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Fake positive test.
“You were never pregnant with my kid, were you, Megan?”
“No, dumbass,” she sneered. “I faked it all. Because you belong with me. Not that stupid little girl. We were meant to be together, Luca. You and me. And I’m not about to let some damned childhood connection that you think means she’s your soul mate ruin what we can have.”
“Miss Hawthorn, I need to advise you to stop speaking. Now,” her lawyer tried to warn.
“No, please,” Vi urged. “Let the twit keep talking. My lawyer’s assistant takes excellent notes. All of this will be great for the civil suit I plan on filing against Megan Hawthorn, her family, and the doctor who faked her pregnancy.”
That finally penetrated Megan’s thick skull. “Wait…what? You can’t sue me. Or any of us. We didn’t do anything legally wrong.”
“Actually, you did, and I can,” Vi said, the smug one now. “Your lies put lives at risk.”
“Whose?” Megan asked skeptically.
“Mine, to start with.” Vi’s smile disappeared, and I closed my eyes, remembering the night she’d called me to ask that I stop trying to contact her. Because she was having dark thoughts—thoughts of ending her own life. “You have two choices here, Megan. One, you can deal with a media-scandal lawsuit that involves your entire family, that doctor you whored yourself out to, and even your son.”
“What’s option two?” Megan pouted.
“Go away and stay away. If we so much as see your shadow darkening our door again, it’s game over. That cushy world you live in, spending your daddy’s money and running wild, thinking nothing can touch you? That will all be over. I’ll spend every penny I possess to make sure you’re tied up in litigation for the rest of your natural life. And then I’ll move on to your son and his children and his children’s children. No one with so much as a single drop of shared DNA with you will be safe from the civil suit I’ll rain down on your heads.”
While Megan and Vi had a stare down, Love Bug lifted her tear-soaked face to look at me. “I-I’m sorry I-I hit th-that boy, D-Daddy. Are you m-mad at m-me?”
I wiped away a fresh tear before kissing her forehead. “Daddy will never be mad at you, princess.”
“I d-don’t want a-another daddy.”
I gently cupped her chin between my thumb and index finger. “Good, because you’re never getting one. You are my little princess, Love Bug. Mine. Your real daddy gave you to me, and I’m not ever letting you or your momma go.”
“You’re my real daddy,” she whispered, her chin wobbling.
“I am,” I agreed and touched her hand to my heart. “In here, where it matters the most. But it’s okay if you love your biological daddy too.”
“But I don’t know him. He’s not here.”
My throat grew tight with emotion. “I know, princess. But he would be if he could. He loved you so much. That’s why when he knew he was going to die, he found me. So I could love and protect you and Mommy for him.”
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, reminding me of Vi so much, my heart melted. “I guess…I guess that makes him a good daddy too. He gave you to me. If he hadn’t, you wouldn’t be my daddy now.”
“That’s right.” I didn’t want to think about the “what-ifs,” but she obviously needed reassurance.
“Okay. I love him too. But not as much as I love you, Daddy.”
“No one will ever love you as much as I love you and your mom, princess.”
Chapter 5
Violet
I’d thought dealing with Megan would be the hardest moment of the year.
I was wrong.
Megan was surprisingly easy to handle and get out of our lives once and for all. The peace of knowing she was gone had even helped out with some of my constant queasiness, and I could focus on planning the wedding, giving the details the attention they deserved, rather than halfheartedly moving through the long to-do list.
And then came picking my dress.
Finding the perfect wedding dress was something all the women in my life wanted to be a part of, and I was thrilled they wanted to be with me to see what I chose for myself. But a niggling voice in the back of my head kept remembering the way Layla had reacted when I’d asked Piper about her black dress. I didn’t want a traditional white gown. I’d gone with one when I’d married Remington, and I wanted every single detail for my final wedding to be as far away from my first walk down the aisle as possible.
