Reborn Pregnant: The Heir He'll Never Know

LEY

efore I'd even taken my coat off, which told me

already knows what I'm

." He didn't smile when he said it. Julian had been my lawyer for six years and my closest friend for twenty, and the two roles had a w

hear

sleep by now. "A legally recognized heir. Unborn or born, doesn't matter which, your grandfather was specific about that much at least. But it has to come with documentation. Pr

he

have him quietly removed from the board's approved counsel list for reasons that had nothing to do with his competence and every

had an original th

and unpleasant. "I'm telling you this as your friend before I tell you as your lawyer. Whatever you think of her, whatever she did to you

nt Selene had told me, standing in the kitchen of an apartment my stepmothe

was in there somewhere, buried under something heavier. It was the particular, ugly clarity of watching a door close and a different

Wren," I said. "

ther's dress, and he'd told me privately, three drinks into the reception, that he'd never seen me look less like mysel

the settlement before you hand it to her, Bradley. Don't just s

xactly wh

our mar

grandfather built," I said, sharper than I meant to. "I

long time ago which arguments with me

alk into that house alone. She sat in the passenger seat with one hand resting low on her stomach the entire drive, wat

ll her about the bab

N

y n

n I didn't want to admit the real one - that some instinct in me still flinched at t

though I couldn't have said why. I'd built up, without meaning to, an entire private rehearsal of how this would go. Raised voice

d for a divorce," I said. "The papers are dr

settlement, which both of us understood was its own kind of answer. And then

I expected, and she picked up the pen I'd brought without b

ling, or when, none of the things I had steeled myself against for a week. Just the scr

old and wary, the particular unease of watching a door open too easil

because I didn't have

old me. "I'm sure you

n I didn't have the attention to read yet, and behind me I heard her footsteps follow us as far as

behind me, and I introduced them with a sentence I

yes dropped once to Selene's stomach that I filed away and didn't examine, because I had a c

r closed behind he

re, something almost giddy with relief. She turned into me and wrapped both arms around my

gainst my ear, still laughing. "At last.

't fight

the child I'd been told for three weeks was mine, and something in her express

say, the kind of sentence that only sounded ominous because I was tired and the ninety-day

s face when she should have broken, and the small, cold thing un

ight in me. I just didn't yet know wh