“He can’t just come in here and demand a paternity test and then decide your future for you,” Gianni snaps. “Again.”
“I agree,” Eliza adds bravely. “She’s been through enough in the past year. We all have. And it doesn’t look like much, but we’ve made a life for ourselves here. A nice one, even. Uprooting her isn’t going to be good for her health or the baby’s.”
“Amara is carrying a Rozanov heir,” Ransome says. His words make Gianni snort and swear under his breath, but he chooses to ignore it. “No son of mine is going to grow up in the middle of nowhere.”
“She does get some say in that, you know,” Eliza says.
“She’s right,” I agree. “I do get a say. And what I say right now is that I need the three of you to go home.”
“What?” Gianni snaps.
“Amara…” Eliza argues.
“I mean it,” I say. “You guys need rest and you shouldn’t miss any school or work. Go on home and let me talk to Ransome.”
“You’re talking to him just fine,” Gianni grumbles.
“Alone,” I say. “Now go home and let me figure things out.”
My siblings are reluctant, but after a moment of them staring at me and me not blinking, they listen.
“Let us know if you need anything at all.” Eliza hugs me from one side, Bella from the other.
I force myself not to cry. “I will.”
“And don’t let this jerk pull one over on you.” Gianni scowls. “We have rights, and that baby is just as much Parker as he is Rozanov.”
“Thank you, Gianni. Now go.”
He’s the last to leave. As he walks out, he shoots Ransome one last glare.
Once they’re gone, my attention falls on Ransome. He’s staring out the window like we’re standing in his office back in New York. It floods me with memories, ones I’m not really sure how to feel about.
“Before you say anything,” I start, “you should know that I’m not giving up my baby just because you are the father. And by the way, I always knew you were the father. It would be biologically impossible for him to belong to anyone else.”
“Him,” he muses without turning around. His voice is hollow, and I can’t read the tone. But I don’t really care right now. “Since when have you known?”
“That I was pregnant?”
“That he was a boy.”
Right. Of course that’s all he cares about. Not that I’m pregnant with his child, but that I’m carrying hisheir.Fucking medieval.“My first appointment was an ultrasound. They said I was far enough along to see the sex. I wanted to know.”
“You waited that long to go to the doctor?”
If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think that was concern in his voice. Worry. For me and the baby.
But I do know better. At this point, it’s pretty clear to me how Ransome Rozanov thinks, and what he considers worth thinking about.
His legacy.
“Hard to find a doctor while driving cross-country,” I mumble.
“You could have stopped.”
“No, Ransome, I couldn’t have.” I draw myself up as much as I can. “I was on the run. I had my three younger siblings packed into a car with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I needed to find a place to live. One that was far enough to fityourrequirements, by the way. And ideally, somewhere I wasn’t going to be stalked, or kidnapped, or shot dead in my sleep.” My tone is dripping with sarcasm now. “Two out of three, I guess.”
“I understand,” Ransome says.
