‘You think I got pregnant by another man?” she practically shrieked.
‘Do not,”
he said so grimly that it scared her, attempt to tell me this baby is mine.”
‘But it is.” Her lungs didn’t want to work and there was a pain in her chest as if she was being squeezed in a vice.
‘You forgot the condom that first time don’t you remember?”
He jumped out of the bed and stood towering over her a fury unlike anything she’d ever seen glittering in his dark eyes. ‘And that was lucky for you, wasn’t it? What’s wrong?” He sliced the air with his hand.
‘ls the father of the baby not as rich as I am? Doesn’t he want you any more?” The taunts hurt. He’d never hurt her before and she’d come to believe he never would. Not like this .
‘There is no other man.” She tried to say it with conviction, but the words came out in a whisper.
‘There’s never been another man. ”
His derisive laughter cut into her with the precision of a surgeon’s laser. you had sex with me on our first date. . Your chances aren’t good.”
‘Whose idea was that?”
‘Don’t play the innocent. In your circumstance my impatience was like manna from heaven.”
‘l’m not playing at anything. I was a virginl” She hated having to say it like that, as if she was defending herself, which she was.
‘Do not lie to me.”
‘l’m not lying.”
‘I am not taking responsibility for another man’s mistake and you can take that assurance to that man’
Both her arms crossed protectively over her stomach.
‘My baby is not a mistakel”
‘Maybe not but trying to convince me I am the father was. Who knows? I might have continued our affair and even helped you financially with the child if you had been honest.” Scorn laced every word as he started throwing his clothes back on.
‘What are you doing?” His eyes derided her for asking such a stupid question.
‘l’m leaving.”
She flew off the bed and across the room to him. It couldn’t be falling apart like this. She refused to let a misunderstanding tear apart the framework of her happiness.
She grabbed his forearm, frantic to make him listen. appease,
‘Salvatore, darling. The baby is yours. I swear it. I love you. I wouldn’t lie to you”
He shook her off. ‘stop this. You made your play. You lost. Accept it.”
‘lt’s not a play. I’m pregnant with your baby. Don’t you want to be a father?” His face contorted and then he spun away from her.
She stood frozen by a reaction she had never expected as he finished dressing. She followed him when he walked out to the living room. His gaze flicked to the specially set table and his eyelid twitched, his mouth going more taut, but he said nothing.
He stopped at the door and then turned his head until they were once again making eye contact.
It hurt. Horribly. His eyes spoke volumes about what he thought of her and it was all terrible.
‘I will not tell your father about this. It would kill him, but don’t try to convince him that baby is mine. I will not lie to protect you either.”