AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For a moment there, he’d wanted to believe it was true. It would have been the answer to all his dreams, all the things he’d wanted his whole life and never been able to have. But then the bitter truth had hit him.
It wasn’t possible. It would have to be some kind of miracle. And Monroe Latimer was a man who didn’t believe in miracles.
Either she was lying about the baby or she was lying about who the father was.
A longing, a yearning he’d thought he’d buried years ago had come slamming back to him. He could hate her for that alone.
The rage Monroe hadn’t known still existed inside him rose up to choke him.
He wanted her gone now and he’d be as cruel as he had to be to get rid of her. The fact that the water flowing down her cheeks made him want to drag her into his arms only made him more mad. Even when she was conning him, lying to him, he still cared about her, he still wanted her. What kind of a fool did that make him?
‘I don’t know what you’re saying, Monroe. But the baby’s yours. I haven’t…’ Jessie could hardly say the words, to defend herself against a charge so cruel, so horrible. ‘I haven’t been with anyone else but you. You’re the first person I’ve slept with in a long time.’
He laughed; the hollow sound hit her like a blow. ‘You do that wounded look real well. You should be in Hollywood.’
‘Please, Monroe.’ She reached out, tried to touch his arm, but he flinched and pulled away. ‘I’m not lying. Why would I lie?’
‘You can plead and beg all you want. It won’t change the facts.’
He didn’t sound angry any more, just indifferent.
‘What facts?’ The sob rose in her throat; her voice hitched as she tried to control it. ‘Why won’t you believe me?’
He dipped his head, shook it slowly, before looking back at her. ‘I can’t have kids. I had to give a sperm sample to the cops when I was sixteen. My sperm count’s so low it’s non-existent.’
Jessie felt the blood drain out of her face, grasped shaking hands over her mouth. ‘But that’s not possible.’
‘It’s possible all right.’ He seemed immune to her distress, his voice calm, his eyes remote. ‘You can see how it gives us a little problem with your announcement.’
She lowered the hands from her face, but she couldn’t stop the tears, the tremors raking her body.
He really didn’t believe her.
It wasn’t a mistake, a misunderstanding. She could tell him now that he was wrong about himself. That somehow they had conceived a child. But even if she begged him to believe her, even if she had paternity tests when the baby was born, the truth would never take away the contempt he felt for her now. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t know she would never lie about something like this. So what exactly would she be begging for? The love of a man who didn’t care about her, didn’t know her or understand her?
The full horror of the situation finally dawned on Jessie. She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her sleeve. She put a hand on her belly, trying to protect the life growing inside her from the cold contempt of its father.
‘I have to go.’ She would have to get away from here, she knew, as far away as she could. ‘I can’t believe I was so wrong about you.’
‘I guess I’m not as dumb as I look.’
It wasn’t what she meant, but she didn’t correct him. She didn’t care what he thought of her any more. She couldn’t let herself care.
She turned and walked away, her legs shaking, but her shoulders rigid. Once she had closed the apartment door, she ran down the stairs, her heart shattering inside her.
Monroe grabbed the coffee cup he had been drinking out of when Jessie arrived, and hurled it against the wall. He watched as the dark liquid dripped down the white paint.
He’d been fooling himself right from the start. He was madly, hopelessly in love with her. If not, why did her betrayal hurt so much now?
Jessie couldn’t stop shaking as she stuffed clothes into a leather holdall. She had to get away before Ali and Linc got back with the children. She couldn’t stand to see the pity in her sister’s eyes, the fury in Linc’s.
How could she have been so stupid?
She’d fallen in love with a man who didn’t care about her at all. She’d foolishly thought that his tenderness, his care with her, the fun and laughter they had shared, the things he had told her about himself and his past had been the sign of deeper emotions.
It wasn’t just her heart that had been broken, though. There was a life involved here. A new, unprotected life that she would be bringing into the world without a father.
As she picked up the phone to call a cab to the station Jessie dismissed the excuse that she hadn’t chosen to get pregnant, that she hadn’t planned this baby. She loved the life inside her, and she already felt totally responsible for it.
