“I didn’t find out I was pregnant until it was too late to tell you,” I say, but he’s already shaking his head like he doesn’t believe me.
“How was it too late?”
“Because by then I was already engaged to someone else.”
The fire in his eyes burns straight through my center. Anger. Hurt. A mix of every emotion. “You’re married?”
“No.” I shake my head, and it’s enough to cool his expression. “New Year’s—the night I met you—was the night before the announcement. I hadn’t even met the man I was getting engaged to yet. My uncle set it up to seal some deal they had, and I didn’t have a choice in the matter. That’s why I was out that night. I slipped my guards, thinking that if I could have one last night of freedom—of anything—that I could accept what was next.”
Hayes stares at me, and it’s impossible to read what he’s thinking.
“I didn’t know about your club’s issues with my uncle at the time, or I promise I wouldn’t have dragged you into this. I wasn’t planning on what we did on New Year’s. I wasn’t planning onyou. And honestly, it terrified me because meeting you made it so much harder to accept what was to come. That’s why I snuck out in the morning. If I hadn’t, then I don’t know that I could have left.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It would have been. My uncle would have found me with you, and I can’t imagine what would have happened. So I went back, even knowing how angry he’d be that I snuck away.”
“Did he hurt you?” Hayes asks through grittedteeth.
“No, he didn’t need to. I wasn’t going to be his problem much longer, anyway. The next night, he announced my engagement to Eli.”
Hayes’s eyes narrow. “Who?”
“Eli Winters. Oil heir with an endless trust fund.” I frown. “He wanted a piece of my uncle’s world just like my uncle wanted a piece of his, and I was the solution to both of their problems. We were supposed to get married two months after the announcement, but then I started feeling sick… and that’s when I took a pregnancy test.”
I look down at Charlie sleeping in my arms.
“I wasn’t planning on her either. When I told you I was on the pill, it was the truth. But I’d been sick recently and didn’t know antibiotics could mess with the effectiveness. When my uncle found out about the baby, he—” I take a deep breath, my eyes burning.
“What did he do, Emery?” Hayes hasn’t moved, but his anger radiates.
So hot it’s an incinerating presence hanging between us.
I blink back my tears, looking up at Hayes. “I was supposed to be a virgin when I got married, and the pregnancy was proof I wasn’t. My uncle was furious.”
Hayes works his jaw, not breaking my stare, but not saying anything. The silence is almost worse than if he were to tell me what he’s thinking.
“Eli changed the deal after that. I don’t know what it was before or what it became, but things changed. My uncle had me brought to one of his hotels, and he cut offmy access to anyone outside. He kept me in a wing for my entire pregnancy.”
“He locked you up?”
I nod. “He said all I had to do was tell him who the father was, and I could leave, but he was lying. He’s always lying, and I couldn’t risk him finding out you were the dad because I knew he would make you pay for it. I wanted to tell you—I did. Even if you just kicked us to the curb, you deserved to know you were a father. But I couldn’t. He wouldn’t let me. I was stuck there.”
“Yet you’re here now.”
“I am.” My heart races. “After my uncle locked me in his hotel, I assumed Eli didn’t want me anymore and bargained for something else. I didn’t see him again until after Charlie was born. Apparently, he and my uncle finally figured out through video footage that you were the man I spent New Year’s with. They said you were a Twisted King, and I heard them talking about the war you had going with my uncle. Eli said he was still planning to marry me, but that Charlie was a complication. I didn’t know what that meant, but I couldn’t risk waiting to find out. The things my uncle does to people… The business he’s in…”
His back stiffens, but his expression softens the slightest. “You know what your uncle does?”
“That he sells women?” I glance away. “Yeah, I know. It’s how he got me to cooperate. He said if I didn’t, he’d find another use for me in his organization, and I didn’t need him to elaborate to understand the threat.”
Hayes’s eyes darken.
“Anyway, that’s why I didn’t tell you about the pregnancy or Charlie. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I couldn’t for a long time. Until I had no other option but to find a way to escape. They can threaten me, but Charlie…” I look down at her. “I had to get out of there for our daughter’s sake.”
A smile tugs the corner of her mouth as she continues to fight sleep. It’s not a real smile, but my heart swells anyway.
“Last night, one of my bodyguards created a distraction while my uncle was tied up at an event,” I explain. “The second I was free of that place, I came here. Maybe I shouldn’t have. I know we were just a one-night stand. I’m surprised you even remember me, honestly. But I had to at least tell you—warn you. They know you’re Charlie’s father, and they’re not happy about it. They’re going to do something to retaliate.”
