“You don’t think much of me.”
“No.”
“I am surprised you are open to me seeing Mikhail.”
“Whatever is best for my son, if I can give it to him, I will.”
“You could have married and given him a stepfather.”
“Because being raised by parents who had not given birth to me worked out so well.” She’d thought her adopted parents loved her. Emma had learned differently, and she wasn’t letting anyone do that to her son.
“A parent can be neglectful or abusive, or anything in between and have the strongest of blood ties with their child.”
“Yes, but I wasn’t going to risk bringing someone into Mickey’s life that might not love him like I do.”
“You are risking that with me.”
“As much as it is not fair, and I cannot guarantee you will always be good for my son, you have had a place in his life since the day I conceived. You are his biological father and if you want to be his dad, for his sake, I have to let you try.”
“You do not believe I will disappear from his life again, or you would not risk it regardless.” He sounded very certain of that.
And he was right. “No, I don’t.”
“Even if I have more children at some later date?”
“Even then.” Though something deep inside her recoiled at the thought of him having children with another woman.
“So, you at least have some faith in me.”
Faith in him? Not likely. But he’d dumped her to do his duty by his family and despite how it all went down, even she could see at the time that doing so had cost Konstantin. Not enough to maintain their relationship, but walking away hadn’t been easy.
At least she’d thought it hadn’t. How efficiently he’d cut her out of her life and left no loophole for getting back in, even just to have a conversation so she could tell him she was pregnant?
That might tell a different story.
Regardless, she did know one thing about him. “If I learned one thing about you, it is how committed you are to your family, Konstantin. While I have no faith in you, I do have faith in that. Now you’ve acknowledged Mickey is yours, you won’t try to shuttle him out of your life.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but she forestalled him with a raised hand. “Even if you tried, I wouldn’t let you. I will never let you hurt my son again.”
“Our son and I have no intention of hurting him. Or you.”
“Leave me out of it.”
“You are his mother—you are in the center of it.”
Emma stood. “I paint during Mickey’s nap time. If you’ll excuse me.” She wasn’t hanging out with Konstantin chatting about old times.
Emma had had her say.
In her opinion, the Prince needed time to digest the home truths she’d served up.
Not that he took it.
She could hear Konstantin on the phone and then instructing someone to bring him his laptop. Working. Typical.
He’d just found out he had a son, but Mirrus Global still came first.
It would do Emma well to remember the Prince’s priorities.