Chapter 4

Elliot frowned for a second. Instead of answering Neely's question, he made her a promise.

"I'll marry you. As soon as your body recovers, we'll get married."

If she had heard the promise before the car accident, she probably would've been over the moon.

But now… not anymore.

The baby was gone, and Elliot didn't really love her either.

"I don't want to marry you."

Shock flashed across his dark eyes. "Why? Are you just saying that out of spite?"

His tone was almost lazy. "Stop throwing a tantrum. I know all your ugly baggage, yet I'm still willing to accept you. Think about it. Who else would want to marry you when they find out your parents are serving life sentences, knowing you've had a miscarriage, and seeing your face like this?"

"No one," she answered calmly.

After all, those were some pretty serious strikes against her. But she didn't have to get married.

Over the years, Elliot had been fairly generous to her. He'd transferred three riverfront houses and two cars into her name, along with a couple hundred thousand dollars in cash. Then there was the settlement money paid out by the party at fault in the car accident.

All of that would be more than enough for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life.

"So, marry me," he said, slipping the ring onto her finger without caring whether she agreed or not.

Susie started acting up again. "Go away, you ugly witch! Don't marry my daddy! I don't like you!"

Neely had always been meek and obedient in front of Elliot because she relied on him to survive, and so she wanted to get as much money from him as possible.

But she'd never been a saint to begin with. And right then, she was getting very annoyed with the rude little girl.

So she turned to Elliot and said, "Send her to the orphanage, and I'll agree to marry you."

His refusal was immediate, without even the slightest hesitation. "Absolutely not. She's my only child. And it's not like I'm dead. Why on earth would I send her to an orphanage?"

Her stomach cramped painfully. She knew Elliot liked kids. And if nothing had happened to their baby, it wouldn't be long before he was born. Elliot would have protected him the same way.

But that was never going to happen now.

"Angela gave birth to Susie without telling me," he explained.

The truth was, he thought that Susie had come into his life at a bad time. But the DNA test clearly showed that she was his daughter, so he needed to take responsibility for her.

"You don't have a child of your own right now, so just treat Susie like your own. Wouldn't that work out perfectly?"

Those words stabbed straight into Neely's heart. She stared out the window as tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"You should leave."

He didn't sense anything wrong with her. He simply assumed he'd successfully persuaded her.

"Okay. I'll come back later tonight. We can talk about the wedding."

Suddenly, Susie, who had quieted down, became agitated again. "Daddy, the ugly witch is going to send me to an orphanage! If you insist on marrying her, I'll jump out the window and kill myself!"

Her face was clearly full of fear, but she still ran toward the window anyway. Moving quickly, she stepped onto the couch and tried to jump.

Luckily, the window wasn't open wide enough, so Susie didn't fall through.

Elliot grabbed the little girl and consoled her. "Okay, okay, Susie. Daddy won't marry her. You don't have to worry."

After carrying her out the door, he turned back around and said to Neely in a low voice, "You just had to bring up the orphanage. Now look. We can't have a wedding anymore. It'll just have to be a secret marriage.

"But don't worry. Aside from a big wedding and publicly declaring you as Mrs. Wagner, I'll give you everything else. We can elope, get the marriage registered, and I'll even find you the best plastic surgeon to treat your face.

"So be good and stop making an issue out of Susie. As long as you're as obedient as you were before, I'll keep you by my side for the rest of your life."

Elliot left.

Neely didn't plan on seeing him ever again. She planned to sell the properties in her name and move to a nice, comfortable city, where she'd open a makeup training school. That was how she was going to spend the rest of her life.

But halfway through the sale, the real estate agent called her.

"Ms. Vaughn, the ownership titles for your properties aren't clear, so we can't sell them for the time being."

Immediately after, Elliot's message came through.

"Are you planning on leaving me? I won't let you. Marry me, and I'll unfreeze your bank accounts. You can spend as much as you want. No more delays. We're getting our marriage license three days from now."

Elliot was sharp enough to cut off all her escape routes.

But she wasn't completely out of options yet. She reached out to an industry tycoon that even Elliot had to treat with respect—the elderly Alexander Morris.

"What you brought up to me before… I agree."