Amusing You - Claire Cullen Page 0,55
had cut deep, and William had struggled to accept the truth of it.
Harper huffed out a breath. “It wasn’t hard to work that out. Why else would you have cut ties with him at the same time? Okay, so I wasn’t certain, but I was pretty sure he knew what was going on.”
“That might have been the part that hurt the most,” William admitted. “When I think back on it, it’s all a blur. After Dante told me he lost the baby, I was broken, grieving. But the harder I grieved, the angrier he seemed to get. He wanted to move on, to get married, to have another baby. And I was still just trying to come to terms with what we’d lost. He finally snapped and told me I was pathetic mourning a baby that wasn’t even real. Then he backpedalled, tried to make out that he meant because the baby had never been born, but I was suspicious enough to start asking questions. And it all unraveled. There’d never been a baby. It was all a lie he and my dad cooked up when we were on the verge of breaking up, and I’d made it clear I didn’t plan to come home once I finished my masters.”
“It makes me so angry,” Harper whispered. “Thinking about how much they hurt you, how far they were willing to go, then and now. Your father…”
“What? What did he do?”
Harper sighed and shuffled closer. “He arranged for Dr. Arnold to write a prescription for me to take care of our little problem.” There were tears in the omega’s eyes, but they didn’t fall. “Your family is crazy. I see why you keep them far, far away.”
The fury and hurt swirled around inside William as he reached for Harper, tugging the omega against his chest.
“I’m sorry, Harper. I am so, so sorry. This is all my fault.”
He felt the omega shake his head, Harper leaning over to whisper in his ear, his tone fierce. “This is not your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
“I should have told you…”
“You weren’t ready. We weren’t there yet. My being pregnant pulled the rug out from under you. I see that now, and I don’t blame you for it.”
“I blame me for it. You needed compassion and understanding, not anger and accusations.”
Another soft sigh, and Harper kissed his cheek. “Then I forgive you. Let’s wipe the slate clean and start over.”
William matched Harper’s sigh with one of his own. “I’d like that.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Harper stayed the night, hanging around long enough to have breakfast with William the next morning. He wasn’t foolish enough to believe that the hardest part was over. If anything, Dante and Samuel were just a side-story to the bigger plot that was his and William’s relationship. He felt like he’d barely had time to think about what he wanted, but he and William were long overdue a conversation.
“We talked about your past last night, and this morning, we need to tackle the future.”
William took a long swallow of his tea. “I’d like that. You, um, you haven’t made any decisions yet?”
“I’m keeping the baby, if that’s what you’re asking.” The alpha deserved to know he’d decided that much.
“You are?” William’s smile grew brighter. “When did you make your mind up?”
Harper suspected the decision had been made the moment he’d seen the first positive pregnancy test, but he hadn’t truly listened to that little voice inside him, not until...
“When your father oh-so-sweetly pushed me to put an end to it. It had the opposite effect of what he’d intended—all I wanted to do was protect the little bean.”
“I know the feeling. When Dante lunged at you last night—” William cut himself off, looking like he wanted to say more. Harper would usually try to coax it out of him, but William had been through enough in the past day. If it was important, he’d get it out when he was ready.
Harper brought them back to the matter at hand.
“Which means that we’re going to be parents. Co-parents, I guess.”
He cringed inwardly as soon as he’d said it—he didn’t want to just co-parent with William. He wanted their relationship to be about more than just that they had a child together.
William was silent for a moment, his gaze distant before snapping back to Harper.
“Of course. Yes. We, uh, we get on well. Our personalities complement each other, and I don’t think our values are too dissimilar. We can make it work.”
“Yeah.” Harper’s voice cracked as he