myself I had to let go. Why, O? Why did you fucking do this to me?”
I explained as best I could with my head pressed into his broad chest. “Garrett’s in trouble with the Russian mob. He gave them stock that he guaranteed would double in exchange for paying off his debt. But then you came along, and Dad chose your deal over Easton’s. So he threatened to go to the FBI if I didn’t call everything off with you and marry him instead. He said he had you dead to rights for money laundering, and you were a big fish. If he went to the authorities with what he knew, they’d guarantee him immunity and put you in jail.”
“You’re trying to say you did this for me?” A terrible shadow fell over his face. “You were going to marry that asshole with my baby in your belly without telling me! What happened to that big speech you gave me at my parent’s house? About trusting each other and being brave?”
“He was standing right there beside me when I made the breakup call.”
All the guilt I’d squashed down over the last few months cracked my voice as I explained, “He said that if I didn’t play along with his plan, if I told you—if I even got in contact with you again, he’d immediately go to the Feds to protect himself. Then he erased your number from my phone and put a tracker on it. I could have tried to acquire a burner, but I didn’t have your new number memorized or written down. And every plan I could come up with just seemed too risky. He assured me that even if you had him killed, he’d already set up things so that the FBI would get everything he had on you. And as for trust….”
I shook my head miserably. “The problem is I did trust you. I knew you’d pick this baby and me no matter what. I had to hurt you and make it seem like I truly didn’t want to be with you, or you’d do something crazy—like go to jail just to save me from Garrett. That’s why I was terrified for you when you showed up earlier downstairs. Terrified.”
