“Justin, go back to the restaurant. It’s not nice to ditch your girlfriend in the middle of lunch. If you want”—she finally turned to face him—“I’ll draw up some papers releasing you from parental responsibilities.”
He reined in his temper. “What kind of man do you think I am? You think I’m worried about paying child support?”
“It’s not about you.” Her shoulders slumped for a moment, but she squared them, her mouth tight now. “Unscrupulous women generally demand more.”
Except Vanessa wasn’t unscrupulous. She probably wished she’d never come to Chicago or told him she was pregnant. She obviously didn’t want him involved, as though he had nothing to do with the baby they’d created.
“No,” he said. “It’s my baby. I’ll be a father to it.”
“Justin, you don’t have to. Whoever you end up marrying won’t like it that you have a child with somebody else.”
“Remarkable, that you know so much about this woman,” he said sarcastically. It was either that or blow up on her as she spoke of him marrying another woman while she was carrying his
baby.
“I’m a lawyer, remember? When you have the kind of money you do, people always think way, way ahead. To the estate. It’s not cynicism, it’s reality.”
“You’re right.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s only one thing left for us to do.” He smiled, watching her eyes narrow. “Get married.”
* * *
Vanessa sucked in a breath. “Definitely not. I didn’t tell you so you’d marry me.”
“So it’s something else then?”
“Look, I just…didn’t want this to be a surprise later on. I know what something like that can do to a family.”
“You’re referring to your stepbrother?”
She nodded. Her father had a son with another woman and had brought him into the fold. Vanessa didn’t have any hard feelings against Blaine, since it wasn’t his fault Salazar was a womanizer. Ceinlys had been absolutely furious, of course, and Vanessa suspected it had added another dimension to her mother’s sudden desire to divorce.
“Salazar didn’t do the right thing because he was already married. I’m not.”
“Justin—”
“Don’t make me fight you over this. If it goes public, it won’t be just me after you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Barron has been after me to marry and ‘produce an heir.’ Well, this baby is it. Heir to the Sterling & Wilson fortune.”
Vanessa bit her lower lip. “I want to keep our marriage quiet.”
“Quiet?”
“Quiet. Undercover, on the sly, in secret. Get it done outside the country or something.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed. “I’m not going to continue what we’ve been doing the last ten years. We’re talking about marriage here.”
“It’s important.”
“Why?”
Because it’s going to end soon…and badly, she thought. Justin couldn’t even pretend he felt anything that was strong enough to compel him to suggest matrimony to her. Her parents had loved each other to pieces, and their marriage had eventually become a train wreck. The divorce was going to be just as bad with a bunch of over-priced lawyers squabbling over every penny.