Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,316

going to have a future together, she ought to know what he did for work. “I suppose I’m not as up to date on these things as I should be,” she admitted, feeling suddenly on unsteady ground.

“You’re a lovely young woman despite everything that is happening between our families. Of course I can see that. I consider myself a good judge of character, Harper.” He paused and then continued his friendly onslaught. “But this entire situation is coming out at a very inopportune time. For Ethan I mean. His reputation thus far has been stellar. For someone young and wealthy, he has managed to stay out of the tabloids, he’s got his head firmly on his shoulders.”

If he was trying to make her feel like shit, he was getting damned close. Harper tried to go on the offensive. “What does all of that have to do with me exactly?”

Robert obliged her with an answer. “I only want what's best for my children. You'll understand soon enough how that feels. You are a lovely young woman but the truth is, you’re a liability to Ethan’s career, to his life. To his future. No one will understand that you met anonymously. You'll be branded as having tricked him into a relationship once the baby is known. Your father stole millions from me and indirectly, from my children, and now he is suing me for defamation in order to drag us into the mud alongside him. I won't let that happen.”

Harper leaned forward. “I don’t want that to happen, either. I never want to see Ethan hurt because of my father’s bad behavior.”

“I believe you when you say you don't support your father, Harper, but you are a Matheson and it is that simple fact which will make everyone question your motives. From the outside it appears as though you are looking for yet another way to steal from my family.” He looked out across the expanse of the ocean before once again pinning her with his gaze. “I can see my son cares about you and you about him, but it doesn't matter that we know the truth. Do you want to bring an innocent child into the middle of all of this? To have an infant dragged through a media shitstorm and have everyone question his or her very existence?”

Tears burned her eyes and she dropped her gaze to her hands that were now clenched in her lap. She wanted to tell him to go straight to hell, and she would have if he had said one single word she didn’t agree with.

“I see your points, but…what would you have me do?”

He sighed. “Far be it for me to tell you what to do. You’re both adults and the situation is what it is. But let’s be very frank. You and Ethan would face long odds just by virtue of your age and the fact that you conceived a child when you hardly even knew one another’s names. Add to that, the very serious legal and financial battles that are going to drag on for years between the families…” Robert Wentworth shrugged. “I can’t see how this will be a good situation to raise a child and nurture a relationship. Can you?”

“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” she said honestly.

He sighed. “I can’t tell Ethan to leave you alone. He’s been raised to do the right thing, regardless of the circumstances or consequences to himself. All I ask is that you consider his future. How much this will affect not only Ethan, but everyone around him. Consider what my family has already been through, the harm that’s been done to us. Would you really put us through more torment, force us to endure even more indignities, more public mockery? If you truly care about what will happen to Ethan, please consider walking away now before it’s too late.”

Tears burned her eyes. So there it was. He wanted her gone.

All of her fantasies of the two families healing, of old wounds fading, the baby bringing everyone together—they were just that.

Fantasies.

And fantasies would do nothing against the harsh and brutal reality of the world that she and Ethan inhabited. Nobody would want them to be happy, nobody would ever let them alone.

Her realization of the odds she and Ethan faced was sobering.

No, heartbreaking. Utterly devastating.

They would have no support. In fact, they would have the whole world hoping to see them fail and come apart at the seams. There wouldn’t