AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His mouth fell open, but no words escaped. He took a moment to stare hard at me, his face turning multiple shades of red while he formulated a response. After several long moments, he threw himself on the bed next to me. A mixture of fury and passion burned in his eyes.
I scrambled to sit upright.
He moved closer, not letting me get away from him. He took my face in his hands and drew our faces closer together. “You think my father made me marry you?” he sounded almost angry.
“I know he did.”
“You’re wrong.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “Dani, I came home with every intention of marrying you. But then . . . ,” he cleared his throat, “you told me about Brant. I was upset, yes. I felt sick, angry, betrayed. But even with all of that, I still didn’t want to let you go. Then you found out you were pregnant with my brother’s baby.” He leaned away. The pain of that revelation still lived in his eyes. His thumbs swiped the tears rolling down my cheeks. “I knew then I would have to let you go.” He released my face and sat quiet for a moment, though his eyes never left me.
I found myself anxious to hear what he had to say.
With a large exhale, he continued. “Brant and my dad were a wreck about it. The Copelands were expecting Brant to propose to Jill. My dad mentioned offhandedly that I could just marry you. It would solve all our problems, he said. In that moment, as angry as I was, I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life if I let you go. So I said I would. But I told them both, under the circumstances, that you would never say yes.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You don’t know how surprised I was when you agreed to marry me.”
I faltered back against the pillows, astonished at this information, yet how could he be surprised? “Your father gave me no choice.”
He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
I deliberated on what to say. Did I really care anymore what John Holland could do to me? I had already lost everything. And I was so tired of living a lie. I grabbed one of the pillows and held it in front of me, squeezing the life out of it. “He threatened to expose my past and even Joanie’s. Tear me down enough so that I would lose everything, including my baby,” my voice cracked, “and Children to Love if I didn’t agree.”
Brock’s eyes widened. “Your past?” He seemed confused.
Hadn’t his father told him?
“No. He wouldn’t do that.” Brock was in denial. “He said he was going to talk to you. Tell you how much our family needed you.”
That was quite the spin on it. He’d told me how much he needed me to keep my mouth shut. I was done being quiet. “That’s not how the conversation went. Ask him yourself. Edward Copeland owns your dad. I don’t know why or how, but your dad seems desperate to keep him happy.”
Brock turned his shocked face up to the tiled ceiling as if begging God for me not to be telling the truth. “I need to talk to my dad.”
“You do that.”
He lowered his head and locked eyes with me. “So you didn’t want to marry me?” Hurt and vulnerability laced his words.
I rubbed my heart. “Brock, I dreamed of marrying you for years. But not like this. This was a mistake. We were a mistake,” I cried out.Chapter TwentyI was pretty sure I was starting to stink, but I’d been crying so much my nose was too stuffed to tell. Honestly, I didn’t care, and I had no desire to get out of bed and shower. That meant actually living, and I’d decided that was highly overrated. Living meant hurting. Besides, leaving my room meant seeing Brock, who had been keeping vigil on the new leather couch in the loft. After declaring the old burnt orange couch unsalvageable, he’d had a new couch delivered and had decided since I wouldn’t go home with him, he would come home with me.
The man wouldn’t go away, even after I’d told him all the things his dad knew about me. He hadn’t even flinched when I told him about my sordid past. All he had said was, “I don’t give a damn about your past—I only care about our future.” The thing was, we didn’t have a future. And he did care about my past. He had cared that I was going to have his brother’s baby. My baby, who was gone. Who had left me feeling so empty I could hardly breathe.
Nothing seemed the same anymore. Food, when I could stomach getting anything down, had lost its appeal. My job that I loved seemed daunting. I didn’t want to see a soul, not even my sisters or grandparents. I felt as if I had nothing to offer anyone. And I was tired of people telling me that I would be okay. That we could have another baby. I didn’t want another baby—I wanted my baby. My baby who I was willing to live through hell and take on John and Edward for, if I had to. The baby I was willing to lose it all for. And now I had.
