He couldn’t have hurt her any more if he’d reached out and struck her across the face. “You don’t mean that,” she breathed. “You can’t mean that.”
“Of course I do.” He was unrepentant. “You knew from the start what this was. You knew that I was doing this because I wanted to give my father a grandchild. And now I can’t do that, and I never will.”
Chelsea’s hands moved protectively to her baby bump. “Miles… we’re still going to have our baby. Your father… that was what he wanted for you. Forus.I know this is awful, and I know you’re in pain. I’m so sorry this is happening. But isn’t our baby a silver lining? Your father was so happy about this baby.”
“And now he’ll never hold the baby. He’ll never get to know his grandchild,” Miles said. “I did this to make him happy, you’re right, but it doesn’t matter now. There was no point to it.”
“Don’t say that,” Chelsea whispered.
“I can’t handle this,” Miles said. “I have to go to the hospital. I… don’t worry, Chelsea. Nothing about our arrangement has changed. I’m still going to provide for your baby, just like I promised. You still get everything we agreed on.”
He left the kitchen, leaving Chelsea to stare after him.Nothing has changed?Everything had changed.
Your baby, he had said. Until this moment, it had always beenour baby. But with one word, Miles had separated himself. He had made it clear that his involvement with the baby had been to please his father. And now that his father was gone, Miles wanted nothing more to do with his own child.
He never cared about our baby,she thought, her heart sinking.All he ever cared about was legacy. And he’s right. He did tell me that. Over and over, he told me why he was doing this. It’s my own fault I never really heard him, never understood thathe didn’t care about the family we were creating. He cared about his father’s family. And now…
Well, now everything they had been trying to build was gone.
She sank onto a chair, leaning heavily on the table. She had grown to care deeply for Silas. The way he had welcomed her into this family, always going out of his way to make sure she knew she was important… It would have been easy for him to exclude her, to try to make her feel less-than or unworthy of Miles and the Aspin resources. He had never done that. He had taken the time to get to know her right from the start, and he had always shown her how much he cared about her. And now he was gone.
She grieved the loss every bit as much as Miles did. It was a terrible tragedy that Silas would never be able to meet the grandchild he had wanted so badly.After all, if it wasn’t for him, this baby wouldn’t exist.
She drew a deep, steadying breath and released it slowly. It was important to remember the influence Silas Aspin had had over her life. Someday, she would want to honor his memory by telling her child all about him.
And it’s clear I’ll be the one doing that. As far as Miles is concerned, we might as well have never conceived at all. He couldn’t have been any clearer. He did this for his father, and not for any other reason. Not because he wants this baby. He’s going to provide for us because he’s a man of integrity and it’s the right thing to do… but I doubt he wants any place in our lives anymore.
Well, that was fine. She hardened her heart. There was no reason for her to be here anymore either. Not now that there was nofaçade to keep up. They wouldn’t have to stage a breakup. They wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences of the lies they had told.
At least Silas died believing that we were a family. I know that’s something he wanted. That’s why Miles had us lie to him in the first place.
Chelsea hoped she had brought some joy into the old man’s life at the end of his days.
She left the kitchen and made her way upstairs, feeling tired and numb, suddenly wanting nothing more than to sleep. But she knew she couldn’t.
She didn’t want to spend one more day in this house that had been hollowed out, burdening Miles by making him look at her pregnant body and remember that his father would never meet their baby. He deserved space to grieve.
And if they weren’t going to build a life together, she needed to move on from the hope that there was any sort of future for the two of them. She would be out of the house by the time he returned home. It was what was best for them both.
CHAPTER 19
MILES
“If you have any questions, you can likely find the answers in the folders you’re holding,” Miles said. “But don’t hesitate to contact my office at any time, day or night. We always have people on the phones.”
His tone of voice felt robotic, even though the CEO of the Norwegian tech company he was dealing with was smiling at him as if in deep appreciation. Miles knew how much twenty-four-hour support meant to his international business partners. Ordinarily, he would have taken pride in offering it, and in how well today’s meeting had gone.
Henrik Bekken stopped on the way out of the conference room to shake Miles’s hand. “This partnership is something we’ve been hoping to build for a long time,” he said. “You really impressed us today.”
“Thank you.” Miles pasted on a smile. “I’m looking forward to working with you.”
“And may I say…” Bekken lowered his voice slightly. “I’ve always been an admirer of your father. I met him once, at a conferencein Sweden, and he was an inspiration. I was so sorry to hear of his passing.”
“Thank you,” Miles said again, but the words were like ash in his mouth. “I’m sure that would have meant the world to him. He always wanted our companies to partner together — he spoke of it to me many times.”
This was a massive overstatement. Miles’s father had mentioned Bekken Enterprises one single time that Miles could recall, and on that instance, he had been complimentary but certainly not acquisitive. It had seemed to Miles that he was simply pointing out differences in the way similar businesses operated within different countries.
But he was glad to have forged this partnership with Bekken. If there was one thing he knew his father approved of, it was growth. He would be glad that Gold Standard was branching out, reaching a new market. And this was a way that Miles could honor his father. This was a way to uphold Silas’s legacy.
