Page 47 of The Pakhan's Secret Baby

If she's half the mother I believe her to be, she's not leaving either.

And it will be her free choice to make.

15

EMORY

The front door opens, and Rashid stands in the frame consuming it. I assumed there would be guards with guns and I'd be walking into a hostile situation, but it's just him.

I'm not sure why this is scarier than the alternative, but it is.

"Where's my son?" I'm soaked to the bone from rain and shivering like I'm hypothermic, but I move toward him. I need to know where Lex is, and he's not going to keep me from my boy.

He steps to the side and holds the door open as I walk past him into a foyer that's bigger than my entire apartment.

The floor is polished stone and there's a staircase curving up to the second level.

It reeks of pretention, and it disgusts me.

I turn around to face him as he shuts the door behind us.

"Tell me now, you asshole! Where is he?" I'm barely containing the anger in my chest and the tears in my eyes.

For three years I had nightmares of this exact thing happening, though in those dreams I ended up tied up or dead.

He looks at me with disdain, with nothing in his face that resembles the man who pressed a emerald necklace into my hands a few days ago.

That man is gone and the one standing in front of me is carved of ice-cold granite—uncaring, unfeeling. He's the monster whose reputation in this city precedes him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he says, walking past me into the house. I follow him because I don't know what else to do. He has my son and I'm not leaving here without him. "You never told me about a child, Emory. As far as I know you don't have one."

God I hate the sarcasm in his tone.

I could hit him if I wasn’t so afraid he'd pull a weapon and hurt me. I'm on the verge of tears, ready to fall apart completely.

I've just had to flush my dreams down the toilet; I don't have emotional energy for this.

"You took him from Irina's apartment. Don't stand there and pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." Folding my arms over my chest, I stand shivering as he turns slowly to narrow his eyes at me. I see the violence in his eyes. It's as terrifying as Batya warned me he might be, and I am a stupid, stupid woman for not obeying him about that club three years ago.

"I took a boy whom I believe might be mine. A boy whose existence was hidden from me for three years by a woman I fell for." He stops in the middle of his sitting room and turns to faceme. "If you had told me the truth when you had the chance we wouldn't be standing here right now." His calm hand gestures almost make me explode. I'm holding on by a thread, so close to going feral it hurts.

"I didn't have a chance," I hiss. "You think I wanted to hide him from you?" I'm shaking so hard my teeth are clicking together. "I was scared, Rashid. You're a monster. Everyone in this fucking city knows that. I was barely twenty years old and pregnant and I didn't know what you would do...."

"So you decided for me," he says calmly, and his eyes go black as night. I swallow hard, trying not to let him see the fear in my eyes, but it has to be obvious.

"I decided for my son."

"Our son," he growls, then continues. "And how has that worked out for you?" He gestures around the room without breaking eye contact. "You're living in a place that isn't fit for a dog, your father's in debt to men who would kill him over pocket change, and the boy is being watched by strangers in a building with no security. Tell me how your decision has kept him safer than I could."

I've done the best I could with what I had.

But that doesn't give him the right to take my child out of a home where he was loved and bring him here without my permission.

I wipe my face with the back of my hand and try to steady my voice.

"I want to see him. Right now." The emotion starts to crack into my tone, turning from anger to fear.

I don’t care anymore.