“So you both lied to my father.”
“Yes. At the time I was in a vulnerable place—pregnant and terrified of raising Dylan alone.” She didn’t need to add that Rafe had been there to pick up the pieces after she and Trent had broken up.
“That first night in my office, when you told me Dylan was Rafe’s son.” Trent wasn’t sure he recognized the woman standing before him. “You were lying.”
She shook her head. “As far as Rafe was concerned, Dylan was his son. But he wasn’t his biological child.”
Never before had he perceived Savannah as being duplicitous. But she’d lied to him and to his family. Could she also be lying about Rafe knowing that Dylan wasn’t his?
“Is lack of money for a long, drawn-out legal case the reason you’re no longer fighting Siggy for Dylan’s right to the stock? Or are you suffering a guilty conscience?”
“Will you condemn me if I tell you it’s a little of both?”
Trent held perfectly still and stared at her. A question was burning a hole in his heart. Who was Dylan’s father? He thought he knew Savannah inside and out. Had she had a fling or a one-night stand? The thought disturbed him.
“I never in a million years thought you’d do something like this.” His voice sounded flat and wooden.
“Like what?”
“Pass a stranger’s child off as Rafe’s.”
“I didn’t. Don’t you understand?” Savannah released a long-suffering sigh at his head shake. “He has your smile.”
“Who does?” Trent had no idea what she was getting at.
“Dylan.”
What was she trying to say? Trent stared at her, his mind blank.
Savannah looked miserable. She’d obviously been expecting a different reaction. “Trent, Dylan is your son.”
Eleven
Funny how easily the confession slipped free. She’d been dreading this moment since the pregnancy test had come back positive. But in the end it wasn’t as traumatic as she thought it was going to be. She’d already lost her self-respect and her uncomplicated future to the lie. Trent’s confession that he’d not wanted their relationship to end had cut deep. What if instead of being afraid to be rejected she’d gone to him when she first found out she was pregnant? Her life might have turned out very differently.
“That’s impossible,” Trent said. “We were always very careful.”
“This is going to sound crazy.” Savannah braced to defend herself, suspecting Trent would be skeptical of her convoluted explanation. “When I came to visit you in Vegas that last time, I did so on Rafe’s recommendation.”
“Rafe told you to come see me?”
“As I was getting settled in LA, he and I began to spend time together. He said he’d been in love with me a long time and wanted us to be together. I liked Rafe, but he knew I loved you.”
“If he wanted you, wouldn’t it make more sense for him to keep you away from me?”
“Yes, if he’d actually loved me. But as I found out after we got married, he was merely using me.” She studied Trent’s face and saw only confusion and doubt. “And using you.”
“Using us how?”
“He needed an heir. He wanted one who looked like a Caldwell.” She raised her eyebrows and stared at him, waiting for him to understand what she was saying.
“But we were careful,” he repeated.
“That last time we were together...the condoms we used... Rafe gave me those condoms and told me to get you out of my system.”
“Seriously?” Trent looked completely shell-shocked. And angry. “You didn’t think that was strange?”
“Maybe.” She thought back to how desperate and miserable she’d been at the time. “I thought he was trying to be helpful. I never imagined he’d do something as crazy as sabotage the condoms.”