“Yes,” I said. “I want to ask Michelle to marry me.”
“Oh my gosh!” Maria yelled. “I have to go. I have to do some research. Send me your ideas so I can incorporate them. By the time you’re down on your knee and ready to pop the question, she will already be itching to say yes.”
I smiled and shook my head as laughter fell from my lips. Joy filled my veins. My heart soared into the clouds. Michelle was mine. Michelle was the mother of my child.
And if I did this right, by the end of the week she would commit to being my wife.
Chapter 24
Michelle
It had been a couple of days since that package first arrived from Stillsville, and every day since then things had been arriving at Gray’s place. A box from Anton’s place, full of more pictures and a couple of artifacts from around the house. A wooden crate of wine from a vineyard I found out was up the road. Even a couple of books I figured he had ordered while at work. But when I opened the door Friday morning and found a formal courier standing there in a suit, I furrowed my brow.
“Miss Michelle Danforth?”
“That’s me,” I said.
“This is for you,” the courier said.
He held out a manila envelope with my name on it, and I didn’t recognize the return address.
“I think you have the wrong person. I didn’t order anything,” I said.
But the man only continued to smile while holding out the envelope. I took it from his hands and he nodded to try and bid me farewell. I looked down at the envelope in my hand and furrowed my brow as I shut the front door. A sudden feeling of unease came over me and I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I pulled up an internet search and typed in the return address, trying to figure out who this package had come from.
And when a law firm in Napa Valley popped up, my stomach tumbled in on itself.
Gray had told me he would talk to his lawyers when he left Stillsville. But I didn’t think that was still on the table. Things had been going so well between us, I figured he had tabled the idea. I tucked my phone away in my pocket and walked into the kitchen, tearing open the envelope as quickly as I could.
I didn’t want to believe anything was about to go wrong, but I knew in the back of my mind what was coming.
It was what always came with Gray.
I chastised myself even before I slid the papers out. But once I got a good look at them, I felt as if I was going to be sick. My eyes scanned the outline of the document, clocking every single thing Gray had outlined he wanted from his lawyer in formal writing.
Tears sprang to my eyes as my hands began to tremble.
The envelope fell from my hand and my back leaned against the kitchen island. The marble dug into my back as the entire dream state around me crumbled into dust. The papers in my hand outlined a sole custody agreement. After the birth of our child, Gray would take over full custody in exchange for providing me with one million dollars.
Holy shit.
He was trying to buy this child off me.
I couldn’t believe it. How in the hell could I have been so blind? That was what all of this was about. Ripping me from my hometown. Dragging me away from my brother. Teasing me into making future plans with him. It was probably his attempt to prove to a court of law that he could take better care of this child than I could. It was his way of garnering information to throw in my face and take my child away from me.
I slammed the papers down onto the counter as I wiped at my eyes.
Did he really think he could buy this child off me? Well, if he thought I was staying another second with him in his damn mansion on a hilltop, he was sorely mistaken. I should’ve listened to my brother. I should’ve taken his advice instead of allowing my mother to wiggle underneath my skin. Betrayal and hurt unlike anything I could ever explain pooled in my stomach, and I rushed over to the sink and vomited into the stainless-steel cavern.
How could I have allowed myself to hope that, through all the shit we’d been through, we could somehow build a life together? How could I have allowed myself to believe that Gray wanted to really build a life with me and our baby? He accused me of being a gold digger, and now he was throwing money at me to get me to go away.
Well, he would get his wish.
Just not in the way he had planned.
I rinsed my mouth out and scooped the papers off the counter. I marched to my room and began to pack my things, then went and sat in his office. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t thirsty. I wasn’t tired. But I was, however, was done. Fed up. Exhausted of the game we were playing. I’d look him straight in his eyes, tell him exactly what I thought of him, then tell him if he wanted rights to his child he could see me in court. I’d gladly dig myself into debt I’d never be able to get out of if it meant keeping my child at my side.
He had decided to go to war with a mother bear, and I was looking to draw blood.