Chapter 1 - The Man Outside the Bakery
Chloe shoved the warm paper bag against her stomach and whispered, “Please don’t kick now.”
Leo Moretti stepped from a black SUV and noticed the torn ultrasound envelope sticking out beneath her gray sweater.
One number had been written across the corner.
Leo stopped walking.
Someone already knew how far along she was.
Chloe Bennett did not notice his expression.
She was too busy trying not to cry.
Behind the bakery window, Bradley Hayes was still laughing with the blonde woman in the cream coat.
“You got fat.”
Three words.
That was all it had taken to make Chloe feel twenty-four again, standing barefoot in Bradley's bathroom while he pinched the side of her waist and told her she would “thank him later” for being honest.
She had not thanked him.
Eventually, she had left him.
Or at least that was the version Chloe preferred to remember.
The truth was uglier.
Bradley had left first, after three years of slowly convincing her she was lucky anyone wanted her at all.
Now Chloe pressed one palm against the firm curve beneath her sweater.
“I know what you are,” she whispered.
The baby shifted.
A tiny flutter.
Her mouth almost curved into a smile.
Then a black SUV stopped at the curb.
Leo Moretti emerged before the tires had completely stopped moving.
At thirty-five, Leo possessed the kind of presence that made strangers instinctively create space around him. He did not raise his voice. He did not need to.
His charcoal overcoat darkened beneath the October rain.
His eyes settled on Chloe.
Then on the bakery.
Then on her face again.
“Get in.”
“I can take a cab.”
“You’re shivering.”
“It’s October.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I had noticed.”
For half a second, something almost resembling amusement touched his eyes.
Then it disappeared.
Leo opened the rear door.
Chloe looked through the bakery window.
Bradley was facing her now.
He had seen Leo.
More importantly, he had seen Leo holding a car door open for her.
Bradley's expression changed.
Chloe felt a strange satisfaction she immediately hated herself for enjoying.
She climbed inside.
Leo followed.
The door shut.
Silence wrapped around them.
Leo's driver pulled away from the curb.
Only then did Leo notice the bakery bag.
“You wanted a Danish.”
“I bought one.”
“You took one bite.”
“You've become disturbingly observant.”
“I've always been observant.”
“Yes. Usually when determining whether someone is lying to you.”
Leo turned his head.
“Are you?”
Chloe stared out the rain-streaked window.
“No.”
“Who was he?”
She considered pretending she didn't understand.
Leo waited.
That was one of the unnerving things about him.
Most powerful men filled silence because silence threatened them.
Leo used it.
“My ex.”
“Name.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm asking.”
“That isn't a reason.”
“It usually is.”
Chloe sighed.
“Bradley Hayes.”
Leo's eyes remained on her.
“What did Hayes want?”
“Nothing.”
“What did he say?”
Chloe squeezed the paper bag.
“Leo.”
“What did he say?”
She looked at him.
“He said I got fat.”
Nothing moved in Leo's face.
That was worse.
“That's all?”
“He gave me some exercise advice.”
Leo glanced toward the front seat.
Chloe caught the movement.
“No.”
“I haven't said anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was thinking.”
“Don't think at Bradley.”
This time Leo definitely looked amused.
“He embarrassed you.”
“He tried.”
“And?”
“And I bought my Danish.”
Leo's gaze dropped.
Not to the pastry.
To her stomach.
The sweater hid most of the curve if Chloe stood carefully, but sitting made concealment impossible.
Something changed in his expression.
Not possession.
Not quite tenderness.
Fear.
She had seen it only once before.
The morning Dr. Ellis had confirmed the pregnancy.
Leo Moretti could stare down men twice his size without blinking.
But an image the size of a bean on an ultrasound monitor had rendered him completely silent.
The SUV turned north.
“Where are we going?” Chloe asked.
“Ellis.”
“My appointment is tomorrow.”
“It was moved.”
“By whom?”
“Me.”
“Of course.”
“He called.”
That caught her attention.
“Why?”
“Your bloodwork.”
Her hand moved instantly to her stomach.
Leo noticed.
“It's routine.”
“Then why did he call you?”
“He called both of us. You didn't answer.”
Chloe searched her purse.
Her phone was dead.
“Oh.”
Leo's voice softened.
“Nothing is wrong.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
The honesty frightened her more than reassurance would have.
Forty minutes later, Chloe lay beneath white examination lights at the private Westchester clinic while Dr. Aaron Ellis moved the ultrasound wand slowly across her abdomen.
Leo stood near the monitor.
