Giving My Billionaire Stepbrother A Baby 4

Chapter 1

He finally finds her several hours later, sat on a park bench with her knees pulled up to her chest. When he sits down next to her, she doesn’t scream or try to run away, she just sits there silently, staring ahead at the very same point she’s had her eyes fixed on for the last thirty minutes, trying to work out what the hell has just happened. Although she’s not crying anymore, her eyes are red and puffy, and it’s clear she’s still shocked and very upset. Dante doesn’t speak for a moment either, deciding how best to approach the subject. He should have told her, but there never seemed like the right moment. Eventually, he reaches out to her, hoping in his touch she’ll soften. Sash pulls away as soon as he’s moved, crushing herself into the wooden arm rest of the bench.

Dante regards his stepsister. Still she won’t look at him. Still she’s shaking her head, focusing on the mud by her feet. In its brown edges, she sees much more clarity than she does in the man sat next to her.

“Was that it? My surprise? Is that why you brought me here, to humiliate me?” she says finally. “I want an explanation, Dante. When you’ve given me that, we’re finished.”

Dante lets out a long sigh. “Look, Sash”, he says. “Tess is part of a history that has nothing to do with us.”

Sash shakes her head. She’s absolutely furious with him. More so than at any other point before. This is one lie too many for her.

“Nothing to do with us?” she says. “If you’re fucking her, that has everything to do with us. Are you fucking her?”

Now she looks at him. In her eyes he sees a catalog of hurt. “No”, he says.

“Don’t fucking lie to me, Dante”, Sash says. “I’ve had enough.”

“Sash, listen to me, I’m not fucking her.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I came to see Oliver, not Tess”, Dante says. “I should have told you.”

“Oliver?” Sash begins, but she can’t finish what she’s about to say. Instead she says, “you asked me to trust you. How can I trust you if

you lie to me?”

Dante hangs his head. He’s been rumbled and there’s no way out of it for him but to try and get Sash to forgive him. To try and get her to understand.

“You have a son, Dante. A fucking son.”

Just saying the words brings tears to Sash’s eyes. It makes her feel empty inside. It makes her feel like she’s no longer special for him. That what she believes to be growing inside her isn’t unique anymore, that it’s not enough.

“Please, Sash”, Dante says, trying to reach for her again.

“Don’t touch me”, Sash says firmly, and Dante retracts his hand.

“I was going to tell you”, Dante says. “I was going to tell you before we went back to New York. I didn’t have a chance before Tess turned up. I want to be with you Sash, I thought that was clear.”

“Why should I believe you?” Sash says.

“Because it’s true”, Dante says. “Please, Sash, look at me.”

Sash can’t bring herself to turn in her seat. All she can do is stare blindly at the ground and hope it swallows her up.

“I brought you here to give you a present. To give us both a present. Something we could never do the first time around. I need you Sash, no one else makes me feel like you do.”

“Yeah, right.” Sash says, tears clouding her eyes again.

For the third time, Dante tries to get near her. As he edges a little closer on the bench, this time Sash doesn’t warn him away.

“I promise you I’m not fucking her”, Dante says. “Tess and I weren’t even in a proper relationship together. Whatever we had ended almost three years ago. There is only one person I want to be with in this world, and that’s you. It’s only ever been you. Please Sash, you’ve got to believe me.”

The cruel thing is, Sash knows she’s got no choice. Whether she believes him or not, or he’s lying to her or not, she’s never going to be able to tear herself away from him. Dante is almost alongside her now. Slowly, he reaches out to put an arm around her shoulder.

“Please come back to the hotel”, he says.

Sash shakes her head.

“If you like, I can contact Tess, tell her to explain to you that there is nothing going on between us.”

“You have a child together”, Sash says, still unable to process it. “A child, Dante.”

“I know”, Dante says. “I was just as shocked as you are now when she told me about it.”

“What happened?” Sash asks.

“I don’t know”, Dante says. “Tess was one of the dancers in the club. We had a thing together for a while, and the next thing I know she’s pregnant with my child. After that, when I told her we couldn’t be together, she moved away. I’ve been coming to see Oliver regularly since then.”

Sash shifts a little in her seat. She takes Dante’s arm from around her shoulder and places it back in his lap.

“Why did you tell me you were coming here to work? Why did you lie to me?”