“And you’re just telling me now.” After I’d introduced her to my friends. After I’d gotten her grandmother’s blessing. After I’d fallen for her.
She reached for my hand. “Bryce, I’m sorry, I?—”
I pulled back, standing up to pace the row between plants. Before emotions could take over, I had to know the facts, even if they’d kill little pieces of me along the way.
“Do you know who the father is?”
“Yes.”
“And?” I asked, continuing my path along the crumbling cement. “What does he say?”
“That I should get an abortion. And if I won’t, he wants nothing to do with it.”
Even through the betrayal, the hurt, and the anger at Jada keeping a secret from me, I was appalled on that baby’s behalf. “What kind of lowlife makes a baby and walks away?” I shook my head, disgusted.
Jada stayed quiet.
“And your grandma, does she know?” I asked. The thought of them being in on it together, like some kind of joke while I poured my heart out, was almost too much to bear.
But Jada slowly shook her head.
“When were you planning on telling everyone?” I asked. “When you went into labor?”
“After...” her words trailed off.
And it hit me. “After the wedding?”
She nodded, sniffling as more tears fell down her cheeks. “Bryce, I’m sorry. I know it was wrong, I just...”
“Just what?” I snapped, desperate for an answer that would ease the betrayal consuming my system.
“I had to make sure she was taken care of.” She wrapped her hand protectively over her stomach. A gesture I’d seen her do before but had thought nothing of. Now I realized I’d been missing hints all along. The lack of drinking, the morning sickness in my car, her reaction to the smell of the coffee beans in Golden Café…
The kind of relationship I’d hoped for—one led with love and honesty... it was crashing to the ground in a burning, twisted heap. Would there be anything left to salvage?
And at the same time, I couldn’t fault her for doing whatever it took to give her daughter a good life. After all, I’d proposed marriage to her to save my business. At least I’d told her the truth behind my proposal, though. “You should have told me,” I said.
“Bryce, I’m sorry. When you asked me to marry you, I thought you were just another rich prick who used people to get what you wanted. But then I got to know you and...” Her voice cracked with emotion.
I stalled, my heart in my throat. “And?”
“And I fell for you,” she said, standing, reaching for my hand. I stilled, but I didn’t pull away.
“I fell for how kind you are to my grandma and how you appreciate her eccentricities instead of making fun of them. I fell for how you treat your assistant, respecting her and appreciating the work she does for you. I fell for how you see the beauty in things that most people miss.”
She took a steadying breath. “Most of all, I learned that you’re exactly the kind of man I wish would be my daughter’s father.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, and I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
My eyes slid over to the little sliver of the door I could see through the rows of plants. “I don’t think I can go back in there, and I don’t want to have this conversation here,” I told her.
She nodded. “I’ll call a car to take me home.”
I shook my head. “We’re going to the limo to talk.”
37.Jada
Bryce sat as far awayfrom me as he could in the limo, his light eyes glittering as he looked out at the window, watching the city pass by. The privacy screen was up, blocking us from Genevieve completely, and the tinted windows made it seem like we were in our own world.
But the confines of my mind were not a pleasant place to be right now. It had been stupid to think that I could use Bryce as an easy way to provide for my daughter. That wasn’t me.
