Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
He was right. There were so many different layers to this problem.
“Soraya would be a good stepmother. We could dye the little girl’s tips and pierce her ears.” Delia smiled.
Tig blew out a huge waft of smoke. “You know what I think? I think you should bid Daddy Warbucks and Little Orphan Annie adieu. That’s just my opinion.”
That night, I’d finally changed the color of my tips again. They’d been green since the night of the gala. There was only one color that seemed to fit the current situation.
Code red.
CHAPTER 16
GRAHAM
IT FELT LIKE SORAYA WAS SLIPPING away from me. The excuse she gave me about hanging out with her friends was a load of bullshit. The worst part was that I couldn’t even say I blamed her. Imagine if the situation were reversed. How would I have handled it, knowing that she’d given birth to another man’s baby? That thought made me sick to my stomach. I felt so possessive over her; I just couldn’t imagine it.
This week had been like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from. All I wanted was to go back to the way things were before the wake. Everything was so simple then.
I had so much work to get done but couldn’t stop thinking about the two females infiltrating my mind: Soraya and Chloe.
If she really was my daughter, then I owed her so much. None of this was her fault.
Don’t get ahead of yourself.
I needed that paternity test. There was still a part of me that wouldn’t believe it until I had proof. I couldn’t allow myself to get emotionally invested until there was no doubt that she was mine.
My secretary’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Ms. Moreau is here to see you.”
Clicking my watch, I took a deep breath and said, “Send her in.”
The door opened, and Genevieve strutted into my office like she owned the place. There was a time when she practically did. She, Liam, and I would spend hours strategizing in this very office until the wee hours of the morning. She’d given me endless blow jobs under the very desk she now sat in front of with her legs crossed. It seemed just like yesterday, except for the fact that my previous love for her had turned into what felt like hate.
She placed a white box on my desk. “I brought you your favorite cupcake from Magnolia. Peanut Butter. I remember how much you—”
“Fuck! Shut up about the cupcake,” I spewed. “Is she mine?”
So much for a gradual lead in to the discussion.
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“You heard me. Chloe. Is she my daughter?”
She looked absolutely shocked as her cheeks turned red. How could she not have seen this confrontation coming?
When she didn’t speak, I continued, “Why do you look so surprised, Genevieve? Did you really think I was going to see her at the wake and not ask you that very question?”
“I don’t know, Graham.”
“What you do mean you don’t know?”
“I’ve been dreading this moment for five years. I don’t know how to possibly explain my thinking to you in a way that you’ll understand.”
“Well…I have all damn day. Figure it out.” When she continued to be silent, I said, “Alright, I’ll start then. You were fucking Liam and me at the same time, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How long after we were last together did you find out you were pregnant?”
“A month.”
“How far along were you?”
“Two months.”
I threw a pen across the room in anger. “How the fuck could you do this?” Spit had flown out of my mouth as I said it.
Tears started to form in her eyes. “Can you try to let me explain?”
“I’m looking forward to watching you try to explain your way out of this, in fact.”
She closed her eyes for a moment then said, “I was in love with both of you, Graham. I truly was. It was selfish of me to feel entitled to that, but I did. I wanted it to go on forever. Being with both of you was the best of both worlds. I knew that once you found out, that would be it. I’d told Liam that you and I had stopped sleeping together. He didn’t know that I’d been with both of you at the same time. Apparently, you never told him otherwise.”
“I barely spoke to either one of you after I caught you.”
“I know. I’m quite aware. It still breaks my heart to this day.” She gazed out the window for what seemed like minutes to gather her thoughts. Then, she finally spoke again. “When Chloe was born, her complexion was lighter than it is now. She didn’t have much hair. It wasn’t immediately evident that she didn’t look like either Liam or me. As she became a toddler, I knew he was noticing how much she looked like you. He chose to ignore it. We both chose to ignore it. Things were so bad between the three of us at that time. And Liam loved Chloe more than life. He couldn’t have faced the possibility that she wasn’t really his.”