Page 31 of Dirty Legacy

Safety?! What the hell?

“You’re really freaking me out.”

“There’s no other way. Fuck, I wish I could explain without making this worse, but please, you have to understand. I’m under constraints… constraints I don’t want… and there’s a clock ticking. I should be there right now, but…” He slams a hand palm-down against the table. I flinch, wrapping my arms around myself in terror. “Fuck. This is the worst timing possible.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, shrinking down, losing my internal battle.

I knew he’d hate me.

I knew I wasn’t good enough.

“You have nothing to apologize for, damn it, but we have to get married.”

I shove back from the table. “I can’t do that.”

“Angie—“

“No, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Angie!”

I turn away, shaking as I hurry off. I almost run to the door, heart pounding, brain looping in a nasty refrain. Ugly, failure, not good enough, never good enough, doomed to be just like your mother. I breathe desperate gulps of fresh air but that doesn’t help⁠—

Connor catches my wrist. I turn, pulling to get away, but he holds on like iron.

“Listen to me, angel.” He sounds desperate, but I don’t want to hear it.

“You’re only doing this because you feel bad. You think I’m some loser idiot who’s going to ruin your kid, and honestly, I don’t even blame you. But please, Connor, let me go.” Tears stream down my face. “You’re hurting me.”

He looks down at his hand like he’s only now realizing he’s holding onto me hard enough to leave bruises. He releases me and I stagger a couple steps, bumping my hip into a parking sign.

“I’m sorry,” he says, eyes wide with surprise. “I didn’t mean⁠—“

“I don’t care, okay? God, this was so bad…”

“Angie, please.”

“We’re not getting married. I don’t even want anything from you. I just want you to be in the baby’s life, that’s all, okay? I want to be a better mother than I ever had. Please, we can talk more later, when we’ve both calmed down, okay?”

His hands ball into angry fists. His shoulders tighten as his eyes bore into me and the rage comes back. Fear slides down my spine as I back away from him.

“There is no later,” he says quietly. “You don’t get it. You don’t know what I have to do.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re not making sense. This was too much. We’ll talk later.”

I turn and run.

It’s not dignified. I’m not proud of myself. But I’m sure he’s going to beat me into a rotten pulp if I stand there for a second longer.

I cry as I go. I can’t believe that happened. The way he looked at me… his insane marriage proposal…

It’s like I broke him.

Like the idea of raising a baby with me destroyed his mind.

What a nightmare.

That was mortifying. So much worse than I ever pictured.