My stomach drops. "Hudson?—"
"Listen to me." He glances over. His jaw is set, but there's something else in his expression. Something I haven't seen before. Desperation, maybe. The fraying edge of a man whose plan is taking too long. "My father isn't getting better. But he is dragging his feet on the paperwork because he doesn't believe I've changed. Something is holding him back, and I don’t know what. He needs something that makes it undeniable. It’s a shame my plan didn’t quite work out as I wanted."
I stare at him. The pieces are clicking together. Everything is starting to make horrifying sense.
“Did you swap my birth control out?” I ask, rage flooding through me.
He smirks, but doesn’t answer.
“That time I couldn’t find my purse at your parents house, and you put it in the office. Tell me, goddammit. Was this your plan all along?” I shout.
He runs a hand along his jaw. “I was hoping that you’d eventually give in to me. The baby would be mine, not some stupid fucking country boys.”
My mouth drops open. This man is a monster.
“I hate you.”
He shrugs, not giving a single shit about the awful things he’s doing to me. But I’m not a person to him; I’m a means to an end.
"You are not using my child for your greed, Hudson. You’re a piece of shit," I spit.
"A baby, Harper. A grandchild. That's what pushes him over the edge. That's what makes him sign."
"It's not your baby. You don’t get to do this. I can’t believe you’ve done this."
I fight back the tears. I think they’re out of anger. Out of shock. I don’t know. I’m mortified he’d do this.
"He doesn't know that."
"I'm not letting you?—"
"I'm not asking." He takes the exit. The streets get wider. The houses get bigger. The hedges get taller. Beverly Hills. His parents' neighborhood. "I'm going to walk in there, sit them down, and tell them we're expecting. My father will have those papers signed within the week. Because I need the security to bring a child into the world. His heir to the empire. And then?—"
He pulls up outside the Blake estate. Kills the engine and turns to me.
"And then it's over, Harper. All of it. He signs the company over. I get what I need. And you're free. The engagement, the marriage—I'll file for annulment. You walk away. Go back to Arizona. Go back to your cowboy. Raise your baby on a ranch. I don't care. But I need this. One more lie. And then you never have to see me again."
I stare at the house. One more lie. That's what he said the first time. One date. One dinner. One ring. One wedding. Every time, one more. And every time, the cage gets smaller.
But this time, there's an end date. A real one. Papers signed, company transferred, annulment filed. Freedom. Those videos deleted forever.
I look down at my stomach. At the place where Ace's baby is growing. This baby deserves a life on Sterling Ranch. Deserves to know its father. Deserves to grow up surrounded by Sterlings and Lawsons and crazy goats and horses and a sky so full of stars it makes you feel infinite.
I can give it that. I just need to survive one more dinner.
"If I do this," I say slowly, "you file the annulment the day the papers are signed. Not a week later. Not when you get around to it. The day."
"The day."
"And you delete everything you have on me. I mean everything. You take that stupid website down, and all of the women get their peace. I watch you do it. And you forget Ace and his family ever existed."
His jaw tightens. "Fine."
"And you never contact me again. Not a call. Not a text. Not a message through someone else. I disappear, and you let me."
"Agreed."
I look at him. Search his face for the lie. For the trap. For the twist that's coming, because there's always a twist with Hudson Blake.
