Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Now, even though I knew Landon would never hurt me, it didn’t feel safe in his office anymore. There was a hard glint in his eye I’d never seen before. His mouth was a hard, flat line. The muscles in his neck, his shoulders, his arms were all tensed, and there was a glittering menace in his eyes that made me want to get on the next flight home to Hawaii and forget this ever happened.
But Hawaii wasn’t home anymore. Nowhere was. I’d packed mine and Emma’s things under the watchful eye of a team that had been sent to make sure I didn’t try to hide a Monet in her collection of Frozen pajamas or a Faberge egg in my lingerie. Now the house was on the market, just like most of the others. There was nowhere left to go, nowhere to run to. So, I lifted my chin again and met Landon’s eyes, trying to steel my own gaze.
“I need your help.”
That brought a trace of his old, ironic humor to his face, but it was darker somehow. “Why now?” he asked, a hint of mocking in his voice.
I refused to take the bait. “You know why.”
Landon nodded his head once. “So let me get this straight. You ran off to–” he paused, waiting for me to fill in the blank.
“Hawaii.”
“--Hawaii, never bothering to tell me I was going to be a father. Kept my kid from me for three damn years, and now you’re back because the Lavigne piggy bank ran out of quarters?”
Landon spit out the words contemptuously. I struggled in vain to keep the angry flush from rising to my cheeks. Yes, I had lived on my family’s money, but I’d been raising Emma by myself. No nannies, no family nearby. The two of us had been our own little world. I’d thought that when she went to school, I would go back too. I’d gotten my degree in Nutrition, but I wanted to apply to a naturopath program. I hadn’t quite figured it all out yet, but I’d had a hazy idea of the future, and it didn’t involve living off my family’s money forever like Landon seemed to think.
I swallowed hard. That money was gone now. I wouldn’t miss the house or the private planes, but I would miss the luxury of raising my daughter without worry. I would miss lazy mornings on the beach, holding her small hand, listening to her shriek when the surf swamped her small feet. The dreamy, timeless years in which the future had felt so far off.
“I can see that you’re angry, Landon, and I’m sorry. I thought I was doing what was best for all of us.” I took a deep breath. “You were very clear that you didn’t want children. You were clear that we could never be anything serious. The age difference was too much. A family was the last thing you wanted, and so when I found out I was pregnant, I left.” I spread my hands out beseechingly. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
It was all true, every word, but I was still lying by omission. I wasn’t telling him how agonizing it was to have his baby and not him when I wanted both so much. I wasn’t telling him that, even though he’d made it perfectly clear from the start what he could offer–and it wasn’t love–that I’d fallen in love with him anyway. How I’d pictured that love withering under years of his resentment after I forced him into a life he didn’t want.
“You weren’t trying to hurt me,” he repeated, his pale green eyes unreadable. “You know, I almost believe you.”
“You should believe me completely.” I stood and took a step forward. “And please believe that I’m so very sorry for it. I thought it was one way or another–either I told you I was pregnant, or you never knew. I never planned for…well, this.”
Landon’s gaze sharpened again. I’d said something wrong, but I didn’t know what. His voice was cold again when he asked, “You still haven’t told me how I can help. I assume you need money.”
There wasn’t any particular intonation in his voice when he said the word money, but defensiveness rose up in me anyway. “Yes, it costs quite a bit to raise a child, and my accounts have been frozen.”
He started to say something, but I shook my head. “No. Wait. I have a plan. A proposal. Can we meet for dinner? I don’t want to do it here. Not with everything so…” I waved my hands “...tense. Let’s take the day to cool off and meet up tonight.” Then, at the wary look that sprang into his eye, I added, “Not a marriage proposal, Landon. A business proposal.”
“That’s what I assumed,” he said after a second.