Chapter 80

Lila’s POV

The room still felt heavy, as though Drew’s confession hadn’t just settled into the air but into the walls themselves. The silence that followed was suffocating, pressing against me until I wanted to crawl out of my own skin.

He sat there, shoulders slumped, fists still clenched, eyes dark and far away. For the first time since I had known him, Drew Sinclair didn’t look invincible. He looked human. Fragile, even.

I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, him staring at the floor, me staring at him with tears drying on my cheeks. The weight of what he had shared clung to the room like smoke, refusing to lift.

Drew finally pushed himself up from the sofa. His movements were slow, deliberate, like each one cost him more strength than he had. For once, he didn’t carry the sharp edge of a man in control, he looked hollow. Empty.

“I’m going to retire for the night,” he said quietly, not meeting my eyes. “I… I need to rest.”

My lips parted, something in me aching to reach out, to stop him from disappearing behind another closed door. “Okay,” I whispered, the word small, fragile. Then before I could stop myself, I asked, “Will you have dinner at least?”

The question came out too soft, laced with worry I hadn’t meant to expose. He didn’t even pause. Just shook his head once. “No.”

That one syllable carved a line straight through me.

He adjusted his shirt like a man putting armour back on, straightened, and added, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” His voice was calm, but it carried the kind of finality that slammed doors without needing to slam them.

I sat there, frozen, as his tall frame retreated down the hall. The sound of his door clicking shut was quiet, almost polite, but it thundered in my chest.

And just like that, I was alone.

The penthouse was too still. Too wide. The only sound was the faint hum from the air conditioner and the soft tick of the wall clock. Normally I found the quiet calming, but tonight, it felt like a punishment.

I sank back onto the sofa, hugging my knees to my chest, and let my thoughts crash into me like waves I couldn’t escape.

I had been so wrong about him.

I thought I understood Drew Sinclair. I thought I had him figured out. All these while I classified him as arrogant, controlling and cold. A man who thrived on walls and distance, who shut people out simply because he didn’t care to let them in.

But tonight, the mask slipped. Tonight, I saw the wound underneath.

And now… I couldn’t unsee it.

His pain was so raw, so sharp that it still lingered in the room, echoing in my ears with every word he had spoken. Kimberley. The child. The betrayal that had carved the man he was today.

He wasn’t just ruthless for the sake of it. He wasn’t just cold because he enjoyed it. He was bleeding, had been bleeding for years and no one had noticed.

My chest ached as I replayed his words. The sonogram. The ring he never gave. The life and family he thought he was building. And then the way it was all ripped out from under him.

And here I was.

Keeping his child from him.

My hand went instinctively to my stomach. The gesture was automatic now, a part of me, like protecting her was second nature. But tonight, the touch burned.

What was I doing?

His first child had been taken from him before he could even hold him. And me? I definitely wasn't aborting our baby, there's no way I would even think of doing that. But wasn’t hiding her just another kind of theft? Another way of snatching his family from him before he even had the chance to see it?

Tears stung my eyes.

I had reasons, God knows I had good reasons. I was scared and was in so much pain and I thought he was going to reject me and the baby. I didn't want my child to feel unwanted so I thought it was best to not tell him.

I told myself I was protecting her and protecting myself. But after what I saw tonight, none of those reasons felt good enough anymore.

Drew wasn’t the man I thought he was. Beneath the walls and the sharp edges, he was someone who would love, protect and cherish this baby growing inside of me.

He would be a good father. I knew it now.

Keeping that privilege to be a father once again from him wasn’t just unfair. It was cruel.

I buried my face in my hands, sobbing into the quiet. My chest hurt with the weight of it, with the realization of what I was doing.

I couldn’t repeat history for him. I couldn’t be another Kimberley.

The thought made bile rise in my throat. I remembered the brokenness in his eyes when he said she had snatched his child away, and my stomach twisted so violently I thought I might be sick.

I can't do that to him.

But how?

How could I tell him?

I imagined it, the conversation. Me sitting him down and saying the words out loud: “Drew, you have another child. My child. Our child.”

How would he look at me? Would he see me as just another liar? Another betrayer? Would he hate me for keeping it from him this long?

I curled into the sofa tighter, my thoughts unraveling like thread.

I couldn’t imagine his reaction. I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing disappointment, fury, or worse betrayal in his eyes when I finally confessed.

But I couldn’t keep this from him either.

I had to tell him.

I wiped my face roughly, trying to steady myself. My hands trembled as they dropped into my lap. I would tell him. I would find the words, no matter how much it hurt. He deserved to know.

Still, another thought sliced through me, colder, sharper.

The launch.

His launch was days away. The event he had built everything on. If I told him now, if I dropped this truth on him when he was already raw from reopening old wounds, what would it do to him? Would it break him again right before the moment he had been building toward for a long time now?

I couldn’t risk it.

I couldn’t be the reason his empire collapsed on the eve of its triumph.

I breathed in sharply, pressing my fingers into my temples. No. I would wait.

Not forever. Not long. But until the launch was over.

After the launch, I would tell him everything. I would hand him the truth no matter how heavy it was, no matter if it destroyed whatever fragile thing we had left.

He deserved to know his child. How would he even feel when he finds out that Max had the opportunity to even see the child before him. This was just too much and a very tough decision to make but I have to do it.

And whatever happened after, whether he forgave me or turned his back on me forever I would take it. At least I wouldn’t be robbing him of his child anymore.

The decision settled over me like a vow. Heavy but certain.

I leaned back into the sofa, staring at the ceiling, my chest tight with a mix of relief and dread.

But even as I tried to convince myself I had made the right choice, a whisper curled through my mind, cold and merciless.

The look in Drew’s eyes tonight, the fire, the grief, the scars Kimberley left told me one terrifying truth, that when the truth finally came out, nothing between us would ever be the same again.