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“I didn’t agree to anything. Besides, now isn’t the time for this nonsense.” She waves her hand as if it’s that easy to erase me and my wishes. “Everything has changed. We’re having a baby.”
“The baby isn’t mine, for fucks’ sake.” I slam my fist into the wooden wall and we both flinch.
The wood creaks, wall rattling, and my skin splits on a knuckle, blood oozing. I grab a napkin from a drawer to stanch the bleeding, and my throat tightens around my frustration.
I have to rein it in. I don’t have outbursts or lose my cool. That isn’t me. But this situation is getting to me.
Wren is all I want.
All I’ve ever wanted.
And right now, I’m staring at the only thing standing in our way.
Head pounding, I rub at my temples and steady my voice. “Heck, you most probably aren’t even pregnant.”
She rears back as if I hit her. “Oliver, you need to calm down. You’re scaring me and the baby.” Her hand rests protectively on her belly and I scoff, done with her theatrics.
“Dot, cut it out. We’re the only ones here and I can’t be fooled.” My chest burns with outrage. “Listen, I’m prepared to buy out your half of the Nest at a very generous price. More than it’s worth.”
I thrust the papers at her, and like I hoped, she takes them. If I know anything about this woman, she can’t resist being in the know. She wants to know the terms, what I’m willing to offer.
When she gets to page two, where it mentions the purchase price, she pauses, and oh, what I’d do to hear her thoughts.
Breath trapped in my lungs, I hope against all the odds that the money will be enough to make her change her mind. In reality, my chances are slim to none.
Dot doesn’t need the money, although it’s always nice to have. While she only has what she brought into our relationship and half of the Nest, her parents are wealthy and her father is incapable of saying no to his only child.
She flips through the remaining pages far too quickly for any comprehension and then drops them onto the counter. “No. This is my business too, and we’re in this together. We’re about to start a family. Why are you doing this?”
“That’s it.” I grab the papers and stride to the exit, pausing with my hand on the doorknob to glance back at her. “Your time is running out to tell the town the truth about the baby.”
I would love to drop Kellen’s name right about now and spell out for her our hunch—that he’s the father—but I don’t.
Wren and I also talked about this last night. For now, with the fate of Bright Horizons still hanging in the balance and things still pending on my business deal, we can’t afford to poke the bear any more than this little visit might have.
“You’ll what?” She practically lances me with the question like she’s thrown a knife at me and doesn’t give me a chance to answer. “You’ll do nothing. We both know it.”
She cocks a hip as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. “I could easily tarnish, or better yet, destroy the legacy of the Winslows with a few choice words. I wouldn’t even have to remind Daddy of his idea to change the town name. There would be an outcry all over town to banish the Winslow name.”
While she knows all too well how important it is to me and my dead father to protect the Winslow reputation at all costs, I’m not following.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You see, what my daddy failed to mention when he suggested a town name change was that there’s evidence to suggest Merrick Winslow, your pompous father, misappropriated town funds for his own personal gains.”
“Bullshit.” I lunge forward but stop myself, blood boiling. “Is there no limit to how low you’ll stoop?”
She cackles and grins wickedly. “I’m not making it up. Shit, I doubt even I would’ve thought to spread such a dirty and vicious rumor about your father. Like they say, real life is often better than fiction.”
Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck. Not because I believe her—my father would never. Even though the way she talks about him is a little too close to what Eddie thinks of our father. My brother never did spell out why he thought my father was a hypocrite.
“What? Nothing to say, Oliver?” Her smug smile grows with each second that ticks by. “Your father used town funds for prostitutes and gambling. Some of his cronies are still around. I’m sure, if push came to shove, they’d spill every gory detail to save their own hides. You see, I have got you right where I want you.”
This can’t be true. My legs shake and black spots dance in my vision. My father was an upstanding man. I looked up to him, tried to please him even if I never quite did.
Fuck, Eddie—does he know? Our father had nothing but disparaging comments about his eldest son. He never wanted me to talk to Eddie or hang out with him.
I never understood why. Was it because Eddie knew and Dad feared he’d tell me or Mom?
