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But that afternoon, at the medical center in Houston, he’d learned otherwise.
Standing in the hallway outside the examination room as he waited for Belle, he’d stared at the doctor in disbelief. “Is this a joke?”
She’d smiled. “I never joke about medical matters.”
“What do you mean, she was telling the truth?”
“Miss Langtry had good reason to think she could never conceive a child,” the doctor had said. “I just received her medical records from the hospital in Bluebell. Seven years ago, she had a procedure to make pregnancy impossible. Bilateral tubal ligation.” She hesitated. “I shouldn’t be discussing this with you, but...”
But she was, and they both knew why. Santiago spent many millions of dollars each year supporting her clinic, so uninsured patients could get world-class care without worrying about payment. He still remembered his first winter in New York, at eighteen, when he’d been sick for months but hadn’t gone to a doctor because he’d feared the cost.
Now, he said incredulously, “Belle deliberately had surgery to make sure she’d never get pregnant? Why?”
“You’d have to ask her.”
“But she was only twenty-one—and a virgin! What crackpot doctor would perform such a procedure?”
“Interestingly, that doctor retired a month later. It turned out he’d been suffering from the early stages of dementia.”
“So if she had that surgery seven years ago, how can she be pregnant?” Santiago said.
The doctor hesitated. “Miss Langtry is young...”
“So?”
“There is a risk of healing after that type of procedure. It’s rare, but it does happen. The body finds a way. It’s even more likely when the patient is young.”
Santiago glared at her. “She honestly believed she couldn’t get pregnant.”
“Yes. Either the procedure wasn’t done correctly, or her body healed over the last seven years.”
It had been like a punch in the gut.
Everything Santiago had believed about Belle was wrong. She wasn’t a greedy climber. She was innocent. She’d been telling the truth all along.
After they left the medical center, as their helicopter flew south from Houston, Belle had refused to meet his gaze, but he hadn’t been able to look away from her. Her beautiful face, her lush body, pregnant with his child. Remembering their night together, he’d felt aware of her every movement. He’d thought of nothing but how she’d felt in his arms that night. How she’d gasped with ecstasy. How afterward, she’d cuddled against him so sweetly.
“You feel so good to me,” she’d whispered. “I’m glad you’re here. I couldn’t bear to be alone tonight. You saved me...”
Santiago had left her that night because he’d known his life would change, with her in it. And he hadn’t wanted it to change.
But his life had changed without his consent. In spite of incredible odds, she was pregnant.
Now there was someone else to think about. His child. Having his paternity confirmed, seeing his daughter pictured on the ultrasound screen in Houston, the idea of a baby had felt truly real to him for the first time. A daughter. An innocent child. She hadn’t asked to be conceived, but now it was possible, through no fault of her own, she could be born without a name. Without a father’s protection or love.
He couldn’t let that happen.
He couldn’t let his child be split between parents, and have the same childhood he’d endured, ignored and rejected by his biological father, watching his mother so desperate to be loved that she married man after man, each less worthy than the last.
No. His daughter’s life would be different.
She would have a stable home. Married parents. Financial security. His daughter would have a happy childhood, filled with love.
When they’d arrived at the ranch that afternoon, Santiago had already made up his mind. He’d taken Belle straight to the morning room, intending to force an engagement ring on her hand, to blackmail or threaten her into it, if he had to. But something stopped him.
The thought of their daughter.
After the way he’d treated Belle from the moment they’d slept together that cold winter’s night, she’d had good reason to despise him. He’d abandoned her. Ignored her phone messages. Treated her badly when she’d actually come to his h
