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Alex had been the sun. The entire sky lit up.
Handsome and glowing and far too much.
And she probably would’ve had a miserable life had she chosen to marry him.
Because like the sun, he could not be contained to one room. And he would’ve continued to shine himself down over all the land. Over everyone and everything.
He would never have committed himself solely to her, and that was what she wanted.
And she knew that Alex would never have meant to hurt her. He was not a cruel man. He was simply... As captivated by himself as everyone else was, when it came right down to it. She had found that to be part of his charm in many ways. He possessed absolutely no modesty, no humility of any kind, but it had all been expressed with such joy. At living.
And it really did feel wrong that he was gone.
But that didn’t make the children in her womb any more his just because she also thought he was good.
But the way that Constantine seemed to need it. The way that he clung to it. As if he couldn’t even acknowledge that their time together might’ve produced children...
He needed this. And she felt caught between impossible truths. Her need to let him know it had only been him. That it had only been him for her from the beginning, even though she’d been too cowardly to acknowledge it.
Her need to protect the babies, protect herself.
Her desperate need to both speak the truth and hide it.
Caught between fear and need.
“I’m not angry with him,” she said. “For what happened. How can I be? In the end, how can I be?”
That much was true. If he had died while she was still in the throes of being in love with him, it would’ve been unbearable. But she had seen that she couldn’t spend her life with him, and in that way... His betrayal had been a gift.
As to what else she had learned about herself that night... Well, that was where things became complicated. Because some of the lessons she had learned about herself were less than flattering. And they had almost certainly landed her in water that was too hot for her to handle. Because here she was, staring him down, staring down his marriage proposal...
Proposal. That was the wrong word.
It was a demand. Clearly.
“But you will not be a father figure to them, is that what you’re telling me?”
“I will be their protector. And I will make sure they know...”
“Do I have a choice in this?” She wasn’t a fool. Constantine was a powerful man, and at the end of the day...
What she knew was that he actually had a lot more leverage than he was allowing himself to believe. He was a billionaire, he was...wealthy and titled on more than one continent and she was...
Up until recently a waitress. And everything she had was because of his family.
And if a DNA test was done it would prove that he was in fact the father of the children, and his leverage would only increase. As an uncle trying to gain custody of them, he would’ve had a challenge.
But she knew what he would discover if she took it too far.
She knew what would happen if she refused.
Because she knew that Constantine was the only man she had ever given her body to.
She knew that the children in her womb were his.
And she knew that resisting him was...
“My parents are overjoyed,” he said. “And think of all that they will have if we marry. Alex’s children. Family vacations. They will be able to watch them grow. Twins.”
