The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions #5) - Holly Rayner Page 0,46
with that,” she said.
“I know. I hope you can believe me when I tell you that wasn’t my goal. If I had been thinking about anyone but myself, I would have realized how hurtful that would be. But I wasn’t thinking. I was just reacting.”
“I can understand that, I guess,” Rhea said. “It’s a big deal, finding out that you’re going to be a parent. I had the luxury of reacting to the news away from you, so you didn’t have to deal with my shock.”
“I don’t know if that’s a luxury,” Zach said. “In a perfect world, we’d have found out together. We’d have helped each other.”
She gave him a skeptical look, and Zach had to admit that he could understand what she was feeling. Of course she would be skeptical of his ability to help and comfort her, when he had failed so spectacularly at it.
“Anyway, I’m sorry,” he said. “I hope you can forgive me. I was very wrong to speak to you like that.”
She nodded. “I can forgive that,” she said. “I know you weren’t at your best. Emotions were high. What I need to know now is whether you accept our child as your own, and whether you want to be involved in his or her life.”
“Of course I do,” Zach said. “More than anything.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Rhea said, allowing a smile to cross her face for the first time all evening.
Zach hesitated. “Rhea… I want the two of us to be together.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said.
“After everything that’s happened—”
“After everything that’s happened,” she cut in, “the lesson I feel I’ve learned is that you and I are not necessarily a good fit. I love you, Zach. I always will. But there’s too much history between our families.”
“You’re talking about… my father,” he said. He had known this issue would have to be addressed.
She met his gaze. “Did you watch the video I sent you?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“I didn’t want to believe it,” he said. “I’m sure you can understand my reluctance to believe it. But I did more than just watch that video. I went through my father’s papers, looking for documentation of the lottery win he claimed. There was nothing. And my father was a man who kept everything.”
“What does that mean?” Rhea asked. “I mean, what do you think it means?”
“I hate to admit it,” Zach said. “It kills me to think badly of him. But you must be right. He must have been lying all those years about where the money came from. And the video you sent me—that’s him. I know it is.”
Rhea nodded. “I needed to hear you say that, I suppose,” she said. “I needed to know that you acknowledged what happened back then.”
“I do,” he assured her.
“And you had no involvement personally?”
“Rhea. No. How could you think that I would?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said. “I liked your father when I met him. He seemed like a nice person.”
“He was a nice person,” Zach said. “He was the kindest man I ever knew.”
“How could a kind man do something like this?” she asked. “That formula belonged to my family.”
“You don’t understand,” Zach said. “You don’t know what it’s like to be poor, to have nothing. Even I don’t really understand what he was going through. I was poor back then, but I was a kid. I didn’t have responsibilities. Now that I’m about to be a father myself, I see things differently. If I didn’t have the money to make sure our baby could have the life he or she wanted… I don’t know. I don’t know what I might do.”
“You mean to say that you would do what your father did?” Rhea asked. “You would resort to theft?”
“I’d like to tell you I wouldn’t,” Zach said. “But think about it. If our child wanted to go to college and make something of themselves, to reach for a better life, and you and I couldn’t afford to help him or her achieve that dream… I don’t know, Rhea. How far would you go?”
“I wouldn’t steal.”
“I don’t know if I would or not,” Zach said. “But that’s what I’m saying—I don’t know. I don’t know what desperation might push me to do. It’s easy for me to say I’d never do something like that now, when I have plenty of money to provide everything that baby will ever need. But if I didn’t have the means to provide for our child…