He always stood.
Even when chairs were available.
“Sixteen weeks,” Ellis said. “Measurements look excellent.”
Chloe released the breath she had been holding.
Then the room filled with sound.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Fast.
Strong.
Alive.
Leo moved closer.
Chloe watched him instead of the screen.
The first time they had heard the heartbeat, Leo had said nothing for almost five minutes.
Later, she had discovered him standing alone in the clinic hallway.
His hands had been trembling.
Today he controlled himself better.
Barely.
“Heart rate?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
“And Chloe?”
“Also doing well.”
Leo's eyes narrowed.
“You hesitated.”
Ellis blinked.
“I breathed.”
“You hesitated before saying she was doing well.”
Chloe covered her face.
“Leo, please don't interrogate my obstetrician.”
Ellis smiled nervously.
“Her iron is slightly low. That's why I requested the earlier appointment. Nothing alarming. We'll adjust her supplements.”
“How low?”
Ellis told him.
Leo asked three more questions.
Chloe finally interrupted.
“I'm pregnant, not negotiating a hostile takeover.”
Leo looked at her.
“I'm aware.”
“Are you?”
Ellis quietly excused himself to print her updated instructions.
Chloe wiped the gel from her stomach.
Leo remained beside the bed.
“You frightened him.”
“He's a physician. He'll recover.”
“You frighten everyone.”
“Not everyone.”
Their eyes met.
Chloe understood what he meant.
She looked away first.
Four months earlier, she had entered Leo's private casino prepared to sacrifice almost anything to save Danny.
Her younger brother had borrowed money.
Then borrowed more money to repay the first debt.
Then, in a moment of spectacular stupidity, stolen eighty thousand dollars belonging to a betting operation connected to Leo.
Chloe had expected violence.
Instead Leo had listened.
She remembered standing before his desk, hands shaking.
“How much time does he have?”
“Your brother?”
“Yes.”
Leo had closed the file.
“That depends on you.”
The sentence should have terrified her.
What followed had been stranger.
The old families surrounding Leo's business empire wanted continuity.
An heir.
Leo wanted no arranged marriage and no woman tied to him merely because several aging men considered bloodlines more important than happiness.
He had proposed something clinical.
Legal.
Controlled.
A surrogacy arrangement.
Chloe would be compensated generously.
Danny's debt would disappear.
Everyone would walk away alive.
Lawyers drafted documents.
Doctors were selected.
Boundaries established.
Then came the night before the medical procedure.
Chloe had accused Leo of treating human beings like transactions.
Leo had accused her of pretending she felt nothing.
They had argued.
Then kissed.
Everything carefully planned afterward became irrelevant.
The pregnancy happened naturally.
Neither of them ever discussed that night without finding reasons to stop.
Dr. Ellis returned.
He handed Chloe a folder.
“Everything looks good. I'd like to see you again in three weeks.”
Leo nodded.
Chloe glared at him.
“I'm the patient.”
Leo looked at Ellis.
“She'll be here.”
Chloe grabbed her coat.
Outside the examination room, she stopped.
“Do you ever intend to let me make decisions?”
Leo stopped too.
“About your body? Always.”
“My appointments?”
“If there is a medical concern involving you or the baby, I'm going to be involved.”
“The contract doesn't say that.”
Something dark moved across his face.
“Forget the contract.”
Chloe stared.
That document had governed every day of their lives since the pregnancy began.
“What?”
Before Leo could answer, a man appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Marco Bellini.
Leo's security chief.
Marco almost never looked worried.
He looked worried now.
He approached Leo and handed him Chloe's ultrasound envelope.
The same envelope she had carried from the bakery.
“You dropped this outside,” Marco said.
Chloe reached for it.
Marco didn't release it.
“There's something you need to see.”
He turned the envelope over.
Chloe froze.
On the back, written in black ink, were six words.
WE KNOW WHO THE FATHER IS.
Her stomach tightened.
Leo's voice became frighteningly quiet.
“Who touched this?”
“No idea.”
Marco handed him a tablet.
“We pulled the bakery security feed.”
A paused image filled the screen.
Bradley stood behind Chloe at the counter.
His hand was near her purse.
And between two fingers was a black marker.
Chloe stared.
Leo pressed play.
Bradley leaned toward her bag.
But before the video could show what he did, another figure entered the frame.
A man Chloe recognized immediately.
Her throat closed.
Leo looked at her.
“You know him.”
Chloe could not answer.
The man turned toward the security camera.
May you like
It was Danny.
And he was looking directly into the lens.
