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If it were only me, I might have done just that. But there was this vulnerable life inside me, a part of me that I hadn’t screwed up yet, a part that I already loved more than anything.
“Did your parents really cut you off completely, knowing you’re pregnant?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I told you how my father is.”
“But you said he wanted an heir because of things being strained with Martin.” I tilted my head and more dizziness assailed me, but I powered through it. “Isn’t your baby an heir?”
“My father doesn’t like Collin. He’s never liked Collin.” Miranda ducked her head. “He’ll never acknowledge the baby as a Skellin if I don’t leave Collin.”
Inside my head, her words replayed from the day we’d had the conversation about her father.
Winston wanted an heir. A successor he could raise up in his image and control to take over his empire.
An idea took shape. “Maybe you can help me.” Fragments of the woman I’d once been arose, rattling the chains within her cage. “Not now, though. Martin will be back any minute. You need to go out in the living room and pretend you never saw me.”
“Addy, no.” Her chin lifted to a stubborn angle. “I’m not leaving you like this.”
“Yes,” I said, insisting. She didn’t know her brother like I did. “But I need you to be ready. When an opportunity presents itself,” and I hoped one would, “I want you to take me to your father.”
Miranda had just made it to the living room when Martin arrived. He was suspicious. I could hear it in his voice in the other room, but Miranda redirected him, getting him to talk about their father, covering what she knew brilliantly.
“You should have your fun with Collin and leave him,” Martin said. “Father is never going to endorse him as a son-in-law.”
“I love him, and I’m pregnant with his child. I’m not leaving him.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Aren’t you making the same mistake with Addy?”
“I’m rethinking the engagement.” He had told me that several times the night before after we’d left his parents’ house, and I hadn’t had it in me to pretend to be anything but relieved.
“Collin hasn’t asked me to marry him yet.” Miranda sounded determined. “The pregnancy doesn’t seem real to him because I’m not showing yet. But he will marry me. His parents will insist.”
“He’s weak, a follower, easily steered.” I heard ice clinking in glass. Martin was pouring himself a glass of rye whiskey, his preferred drink. “I don’t know what you see in him, Mira.”
“Surely, things have run their course with Addy,” Miranda said. “You never mention love when you talk about her.”
“I loved once.”
“Strader’s daughter. I know.”
“I paid for that lapse in judgment. Love’s a silly sentiment. I won’t indulge it again.” Martin’s voice sounded too close to the bedroom for comfort, and I scooted backward. “Addy doesn’t expect it. That’s not how it is between us.”
“But you were going to propose to her.”
“There are other ways to ensure she never leaves.”
Yikes. I gulped.
“There are lots of women interested in you,” Miranda said gently. “Women that Father would support as your partner. You should let Addy go, I mean, move on. Right?”
“Is that why you came here today?” Martin’s voice was just as soft. “To get me to send her away after I discovered her in Collin’s arms last night?”
“She was with Collin?” Miranda sounded surprised. Apparently, Collin hadn’t told her.
“He’s not a monogamous sort.” Martin’s tone was cuttingly familiar. “You realize that, having been the other woman, don’t you?”
Keys jingled. “I need to go.”
