Heiress's Baby Scandal

Tearing him down.

She hadn’t been able to stand it.

How dared he say such things about the most wonderful man she had ever known? About the man who made her view life differently?

If the blustery old man thought he was going to have anything to do with her baby when he treated his son so callously, he was wrong.

Because she might have only known she was pregnant for a few hours, but she loved this baby and would protect him or her with her life. No way woul

d she let some overbearing, pompous man berate her child.

Or her child’s father.

“Ellie, dear, perhaps you and I should go to the den and let the men have this discussion?” Ty’s mother suggested gently, her worried gaze going back and forth between her son and her husband. She moved toward Ellie, put her arm gently on her shoulder.

Eleanor risked a look at Ty. His face was dark, cloudy, upset.

Coldness doused the flame that burned within her.

She had overstepped her boundaries.

Hadn’t she known she had?

She might be pregnant with Ty’s baby, but she’d been talking to his father. Blood was thicker than water. Didn’t that always hold true?

Still, she wasn’t going to apologize. Not when she so strongly disagreed with how Ty’s father treated him.

“Actually, I need to do some things upstairs,” she ventured, not wanting to go with Ty’s mother so that she could be scolded for overstepping her place. Plus, tears burned at her eyes and she wanted to get away, far away, before they fell. No way did she want to show weakness in front of this family. If for no other reason, she didn’t want them to think they could browbeat her in regard to her baby. They couldn’t. She held her head high. “If you’ll excuse me …”

Without pausing, she headed back toward the stairs she’d descended only minutes before.

She hadn’t mentally made any decisions, but when she got back to Ty’s room, saw all the things from his childhood and past, she was struck with homesickness.

Immense and utter homesickness.

Perhaps her family was odd. Perhaps they each had their own quirks and faults. But they were her family.

She wanted them.

Before she even consciously thought about what she was doing, she had her suitcase out of Ty’s closet and had begun methodically packing her things back into the case.

“What are you doing?”

She spun at the sound of Ty’s voice. “Going home.”

Filling the entire doorway with his tall frame and broad shoulders, he didn’t look happy. His gaze narrowing, he stepped into the room, closed his bedroom door behind him.

“Why?” he asked, turning the lock.

She almost winced at the sound of the lock clicking into place. Why? Ha, did he really have to ask why she’d want to leave?

“Because I don’t want to be here any longer.” Truer words had never been spoken. She wanted to be far away from the Triple D ranch and Texas.

His hands on his hips, Ty stood just inside the door, staring at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. “Because of what just happened downstairs?”

“Because I want to go home, Ty. I want to be back in the city, back at Angel’s.” Back where she belonged. “I don’t like it here.”

“This is my home.”