My Father's Boss (The Family Affairs)

I moved to stand a little in front of my girl. “I think you’re mistaken. That’s my name on that door, and I have the last word here.”

“You don’t have a say when it comes to my daughter.”

“I do when she’s my wife.” The words flew from my mouth before I even realized they were on the tip of my tongue. Fuck.

Ellis blanched and stumbled back a few steps in shock. “You—you’re not…” he sputtered, then shook his head as if to clear it.

“No!” Isabella squeaked as she jumped out of her chair. “Daddy, we aren’t married!”

I grumbled about that in my head. If she hadn’t been so insistent that we keep our relationship a secret until the end of the semester, I’d have put my ring on her finger weeks ago. Then I reminded myself to take things one at a time. We would have to discuss the date of our wedding later.

“Someday soon, that’s going to be her name on that door too,” I stated. “So she has every right to be here.”

Ellis’s mottled face turned a dangerous shade of purple. “Well, someday is not today!” He pointed at Isabella. “Izzy, let’s go. We’re leaving.”

I sighed, done with this back and forth. Isabella was mine, and it was time everybody started fucking acting like it. My arm slipped around her waist, and I pulled her into me, resting my palm on her soft, flat belly.

“Isabella belongs to me in every way that counts, Ellis. And while she may not officially have my name yet, the baby she’s carrying does.”

11

Isabella

“Baby?” I whispered, my hand moving to cover Beau’s where it rested on my belly, while all the color drained from my dad’s face as he dropped onto a chair.

Beau gripped my hips and turned me to face each other. “Sorry, sweet girl. I didn’t mean to bring it up like this.”

“I’m pregnant?” I was having a difficult time wrapping my brain around the possibility that I was carrying his baby even though we’d certainly talked about it often enough. And had plenty of unprotected sex over the past few weeks.

He nodded, his expression softening as his gaze dropped down to my belly. “I didn’t even realize that I needed to tell you until this morning when you thought you’d been sick because of something you ate. I’ve been waiting over the past few days for you to talk to me about it, and then it dawned on me that you hadn’t put the pieces together yet.”

“You were at his place this morning?” my dad sputtered. “I thought you said you were spending the night at Stephanie’s because you had another group project to work on?”

My hand trembled, and Beau pulled me closer, making it a little easier to admit to my father that I’d been lying to him all this time. “Um, yeah. About that…”

He scrubbed his palms down his face. “All those senior projects you were supposedly working on were just excuses to spend time with my boss? A man who is more than twice your age?”

I nodded, feeling as though I might throw up any minute—and not just because of the morning sickness I just now understood I’d been having. Along with my swollen, sensitive breasts and mood swings, I definitely should have realized I was pregnant before Beau pointed it out to me. But between school, my internship, and the newness of being in a relationship, I’d somehow missed all the signs. “Yes, Daddy. I’ve been spending all that time with Beau. I’m so sorry I wasn’t honest with you and Mom.”

“You lied to us? For him?” he asked, a muscle jumping in his jaw.

“No, I lied to you for me, which Beau didn’t want. At all,” I corrected. “He would’ve told you about us the first morning after we became a couple, but I insisted we wait.”

“How long has this been going on?” he gritted out, his gaze dropping to my stomach. I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as he added up the amount of time it would take for me to start having pregnancy symptoms. “The entire time you’ve been here for your internship?”

“Just about,” I confirmed with a nod. Now that our secret was out, I wasn’t going to hide anything. And I refused to be ashamed. Beau made me happy, and my dad was just going to have to accept that we were together…especially now that I knew I was pregnant.

“He’s old enough to be your father, Izzy.”

I rolled my eyes. “Only if he’d had me when he was close to my age now, Daddy.”

His gaze darted to my belly, and I knew what he was thinking—I was about to become a teen mom. Beau recognized it too, and warned, “Be careful with what you say next, Ellis.”

My dad’s eyes were blazing as he shifted his focus to Beau. “Is this why you moved Izzy to your office? So you could use your position and take advantage of my daughter?”

“I think you missed how this conversation began, with me telling you that Isabella will be taking my name soon.” Beau’s grip on me tightened, a sure sign that he was trying to hold on to his temper for me. If he’d been talking to anyone but my dad, he would have let loose and taken him down several notches by now.

“Oh, Daddy,” I sighed, shaking my head. “That’s not how it happened. I was already falling for Beau before he so much as even kissed me.”