Chase exhaled. “You really want to know?” He met Ashton’s eyes. “Because your father told me to.”
The world tilted.
“He pushed me into it,” Chase continued. “I admired him. The way he controlled everything. Protected his own. I wanted him to see me as more than a useless screw-up.” His lips curled. “He paid me to leave town after. Paid me to disappear so you’d never know the truth.”
Ashton released him.
Chase slumped back, and the blanket slipped from his lap.
Ashton’s breath caught.
Chase had only one leg.
Realization flickered across his face, and Chase noticed. He scoffed softly. “Don’t look so shocked. Guess I got what I deserved.” He paused. “But tell me—do you think I’m worse than the man who planned it all?”
Ashton bent down, silently lifting the blanket and covering him again.
“It was never my baby she was carrying,” Chase said quietly. “Now you understand whose it belongs to?”
The words crushed him.
“Yours,” Chase continued. “And you’re the one who drove her to end it. Your lack of trust did exactly what your father wanted.”
He turned his wheelchair away. “Now leave. I’m done.”
Ashton walked toward the door, his mind unraveling.
Just before he reached it, Chase spoke again.
“Oh, and Ashton?” He didn’t turn around. “I heard you’re engaged to her best friend.”
Ashton stopped.
“She’s not what you think,” Chase said. “She knew I never touched Bailey. When I invited her to that party and asked her to bring Bailey along, she agreed without hesitation. She even promised to make sure Bailey had time alone with me.” A pause. “She knew the plan.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Ashton stepped outside, the truth crashing down on him piece by piece.
And for the first time, he understood—
the betrayal had never come from where he thought it did.
Chapter 18
ASHTON
He was back in his office, a little later than usual, yet there was nowhere else he wanted to be and no one else he wished to see. His mind was already overwhelmed, crowded with everything he had learned so far, each thought colliding with the next.
Bailey hadn’t lied.
She had never cheated.
The child had always been his.
His chest constricted as her words echoed in his mind—Please. Just listen.
The sound of the door slamming replayed again and again.
