Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

“It’s yours, Grayson,” Lottie said weakly.

I slashed my glare at Lottie. “There’s no fucking way that baby is mine.”

“Grayson, dear…” my mother spoke in her soft, bell-like voice, which I knew meant Shut the fuck up, we’re in public.

“Isn’t this great news?” My mother tried to pivot. “A baby…how many months along?”

“Four,” Mrs. du Lac supplied.

My mother crossed an arm across her chest, her chin on her hand. “You must be due around June, then? A summer pregnancy. How delightful.”

Almost a year to the day when this all started.

I dragged my hands through my hair.

Willing what she said to be a lie.

No.

Fuck.

No.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Tears surfaced in Lottie’s eyes.

Mrs. du Lac patted a cloth on Lottie’s forehead. “You need to rest.”

“I haven’t slept with anyone. That night…our wedding…I pushed it up inside me.”

I think the room stuttered to a halt. Then I heard my sister cover what sounded like a cough, or maybe a laugh.

If this was true, then Lottie had conceived on the same night Snitch had. Nausea made knots in my stomach as the knowledge hit me like a fucking boulder to the head.

No fucking way that was true.

I stared down at Lottie. “You are not pregnant with my child.”

I lifted my head as the shouts of Lottie’s parents dulled to a buzz, pushing through the ogling crowd. “Story!” I called for her, over and over…but Snitch was gone.

Fuck.

“You’re going to leave your sick and pregnant wife?” my grandfather questioned. “Even your father wasn’t that cruel.”

I paused.

Then kept going.

Fifty

STORY

* * *

Pregnant.

The wind howled as the blizzard slammed harder against the windows.

His wife is pregnant. His wife is pregnant. It’s been staring me in the face for so long. Lottie is the girl in his dreams. Lottie is the one he loved. Lottie is the one he married.