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‘I can’t accept that,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to marry you under those circumstances.’ She covered her stomach with one hand, as if trying to shield him from the life inside her. The gesture had anger pulsing in his forehead.
He might not be cut out to be a father, but did she think so little of him that she thought he would hurt their child?
‘It’s not a request,’ he said. ‘I’m not asking you to marry me, I’m telling you.’
‘I don’t get a choice?’ she murmured, looking distressed now.
To hell with that. He wasn’t the one who had decided to keep this child a secret.
‘You had your choice when you decided to tell me you were taking contraception when you weren’t. When you decided not to tell me you were pregnant. And when you visited an abortion clinic and got photographed by the paparazzi.’
Moisture filled her eyes, which she blinked away furiously. ‘But I’m not going to have a termination. Is that why you’re so angry?’
He let his gaze roam down to her abdomen, confused again by the strange stirring in his chest at the thought of this child. Their child. Living inside her. Strictly speaking, he should be furious about that because he’d always been so careful never to get into this predicament. But the thought of the child, the reality of the child wasn’t the problem—it was the roller coaster of emotions that had been overwhelming him ever since he’d discovered its existence. Hell, before then—ever since he’d let himself fall into an affair he didn’t seem to have any control over.
‘We both got you pregnant,’ he said. ‘And what you decide to do with your own body is your choice,’ he said. ‘So no, that’s not why I’m angry.’
The look of relief on her face only spiked more of those tumultuous emotions that he didn’t understand and didn’t want to understand. He just wanted them to go away.
‘Then what is it? If you think you have to marry me because of this, you don’t. I made a choice to have this baby and I would never force you to be involved.’
‘I’m already involved,’ he said. ‘No child of mine is going to grow up without the Blackstone name. Which means you’re going to have to have it too.’
‘You can give the baby your name without us being married.’
‘That’s not going to work for me,’ he said because she obviously didn’t get it. That this was about control. About the fact he couldn’t live without her yet. And he didn’t want her to live without him. Until he’d gotten this compulsion out of his system they would be stuck together. So they might as well be stuck together in matrimony. It would give him rights, not just over his child but over her.
Pulling his phone out of his pocket as she continued to stare at him, the distress in her eyes palpable now, he keyed in Lisa’s number. ‘Lisa, you can send the legal team in now.’
Bronte would get a generous monthly allowance for the rest of her life. And his child would be sent to the best schools, the best colleges. It would never want for anything.
‘You can’t force me to marry you, Lukas.’ She was shaking now, her voice trembling. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to let himself care.
‘Yes, I can,’ he said, finally allowing a little of his fury with her—with the whole situation—to show. ‘I’m a very rich man, Bronte. You’re already living in a house I bought you. You kept my nephew’s existence from me for three years and you tried to do the same with my own child. How do you think a judge is going to view that when I sue for custody of both of them?’ It was a threat he’d made unintentionally before, but he was playing hard ball now. The means always justified the ends. He’d lost sight of that in the last six weeks—but it was something his father had taught him when he was seven. If you let your emotions get in the way of what you wanted to achieve, you’d never achieve anything.
Her face blanched, the last of the colour leaching out of her cheeks.
‘I still think I’d win,’ she said, but her bottom lip was trembling. ‘I’m Nico’s legal guardian; you’ve only known him for a few months.’
‘Because you kept his existence from me,’ he countered.
‘At his mother’s request. It’s still...’
‘You really want to take me on, Bronte? To put Nico through a long protracted custody battle after what he’s already been through?’ It was a low blow. He didn’t want to hurt the boy, but he was through playing things her way.
‘Why are you even doing this? You can see both the baby and Nico as much as you want. I would never limit your custody. Why do you have to marry me?’
Why? No way would he tell her the whole truth. Because it would make him feel weak and needy. And it would expose him in a way he’d never allowed himself to be exposed. Not since he was seven years old and he’d found himself locked in the dark with no way out. So he seized on the reasoning Garvey had spouted at him four hours ago, when this nightmare had begun.
‘The company has spent the last five years developing and investing in the Blackstone’s Deluxe Family Resort brand. Our first property opens in two weeks’ time. And you’ve just blown the whole press and PR strategy out of the water. Social media is already awash with speculation that the baby you were attempting to abort is mine. I’m the villain in that scenario, not you.’
‘But I wasn’t even considering a
termination. The clinic you’re talking about is a pregnancy advisory service too. I was never going to have a termination.’
‘So I get cast as a deadbeat dad instead? A guy who gets someone pregnant and then walks away,’ he said. ‘Our research shows that it’s women, mothers, who generally make the decision on family vacation destinations.’
‘You’re forcing me to marry you so you can sell vacations?’ she said, the agonised distress turning to incredulity.
