it wasn’t always. We’ve learned what’s needed the hard way.”
Francis sounded tired all of a sudden, and William almost felt sorry for him.
“How many more of these phone calls do you have to make?”
“None, thankfully. You and Mr. Jones were the only ones significantly affected by the error. You have my sincere apologies, Mr. Riley. Our legal team will send you a copy of everything we’ve discussed. I recommend you have your lawyer look over it and get back to us. There’s no rush. Though, as I said, we’ll cancel your contract as a matter of course at the month’s end. If you need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’ll handle your calls personally from here on out.”
William was about to mumble out a goodbye when a question occurred to him.
“Uh, Mr. Drake?”
“Yes?”
“Just what was mine and Harper’s compatibility when all was said and done?”
“At the final tally? Ninety-seven percent. The highest score we’ve ever seen.”
William ended the call and sat there, letting the silence wash over him. Ninety-seven percent. He and Harper had been doomed from the start. Or destined, depending on your perspective. But now that he had the information, what did he do with it?
Chapter Twenty-Three
No sooner had William stopped trying to contact him than Harper found himself avoiding calls from the agency. He’d received their email and William’s text to explain that he’d paused their schedule, so he didn’t know why they were still calling him, and he wasn’t bothered enough to find out. It was low on his list of priorities. William, on the other hand… there was a conundrum Harper hadn’t quite worked out how to tackle. Did he go talk to William himself, bring up his father, Dante, and everything else that had been said? It seemed like there were a lot of pieces missing from this puzzle. Confronting William with only half an idea of what he was talking about seemed like a surefire way for a conversation to end badly. But if he couldn’t ask William to fill in the blanks, then he needed someone else to. And that someone was Beckett.
The alpha looked surprised to find him standing on the doorstep that afternoon.
“Hey, Harper. Come on in. Zac isn’t here. He’s taken the boys to the toddler playgroup. They’ll be back in an hour, though, so you’re welcome to hang around and wait.”
“Actually, it’s you I’m here to see.”
“Oh?” Beckett didn’t seem all that surprised to hear it.
“What can you tell me about Dante?”
The alpha’s expression flickered between shock and anger as he shut the door and gestured Harper into the living room.
“William told you?”
“No, he didn’t. But he did mention a pregnancy scare.” Harper held off on mentioning Samuel’s involvement.
Beckett sank into an armchair. “Pregnancy scare isn’t what I’d call it.”
“So William did get Dante pregnant?”
“No, there was never any baby. Dante just pretended there was. Kept the charade up for almost six months.”
Harper sat down heavily on the couch. “Okay, run that by me again. How does anyone fake a pregnancy for that long?”
Beckett grimaced. “Look, I don’t have all the details. But I’ll tell you what I do know. I was a year ahead of William in college. When all this happened, I was working in the same firm that William was interning at while he finished his masters. As years went, it was intense. Long days, long hours of study, high pressure that didn’t let up for a minute. And in the midst of all this, Dante tells William that he’s pregnant. They were doing the long-distance thing, so William barely saw Dante month-to-month. Dante would send him ultrasound pictures and photos showing off his bump. William was so excited to be a father, even if it was the worst timing in the world.”
Harper hadn’t factored the distance in. As impossible as it sounded to fake a pregnancy for that long, if William and Dante were apart all that time, he could see how it might be done.
“And William had no idea?”
“The poor guy barely had time to draw breath. Untangling the complex web of lies he was being fed was beyond him right then.”
“How did it come to light?”
“That’s just it—it didn’t. Right after William’s finals, Dante broke the news that he’d lost the baby. It devastated William. I’d never seen him like that. It was as if someone had ripped his heart clean out of his chest. All his plans fell by the wayside, and he went home to