The Finished Masterpiece Boxed Set - Pepper Winters Page 0,158

little before I had full control.

The bundle was warm and heavier than I expected.

And it moved.

Fuck.

My eyes shot to hers. “What is this?”

She wiped her forehead with weariness, but her gaze was just as evil, just as cruel. “It’s yours.”

A small mewl sounded, ripping my eyes down and shooting me with dread.

No...

With sick urgency, I brushed aside the peach fleece and stared at the downy head of a newborn. I almost dropped it in my rush to give it back. “Take it.”

Tallup shook her head. “I don’t want it. I never wanted it.” She laughed, a little crazed. “I was on the pill. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You’re saying it’s mine?”

“That’s what I said, didn’t I?”

I gulped for air. “But that was months—”

“Nine months this week. It was premature. Eight days early. Guess it knew it wasn’t wanted.”

I turned stone cold. “How do I know it’s mine?”

“Because I say it is.” Her voice darkened. “It’s yours.”

“I don’t want a kid.”

“Neither do I.”

“What do you expect me to do with a baby?” I narrowed my eyes at the blackened street. No neighbours spied. No one heard our dark conversation.

“I don’t care.” She shrugged. “I honestly don’t care if you kill it.”

“If you care so little for its life, why didn’t you end it when—”

Her eyes snapped to mine. “I tried, believe me. I went to the clinic. I filled in the forms. I waited for a doctor to suck that nuisance straight out of me.”

I couldn’t hate her more than I did. A cold, oozing, insidious hate.

Her voice turned brittle. “I almost went through with it. but...I was raised better. We’re Christian. Abortion is a sin.”

I laughed out loud. I couldn’t contain it. “And raping a student isn’t?”

She stiffened. “I vividly remember you enjoying having your cock inside me.”

“I vomited after each assault. Did that not hint that I couldn’t stand you?”

Her face etched with fire. “You came.” Her lips twisted into a nasty smile. “If you didn’t, that thing wouldn’t exist.”

“That wasn’t pleasure, you bitch. I came because you force-fed me Viagra—”

“I don’t have time for childish nonsense.” She looked at the starless sky, then back at the peach blanket forced upon me. “Just because I couldn’t kill it doesn’t mean I want it. I hate children. And the past week has proven just how much I loathe everything about them.”

Instinctual protectiveness made my arm latch tight as if her words were spears. “Adopt it out then.”

She rolled her eyes. “That would lead to questions about who the father is.” Chilly calculation filled her face. “Do you want people to know it’s yours, Gilbert? Do you want me to tell them you forced yourself on me and this is the result?”

I shook with rage. “You forced yourself on me.”

“Yes, but who would they believe? Have you grown up so much you’re willing to put your life on the line to prove...what? That this baby isn’t yours? Because I promise you, a paternity test will undeniably show that it is.”

My mouth went dry as the baby squirmed and cooed. It didn’t know its very existence was being argued against. It didn’t know it wasn’t wanted.

Sadness filled me. Sadness for the life born from hate. A life that should never have been created.

“If you don’t take it, I’ll drop it off at the shelter. It can disappear into foster care. Maybe end up in a situation like yours—”

My blood ran cold. “You’d never do such a thing.”

How could she? She was a teacher, for Christ’s sake.

I clutched the blankets closer. “You teach kids for a living. Why can’t you love your own?”

She smiled tightly. “It’s because I teach that I don’t want my own. I only teach because my mother was a teacher, and that was what was expected. I don’t do it because I enjoy it. I’ve hated it since the moment I started.”

I forced my anger to subside, doing my best...for our kid’s sake. “This is yours as much as mine. Stop being such a cold-hearted witch. I know you could love—”

“Shut up, Gilbert. I’m not keeping her.”

“Her?”

My insides bottomed out.

My world changed.

My priorities shifted.

Her.

A girl.

I have a daughter.

I grew up in an instant.

I was no longer a boy, but a man.

A father.

A father who would never be like his own. Never be a parent who didn’t put their life on the line to protect his child.

I cuddled her close. So damn close.

Already in love with her and I hadn’t even seen her face.

How was it possible to fall so