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How wrong she had been then. She didn’t want to be that Hannah again. She hadn’t been in a long time. Hearing Matt say he wanted to be in her baby’s life made her heart soar and that was terrifying. She needed to stick to the facts and any happiness had to be reserved for her baby.
‘Would you be opposed to us finding out for certain?’ he asked.
Would she? It would probably make it easier. She still had to decorate the nursery in her flat in Melbourne. Everyone kept asking her if she knew what she would be having. It would be nice to have an answer. Hannah didn’t care one way or the other as long as her baby was healthy.
‘No, I wouldn’t.’
Matt broke into the first real smile she’d seen on him all day and it was every bit as potent as the first time she had seen it. It lit up his face, made his green eyes sparkle. Hannah realised the tension she had been holding for months had melted away.
‘I’m glad.’
‘But I’m sure this isn’t all you came here to say.’
* * *
No, it wasn’t. He just didn’t know how she would respond to the rest of it.
‘I wanted to discuss how we would move forward.’
‘That’s reasonable.’
‘After the paternity test, if the baby isn’t mine—’
‘The baby is yours, Matt!’ she said irritably. Anger flared in her brown eyes.
‘Just humour me, please.’ When she crossed her arms and fell silent, he continued. ‘If the baby isn’t mine, you will have a lot to answer for. I don’t take well to attempts to trap or use me. I’ve dealt with it enough and it will be the last time.’
‘And if the baby is yours?’ she asked with a cocked brow. The threat should have made her nervous, but all he saw was defiance in her eyes.
‘Then everything changes.’
‘How so?’
His voice dropped. His gaze became intense. ‘If the baby is mine, Hannah, I will be in their life from the moment of that test to my very last breath.’ Matt watched her swallow thickly. He meant every word. A child needed a stable home. A father who understood his duty. Someone who would provide for it.
‘Know that there will not be any more of this travelling alone nonsense.’ He watched her roll her eyes. ‘You can roll your eyes at me as much as you want; it won’t change anything. What if something had happened to you and affected my child?’
He wanted his baby to have the privilege he’d had. A father who provided everything his sister and him could have wanted—the best schools, a large house, a stable family. Matt was determined that no child of his would grow up in a broken home—half a home when he could provide a whole one.
Will Hannah end up like your mother? a voice at the back of his mind questioned. He ignored it. Feelings weren’t a priority.
‘Matt...’ Her eyes glistened but he could see she didn’t want to give in to those tears and it made him want to know how big of a load she was carrying. The problem was that he was still stuck with the anger from being kept in the dark all this time. He still couldn’t trust her.
‘If this baby is ours, they will have everything they deserve. Everything they are owed for being mine.’
Hannah closed her eyes and when she opened them the softness in her stare called to him. He reached over and took her hand in his.
‘I didn’t dare hope that you would feel this way.’
He wanted to ask her how she’d thought he would react but it wasn’t important. She needed to know what awaited them.
‘There’s a lot we will have to do in a short time. The first thing will be the paternity test tomorrow morning.’
‘That soon?’
‘Yes.’ The uncertainty was like a sword suspended over his head. Any moment now it would fall but, as the day had progressed, and now with him sitting here with Hannah, he could no longer tell which wound would be greater—the baby proving to be his or someone else’s. The idea that she might have been able to move on so swiftly from him made him want to rage. Just as the thought that she would so callously manipulate him.
‘And after?’
