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43
KEEPING YOUR HEAD UP BY BIRDY
Cat
Once I agreed that he could have security parked outside the building at all times, Jay finally acquiesced and let me return to my apartment.
He’s ridiculous.
But also, his words in the car? That he’d kill for me? Well, they were hot.
“How are you?” Sophie asks over the phone.
“My head is spinning. And Cash is a disaster.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
I sigh. “Not since he signed the merger documents. He won’t talk to anyone. But Frank is with him. Said he isn’t handling this well.”
“What about Carter and Chase?”
God, I’ve been so worried about myself and Chloe that I haven’t even checked in on my other brothers. Though I have no interest in speaking to Carter anytime soon. He owes me an apology. Asshole.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “Chase disappeared after the article broke.” I’ve yet to wrap my head around the truth that Chase is Jay’s brother as well. My grandfather has a lot of explaining to do when he’s feeling stronger.
“God, Cat, I don’t know how you’ve kept this bottled up for all these years. Are you okay?” she asks softly.
I shrug, even though she can’t see me. “I will be.” Ready to move on from all things James Liquor and Hanson Liquors and the handful of difficult men in my life, I change the subject. “Could Chloe stay with you guys when she gets back from New York? It won’t be for long. Just until I figure out how real this threat is.”
“Of course, babe. She can room with Del. You know how much they love each other, and it’s been too long since they spent real time together.”
I hum. Time is slipping by quickly.
The thought of living with Jay is insane enough, but the idea of bringing Chloe into that world makes it almost impossible to breathe.
It’s this vision I never allowed myself to conjure. Raising our daughter together.
Even if I’m being forced into this domesticity, even if it’s not real, a tiny part of me has yearned to give this to Chloe since I discovered I was pregnant.
And if my daughter can have it all? Her mother and her father, a family, something neither Jay nor I ever had? The possibility makes every choice I’ve made until this point worth it. Even the forced marriage. I’ll never let her worry, even for a moment, that she isn’t wanted, that she isn’t perfect and loved.
And I know for a fact that Jay will do the same.
The marriage will be far from perfect, I have no doubt, but I’ll make sure Chloe thinks it is.
Will she hate me when I break the news? Will she think I kept her from him? The truth is hurtling forward like a freight train, and I’m out of time.
“I just want to get through this farce of a dating disaster Jay coerced me into.”
“What?” Sophie asks.
“Guess I didn’t get to that part. Jay says in order to protect me, we need to make it look like Grace Kensington introduced us.”
She sucks in a breath. “No fucking way!”
“Exactly what I said. But unfortunately, I don’t get much say in the matter, because Jay controls how I breathe from now on.”
Sophie laughs softly. “Please. You’ve had that man by the balls since he first saw you. He may have the upper hand right now, but you’ll always be the one in control.”
