But I would never forget how shitty it was not having a father. I would never forget how much it hurt me when I was young. Those abandonment issues followed me until I became a man and realized I didn’t need him.
If I turned my back on my child, I would be no better than him.
Couldn’t let that happen.
So now I was going to be a father.
A fucking father.
She turned to me, her pearl earrings catching the light. “How do you feel about this?”
The question made me angry enough to look at her. “I told you I didn’t want a family. How do you think I feel about this? Now I’m having a kid I never wanted to have. All because you lied to me.” Maybe that scar in her arm was old. Or maybe the implant had been deactivated over time. Or maybe it was a scar from something completely unrelated.
“I didn’t lie—”
“Women don’t get pregnant on birth control.”
“Well, I did,” she hissed. “I don’t know how it happened, but it did. You must have super sperm or something.”
I was too pissed to be pleased by that response. “We’re stuck in this situation for the next nine months. I say you stop lying and just be honest. A real man and a real woman tell the truth boldly. They don’t hide behind their lies. They have more balls than that.”
Her eyes narrowed to hostile slits. “I’m not lying, Cato. I really didn’t plan for this. When I kept getting sick, pregnancy didn’t even cross my mind. I’ve been on this regimen for a long time, and it’s never failed me.”
“So you have let a guy come inside you.” I should have known that was a lie too.
“No. That’s not what I said.”
“If you’re using condoms, then how do you know it ever really worked?”
“Condoms break all the time. A responsible woman always has a backup. And in case you forgot, you were the one who wanted to go bareback.”
“Because you enticed me.”
“Oh, that’s my fault?” she asked incredulously. “Women entice you all the time. I never pressured you into that relationship. You basically demanded it and didn’t give me a choice. So don’t rewrite history.”
No one ever stood up to me, and while it usually turned me on when she did it, right now it just annoyed me.
“It doesn’t make sense for me to do this on purpose. My job was supposed to be to hand you over to Damien. How does getting pregnant help with that? Explain the motivation behind that.”
I didn’t have any theories. It really made no sense for her to do that. But then an idea struck me. “Inheritance.” My eyes narrowed on her with a new sense of rage. “I die, and then our child gets everything. Which means you get everything.”
The hatred on her face matched mine. “I don’t want your money, Cato. I’ve never wanted your money, and I’ll never want it.”
“Right.”
She pressed her lips tightly together before she spoke. “Not all people are obsessed with money, Cato. Not everyone needs overwhelming security like you do. Truly happy people can have nothing and feel perfectly content. Only sad people need a billion dollars to feel secure.”
“I’m worth six billion.”
She rolled her eyes. “Is that supposed to impress me?”
“Impresses everyone else.”
“You know what does impress me?” she snapped. “The way your brother is so loyal to you. The way you’re loyal to him. The way you smile after you tease me. The way you fuck me four times in a row like you haven’t seen me in weeks even though it’s been one day. The way you look far more powerful naked than in the $10,000 suits you wear. The way you take care of your mother. The way you pulled your brother off me when he almost beat me to death. The way you lowered your gun when you knew there was another life at stake. That’s what impresses me, Cato. Not the size of your wallet. That’s what made me turn around. Because I actually care about you.”
I walked into the conference room downstairs and found Bates sitting with his feet on the desk, smoking a cigar while the Monet painting hung behind him.
“No smoking in here.” I sat across from him and eyed the painting on the wall. It was impossible for me to look at it and not think of the woman who picked it out for me. The beautiful colors of the flowers made me think of the brightness of her eyes, and the quiet stream reminded me of her home…even though there was no stream nearby.
“Why?” He took another puff. “I always smoke in here.”
I nodded to the painting on the wall. “Because of that.”
He let the smoke rise from his mouth as he turned his head to look at it. “Looks like a piece of trash that trash picked out.”