Page 34 of After-Hours Heir

“There is no risk. There are noninvasive methods now. We will be able to have everything done today.”

Her stomach went tight. “Wait… Everything?”

He nodded. “Yes. My lawyers have also begun work on a basic prenup—to be revised within thirty days of the marriage if both parties agree. As it stands, my assets remain mine, with agreed-upon alimony and child support should we divorce, and your assets remain yours. Including Jones & Abbott.”

Her head was spinning and she didn’t think sitting down would be enough. She needed to lie down. With a cold compress. In a dark room. For the next six months.

Instead she took a deep breath. “You want to get married before the baby is born?”

“Yes. I already told you I did. There is no need to have a wedding, filled with pomp and circumstance. I have no friends. And any colleagues who decided they wanted to make much of my nuptials would simply be doing so for grim purposes. No one would actually be happy for me. And anyway, I don’t care for parties.”

Of course it was a party that had started all this. He’d managed to go to that, hadn’t he?

“You do go to them, though,” she said, pointed.

He shrugged. “If I have to.” Then he made a sweeping gesture, as if he were changing the subject with the wave of his hand. “If the fetus is viable, and if it turns out that it is mine, we will marry after the appointment.”

“What?”

“We will marry today,” he said. “There is simply no point putting it off.”

Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might actually pass out. She couldn’t get a breath. “I disagree. There is… the need for things to adjust. The need for us to wrap our heads around the changes.”

“There will be no changes, not after we’ve gotten the full picture of the situation.”

“Meaning if the baby is alive and if it’s yours? I can’t believe how callous you’re being.”

“No less than you were.”

She felt a twinge of guilt. “I…”

“You were trying to hurt me,” he said, tilting his head to the side, an expression of wonder on his face.

She had been, she realized. She wanted him to feel lost and uncertain like she did. She wanted him to feel something over losing the relationship they’d had.

It had mattered to her.

She’d loved a man who hadn’t existed. Who’d taken her virginity and then ghosted her.

She’d loved a man who had turned out to be the man she hated most in all the world, and she was still reeling with it.

That and the truth that she wanted him.

When the reality of who he was had crashed into the reality of what she’d believed, she’d felt like she’d lost her breath. She hadn’t gotten it back.

He’d been shocked for mere seconds and now he was combating it by taking control. So yes, she had tried to hurt him.

It was hollow and horrible to realize it wasn’t possible.

Because the emotion she felt, the fear, the grief over losing what she’d thought was a real love affair meant nothing to him.

“Should all tests come back positive we will marry. You will move into my home in New York. We will not see each other with great frequency. The house is large. You will have plenty of space, and I spend a great deal of time traveling for business.”

She blinked. “Just like that. Just like that you think I should marry you and vacate my apartment and—”

“Are you attached to your apartment?”

The truth was, while it would be big enough for her and her brand-new baby, it was not suitable for a toddler or a child. Though, she doubted his penthouse was any more suited to it.