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Author: Wunmi Ijaola
last update publish date: 2026-08-18 02:40:18
“So,” Kessia said slowly, “when were you going to tell me you’re getting married?”

Mia’s mouth opened and closed twice before anything came out. “I was going to tell you tonight. I just needed a minute first.”

“A minute.” Kessia’s arms stayed folded. “You’ve been gone three hours and you come back engaged. Forgive me if I need more than a minute to catch up.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Then tell me what it is, because from where I’m standing it sounds like the billionaire you robbed just bo
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  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   56

    They spent that evening arguing, gently, carefully, about how to respond, Mia watching Mateo wrestle with something far more tender than any threat Vance or Hale or Sinclair had ever posed."What if it's a trick," Mateo said, pacing the study for the third time in an hour. "What if whoever's funding this wrote that letter themselves, used a half brother I never knew existed as bait to get close to us.""It's possible. It's also possible he's exactly what he says he is, someone who spent years afraid to reach out and finally found a reason brave enough to push past that fear." Mia kept her voice gentle, aware of how raw this particular wound sat underneath everything else he'd survived this year. "You won't know which until you actually talk to him."They arranged a video call two days later, security monitoring the connection carefully in case it traced back to anything dangerous, and when the screen finally resolved into a man's face, Mia felt Mateo go rigid beside her at the resembl

  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   55

    “Something’s wrong at the house,” Mia said, already standing, chair scraping loud against the floor.Genevieve’s face shifted instantly, alarm replacing the careful vulnerability of moments earlier. “That’s not me. I swear to you, whatever’s happening right now isn’t my doing.”“Forgive me if I don’t have time to sort out who to trust right now.” Mia was already moving toward the door, security falling into step around her, phone pressed hard against her ear as she dialed Mateo directly.He picked up on the first ring, voice tight and urgent. “Mia, stay where you are, we’ve got it handled,”The line cut abruptly, replaced by silence, and Mia’s blood went to ice standing on the sidewalk outside a cafe three miles from her daughter.“Drive,” she said to the security agent beside her. “Now.”The ride home passed in a blur of terror, every red light an eternity, and when they finally turned onto the property, Mia’s stomach dropped at the sight of two unfamiliar cars abandoned at odd angle

  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   54

    “Your brother,” Mia said carefully, watching the woman’s visible terror with a strange, uncomfortable recognition. “She’s threatening him.”“She’s had him working off a debt for two years now, ever since our mother’s medical bills became more than either of us could handle alone.” Marguerite’s voice cracked entirely. “I didn’t want to do any of this. I needed the money, and then I needed to protect him, and every small thing I agreed to made the next thing harder to refuse.”Mia felt something complicated twist in her chest, anger and recognition sitting uneasily side by side. She knew this particular trap intimately, the slow, grinding logic of desperation that made betrayal feel like the only available choice.“Call Alvarez,” Mateo said quietly to Mia, though his eyes stayed on Marguerite, something calculating replacing the fury of moments earlier.“Please,” Marguerite said, voice small. “I would never have hurt that baby. I held her every night for two weeks. I couldn’t.”“I belie

  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   53

    “You want acknowledgment,” the Chairman said slowly, “for a partnership you tried to sabotage the moment it stopped serving whatever criminal connections you brought into it.”“Careful, Emeralds. I could say the same about the version of history you’ve spent thirty years telling everyone who’d listen.” Genevieve’s composure didn’t waver, though something sharper flickered behind her eyes. “I was twenty six years old and the only reason this company survived its first two years. You erased me because it was convenient, not because it was true.”“You introduced men into our early meetings who threatened violence when I refused their terms.”“I introduced men with resources you were too proud to accept on anything but your own terms. There’s a difference between organized crime and simply being willing to take risks you weren’t brave enough to take yourself.” Genevieve’s voice had gone colder now, thirty years of rehearsed grievance finally surfacing in full. “You built an empire on my e

  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   52

    “Thirty years,” Mateo said, pacing the length of the nursery with barely restrained fury. “Thirty years, and my father never once mentioned a business partner who might still want this company badly enough to orchestrate everything we’ve survived this past year.”“Maybe he doesn’t know,” Mia said carefully, adjusting Everly against her shoulder as the baby stirred slightly at the tension in the room. “Or maybe he’s spent so long erasing that part of the company’s history he genuinely convinced himself it didn’t matter anymore.”They brought the recording, captured discreetly on Mateo’s second phone the moment he’d recognized the call was serious, to the Chairman that evening, and watched his face age visibly through every minute of Genevieve’s calm, devastating monologue.“Genevieve,” he said finally, voice hollow. “I haven’t heard that name in decades.”“You knew her,” Mateo said. It wasn’t a question.“She helped me start this company. That much is true.” The Chairman’s hands trembl

  • Oops! I Signed A Baby Contract   51

    Mia took the phone with hands still trembling from exhaustion, and the message on the screen made the small, perfect bubble of the last two hours crack straight down the middle.Congratulations in advance. I’ve waited a long time to meet the next generation of Emeralds Group. I’ll be in touch soon.“When did this come in,” Mateo asked, voice gone tight and careful, clearly trying not to alarm the baby now sleeping peacefully against Mia’s chest.“Last night. Before,” Mia swallowed hard, glancing down at Everly. “Before any of this. Whoever sent it knew she was coming before we even left for the hospital.”“That’s not possible unless someone’s still watching this family closely enough to know things that specific.”Detective Alvarez arrived within the hour, expression grim as she read the message twice over Mia’s shoulder.“We thought Constance was the last of it,” she said. “Clearly we were wrong.”“Or she wasn’t working alone either,” Mateo said, exhaustion and fear warring visibly a

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