“Stop.”

“You can be frightened. You can be angry. You can blame my family for all this madness. But I know you love me. Why are you pushing me away?”

“Don’t you dare insinuate I owe you or your family anything—not after what you put me through. This baby is innocent, like I was before you took everything from me. Don’t tell me you have a right. This baby deserves better than the right to be a Bennett. He won’t be. I won’t let it happen.”

“Why?”

I stood in her path, but she wouldn’t escape. She had nowhere to go. Again, I trapped her within the confines of my territory, my house, my life. She wasn’t leaving this time.

I forced her to look at me. She twisted, but she was no match for my strength. Reed protested, and Max dared to touch my shoulder.

I’d break his arm before he pulled me from her. Not when I was so close.

Not when she finally looked at me—tears in her eyes.

“Let me love you, Sarah. Forgive me. Fight me. Do whatever you need to do, but don’t leave me. Not when I can promise you a family.”

“I can’t.”

“Don’t take my child—”

“Goddamn it, Nick! I don’t know if it’s your baby!”

Silence.

She stepped away, covering her mouth with trembling hands.

She hadn’t meant to say it.

A chill prickled my skin.

Her voice cracked in agony.

And then I knew.

God, I knew.

Why she ran. Why she pulled away. Why she fought so hard to isolate herself.

Why she wanted to be free of us.

I knew.

She kept the secret not to protect herself, but to shield me from the truth.

“He followed you, Nick.” Her words were living nightmare. “He followed you that night.”

The world fell away and my soul with it. It was battered and destroyed before, but what remained shredded against the realization of what I caused.

I left her.

I led him to her.

And I wasn’t there to stop it.

“I begged you to stay,” she whispered. “I thought it was you at the door. I thought you came back for me.”

And I thought I left her in safety.

She stared at me.

I knew what she would say.

“Darius raped me.”

I didn’t flinch. Reed groaned, sinking into the couch, head in his hands. He repeated only a single, heartbreaking word.

“No, no, no.” His breath raged with a sob. “No, no, no.”

Max stormed away before shouting. The crash that followed was only the first of many. The powder room mirror shattered. His fist through the glass.

I didn’t let myself break.

Sarah needed my strength. I stayed still, motionless, a pillar of stability though my heart had long since ceased beating. I stood through sheer force of will with an unresponsive body.

She cried, but her words never stopped. “He said he’d come back for me. So I ran. I just ran. I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t think. And then I realized I was…I got…” She shook her head. “He has to die, Nick. Before anything else happens. Before he hurts me, kills you, or takes…”

She hadn’t cradled her stomach before. Not in front of me, and not just because she was still flat with the secret she carried. She held herself—the baby.

My baby.

Too long she hid in her secret, protecting me from what happened. I didn’t deserve that compassion. And she never, ever should’ve suffered in such a way.

It ended now. She would never fear him again.

I cradled her in my arms, letting her rest against the sofa and pulling her into my lap where I could hold her, touch her, kiss her.

Where I whispered my love to her.

She let me, but I didn’t know how long it’d last. Just having her close eased the horror.

I would never burden her with my pain. I’d hide the black sludge of despair that clawed through my chest and tightened against my heart, my lungs, my life.

I gave it one moment, a dark second of helplessness, before banishing it.

If she was strong enough to survive, to face my father, to plot her revenge, then I would be too.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “So sorry.”

I kissed her forehead, speaking with a renewed strength of hope and promise.

“Don’t ever apologize for what happened.” My words stilled her trembling. “Don’t ever apologize. There’s only one thing to discuss, Sarah. And it’s important.”

She nodded, letting me brush the tears from her face. “What is it?”

I kissed her, letting a soft smile chase away her sorrow. “We need to think of a name for our baby.”

Sabotaging the Bennett Corporation’s Board of Directors began too close at home.

First, I had to endanger my own company. Shelling out millions to Darius Bennett was an exercise in humility and patience for me and my board. Generations of hate once prevented my family from thinking beyond the petty rivalry. One night changed that.

Now I understood how to get my revenge and ruin the Bennett Empire.

If it cost me a couple million dollars, so be it.

The Atwood board and the presidents of my divisions weren’t happy, and I switched off the web chat with a fake smile and promises to visit the farms within the month. I had to do the tours soon. I didn’t have much time before I started to show.

When that happened, the questions would begin.

It had to be in motion before the baby revealed himself. Just the whisper of Bennett would complicate everything.

Especially since the baby belonged to my step-brother.

It had to be Nicholas’s child.

He knocked on his own bedroom door. The room was mine, unconditionally. He hadn’t pressured to join me at night, but his sheets smelled of him. Masculine and sharp.

The fireplace in the corner housed a beautiful sitting area for my computer and workspace.

A good place for a bassinet, he had said.

“How’d it go?” Nicholas asked.

“The board doesn’t understand why I ordered the change to Bennett products.”

“And you didn’t explain.”

I fiddled with the modem beside my laptop. When I got nauseous, I pretended to have connectivity issues and unplugged the router. It worked twice.

“I can’t afford to explain. I need my fields treated and growing before we make the next move.”

“It’s dangerous.”

I shrugged. “What isn’t dangerous anymore?”

Nicholas didn’t like the thought. He changed the subject.

He did that a lot lately.

“Let me get you something to eat,” he said.

I scrunched my nose. “Reed’s been leaving me salads, slushies, cookies, fruit. Nothing’s staying down.”

And Food was the only connection I had to Reed now. Both he and Max quieted after I revealed the truth. Only Nicholas looked me in the eyes. Held me. Promised me the world.

It wasn’t enough, and he knew it. But it didn’t stop him from trying.

“Trust me, Sarah. You’ll like this.”

Doubtful, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Anything was better than devouring only saltines and the occasional slice of an apple or can of sauerkraut—which would have been weird had I not snacked on it before I was pregnant.

Nicholas guided me to the dining room.

God, this man.

He decorated the table with roses and candlelight. Crystal serving glasses set around china dinnerware, complete with hand-folded napkins—an approximation of some sort of swan. He offered me a glass of cold milk. Milk was still touch-and-go, but he insisted. I waited as he lifted a silver carafe.

“How long was I in that meeting?” I peeked into the bowl. “No way.”

“I have on good authority one of your favorites is homemade cream of mushroom soup with wild rice,” he said. “Think you’re up to trying it?”