Page 124 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 4

Proof.

I picked up Trumai from the bassinet and held her against my chest, staring down at the printed page in my other hand.

“I told you,” I whispered to her. “I told you that you were mine.”

I sat in the lab for a long time, just holding her.

The report sat on the counter beside me, the single page I’d kept staring up at me like vindication.

Probability of paternity: 99.7%.

I knew what I’d hidden. I knew the full report said more than that—said things that complicated the narrative, said things that would give Truth ammunition to argue, to doubt, to pull away from me again.

But I also knew that the page I’d kept wasn’t a lie.

It was the truth.

Just not all of it.

And sometimes, that was enough.

I was still sitting there, still holding Trumai, when I heard it.

A low mechanical hum.

Then the sound of an engine—smaller, faster, pulling away.

I stood abruptly, my heart lurching, and crossed to the porthole window.

The emergency tender.

It was gone.

I could see it in the distance, a small dark shape cutting through the water, heading toward the shore.

Hector.

That son of a bitch had taken the emergency boat and run.

I stood there for a moment, my jaw clenched, my hands tightening around Trumai until she whimpered softly.

I forced myself to breathe, to loosen my grip, to think.

Hector was gone. Fine. I didn’t need him anymore anyway. The boat was on autopilot, the course was set, and I knew how to pilot it myself if I had to.

He’d taken the tender, but he hadn’t taken anything else. He hadn’t sabotaged the boat. He’d just run.

Coward.

I carried Trumai back to the bridge and checked the navigation system. We were still on course, still moving steadily toward the coordinates I’d programmed.

I stopped the boat.

The engines cut to idle, and the forward momentum slowed until we were drifting, rocking gently on the current.

I dropped the anchor.

The heavy chain rattled through the housing, and I felt the boat settle as the anchor caught on the riverbed below.