“We were never engaged,” I point out.
“Only because of her,” Darra hisses. “He told me he couldn’t marry me, didn’t love me. But it was because he wanted you.” She points a manicured finger at Pen. “The freak from a single-parent family.” Darra shakes her head, staring at Pen. “How could he want you when he had me?”
Pen shakes her head, her expression sad.
“So you decided you’d take him, anyway.”
“It was that or be made homeless. Daddy dearest, you see, decided it was a Frazer he wanted as a son-in-law. No one else was good enough for his princess. He sent me to that university with strict instructions. I was to leave with a ring on my finger. If not, I was making my own way in the world.”
Pen looks green as she absorbs Darra’s words. She looks at me, but this is nothing new. I already knew thewhyshe trapped me. It came out years ago when I confronted her.
“I wanted to marry her,” Zach says suddenly, stepping forward, his eyes locked on mine. “I went to see her dad when Ifound out about the baby.” He shakes his head sadly. “As Darra said, I wasn’t good enough. He threatened Dad. He’d just moved jobs, told me he’d set him up, that he had the power to do it. Showed me footage of… I couldn’t.”
He drops his gaze. Zach is the eldest of five. His siblings, like Harper, were much younger than him. If his dad had lost his job...
His eyes fly to Lottie. “Then he told me if I interfered and warned you, there’d be no baby.”
Pen draws in a sharp breath.
Fuck. I always knew my father-in-law was a bastard, but I didn’t realise he threatened the life of his unborn grandchild.
Lottie buries her head in my chest, and I’m not sure she needs to hear any more. None of this is her fault. How she came into the world, she shoulders no blame. She’s the innocent party in all this. I kiss her head and tilt her chin until she’s looking at me.
“I told you once before. You may not carry my blood, but you willalwaysbe the daughter of my heart. Wherever you come from, however, you came into this world. You will always be mine. I love you, Lottie Frazer, and I will always be here for you, no matter what.”
Her arms fly around my neck, and she squeezes me tightly.
“I love you too, Dad.”
“Always.”
Darra hisses and I shoot her a look that has her drawing herself upright.
“Zach is her father,” she says. “He was my lover for years even after you threw me aside.”
Zach’s hands go to the side of his head, pressing hard. His gaze darts to my sister, who’s sat still. Her eyes glazed.
Pen shoots me a worried glance.
“I never threw you aside. You lied to me. Until that point, I tried to be a good husband, make our marriage work.”
Darra laughs. “Is that what you call it? You never wanted me. You wanted her. It was always her. Pen this, Pen that! Does she even know you paid your lecturer to make her your partner?”
She points a perfectly manicured nail at Pen, her mouth twisting in malice.
My gaze moves to Pen’s, and she shrugs. “I knew. I met Mr Dunn a few years ago, he confessed all. I must admit, I was flattered.”
Pen winks at me, and Darra screeches and stamps her foot.
“With me, you went through the motions. What did she have that I didn’t?”
“She cared about me, about my well-being,” I say softly. My eyes not leaving Pen’s.
Darra turns to Zach, her hand grazing his chest.
“Zach was there for me. He didn’t spend all his time locked in an office or with our child. He was there forme.”
“While I was building a future for us,” I spit, tired of the same old story. Darra wanted to party, live what she deemedthe life of a billionaire’s wife.
