sorry, for what it’s worth. I should have tried harder to get you alone before I told you the news.”
“I should have listened to you when you asked to see me alone,” Lucas said. “I was very rude to you that day at the office. I want to apologize for that.”
He saw some of the tension leave her face. She had been hoping for that apology, he realized.
“It was really your board,” she said. “They were the vicious ones. You were just…a bit cold.”
“Well, I shouldn’t have been. And I should never have made you sit in that room while they spoke to you that way. I should have gotten you out of there as soon as I realized they were going to be cruel. I’m sorry I let it go on as long as I did.”
“You were processing what I’d told you,” Elise said. “It makes sense that you were too shocked to act. I was pretty rattled when I first found out I was pregnant.”
“I can’t believe you handled it all alone,” Lucas marveled. “I’m so sorry you had to do that.”
“Oh, I haven’t been alone,” Elise said. “I’ve been staying with my parents.”
“You have? Because of your pregnancy, you mean?”
“I actually moved in with them the night I got back from Rome,” she said. “My apartment was broken into—”
“What?”
“—And I’m between jobs at the moment, so they’re giving me a place to stay.”
He let out a low whistle. “You’ve really been through it lately.”
“Yeah,” she said. “But it’s all right. It’s great to be with Mom and Dad. They’re excited about the baby, too.”
Lucas felt a knot of tension that he hadn’t been consciously aware of release in his chest. Elise was all right. The baby was all right. They were well provided for, and they had the love and support of family around them.
That would make the next part of this conversation easier.
“I’m glad you have your parents to help you,” he said. “I came here to talk about…about when the baby is born.”
She gazed at him expectantly.
“Elise…” He swallowed. “I can’t be involved in the baby’s life.”
She inhaled sharply. “What?”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few days now,” he said. “There’s just no way it can work. The board of directors…they’re never going to let me come back if it’s public knowledge that I had a child when I was supposed to be taking that pill. And there’s no way for me to be involved in the baby’s life without the press getting wind of it. There would be no way to keep it a secret. It would destroy Quadra-Well. It would destroy my career.”
“Your career?” she repeated.
Her eyes narrowed. Lucas felt a surge of guilt.
“I just lost my job, you know,” she said. “I had an interview at Quadra-Well, and I gave up any hope of being hired there so that I could tell you that you were going to be a father. And now you’re telling me you can’t be involved in your child’s life because of your career?”
“It’s not the same thing,” he said.
“Why isn’t it the same thing?”
“Quadra-Well isn’t just a job to me,” he explained. “It’s my company. I built it from the ground up. It’s like…it’s like my child.”
“But it’s not a child,” she said. “It’s a company. Your child is a child.”
“I’ve put my entire adult life into this, Elise. I can’t just walk away from it. And I can’t allow one mistake to destroy it.”
“Mistake?”
“I’m not trying to be insensitive,” he said. “You know what I mean. Regardless of how you feel about it now—and I’m glad you’re happy, I really am—we didn’t conceive a child on purpose.”
She shook her head. “How do you expect me to tell this child that the reason you’re not around is because you chose a pharmaceutical company over fatherhood? How would you feel if your father had done that?”
That hurt. Lucas knew exactly how it felt to have a father who prioritized business over fatherhood.
But at least his child wouldn’t be raised with that fact surrounding him or her every day. It would be possible for his child to forget from time to time, to be happy about his or her loving mother and grandparents.
“I can’t believe this,” Elise whispered. She looked shell-shocked. “I can’t believe this is what you came all the way out here to tell me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am. I know this puts you in a difficult position, and of course I’m happy to