The Baby the Billionaire Demands

Marnie wiped her eyes. “Then what will I do?”

“I don’t know.” Turning away, he paused to look back at the door. “I hear Sergei Morozov is moving back to Moscow and looking for a new assistant.”

She blinked at him, looking like a mole who’s just seen the sun.

“Good luck,” he said.

Turning away, Rodrigo strode through his office, yelling right and left for everyone to go home, to spend the holiday with their families and friends. His employees’ eyes lit up with delight. But he couldn’t wait. He nearly ran out of the walnut-paneled lobby, holding his phone to his ear, telling his pilot to get the plane ready.

He had to see Lola. Tonight. Before the New Year began. He’d be brave enough to tell her he loved her.

But as he jumped into his car and stomped down hard on the gas, driving down the sunlit highway toward the airport, Rodrigo wondered if he’d be too late.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHY, OH, WHY had Lola ever let her friends talk her into this?

“It’s almost time!” Hallie crowed, kissing her husband passionately in the crowded rooftop restaurant. “Just ten minutes left!”

All around Lola, happy couples were counting down the minutes until the start of a new year. Nearby, she saw Stefano kissing Tess under the mistletoe.

They were also celebrating Cristiano Moretti’s new acquisition of this building, an old, rundown chain hotel with a location overlooking Times Square. He’d closed on the hotel yesterday. Tomorrow, the vast remodeling project would begin, to bring the property into line with the high standards of his luxury Campania hotel brand.

Only the rooftop restaurant was still open, with its Art Deco–style bar and enormous windows

and terrace overlooking Times Square; and it was only open to Cristiano’s closest family and friends, for his glamorous black tie New Year’s Eve party. Everyone was drinking champagne and ogling the bright lights and electronic billboards of Times Square, shining brightly and shimmering in the cold winter’s night below, as they, and about a million people on the streets, waited for the magical moment when the ball would drop, and a new year would begin.

But Lola just felt sad.

She shivered in the silvery, sparkly dress she’d borrowed from Hallie. Her friends were worried about her. Since she and Jett had arrived from Los Angeles last week, they’d complained that Lola didn’t seem like her old self. She didn’t brashly give her opinion. She didn’t boss anyone around. Even spending Christmas Day with her little sisters and their parents, as wonderful as they’d been, hadn’t healed her broken heart. Though Kelsey and Johanna would always be her sisters, she missed Rodrigo. She missed her husband. She wanted him.

Her heart felt broken.

Lola looked down at her palm. She held the plain gold wedding band she’d had engraved for him. The ring she’d meant to give him for Christmas. She’d brought it with her tonight, telling herself that she’d toss it away at midnight and start the new year fresh.

But feeling it in her hand, she couldn’t let it go.

Oh, if he had only loved her!

Wiping a tear savagely before anyone could see it, she left the bar and went out onto the rooftop terrace. It was very cold, but the frigid, numbing air was a relief against her hot skin. It was also a relief to get away from her friends.

Hallie and Tess kept giving her worried looks, trying to tempt her to eat from the appetizer trays. They’d bullied her into coming tonight. Even the fact that she’d given in—meekly, without a fight—had seemed to worry them. She could still see them peeking at her through the windows, even as they danced in the arms of their adoring husbands.

Lola felt hollowed out.

She was glad for Tess and Hallie. She truly was. But they’d risked everything for love, and won.

Lola had risked everything, and lost.

A lump rose in her throat. Stop it, she told herself furiously, hating her self-pity. She was lucky. Her son was healthy and well. She had custody. Her baby sisters were back in her life. She had good friends. She had a place to live, at the Morettis’ large, comfortable home in the West Village, where Jett was now being watched by their longtime nanny, along with Hallie’s baby, Jack.

She’d even been offered two different jobs, one in Cristiano’s hotel business, the other in Tess’s growing fashion company.

Lola had refused both. She’d told her friends she intended to go to community college, and maybe even law school. They’d loved that idea. So did she. It was Rodrigo who’d given it to her. In that sense, he’d believed in her, in a way no one else ever had.

But for now, she couldn’t think of the future. She still had money saved. She’d think of it all later.

She looked down at the diamond Rodrigo had given her, sparkling on her left hand. She should send it back, she knew, like she’d sent back the necklace. But as heavy and cold as the ring was, she hadn’t been able to take it off.