Semua Bab The CEO's Accidental Baby: Bab 11 - Bab 15

The rain is tapping away at my window, a relentless tapping that matches the pounding in my skull. Since telling Mia about the pregnancy that Liam might have caused, we’ve been smoldering wreckage for two days. Vanessa’s threats have grown eerily quiet, but that only makes my fear more acute, as if she is cocking a gun that I can’t see. I’m Emma Larson, that chick who supposedly has it all together, but currently is a tangled mess of hormones and half-truths, all the while snouting my nose into the rubble of my own secrets.The apartment is becoming smaller, the walls closing in on me as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. Mia’s texts have been relentless, encouraging but urgent: You need to tell him. Today. She's right — I know she is — but the idea of seeing Liam turns my stomach into a pretzel. What if he fires me? What if he denies it? What if he’s not the father, and I’ve self- torch ed my life for nothing? But the proof — the ticket stub, the cuff link, Claire’s cryptic note —

Alex entered the dimly lit room and the atmosphere was palatable. Candlelight from a flickering lantern cast long, dancing shadows on the walls, shrinking the room, making it feel that much more claustrophobic. On the other side of the battered wooden table, Morgan was slouching in his chair, a contented smirk playing on his face, fingers tapping away an irritating beat on the wood. The soft retort reverberating beneath the stillness was a honeyed kiss to the storm spiralling between them.“So, you’ve finally put two and two together,” Morgan said, their voice sarcastic enough to make a slice through the silence.Alex's nails dug into their palms as they struggled to contain it, and they balled their fists. This was no time to waver. Not now, not when everything depended on what came next. “So, you think you’ve won, do you?” Alex spoke evenly, although their heart was pounding like a

My heart was pounding in my ears from the instant I felt the cool gold of the ring sliding over my knuckle. It was too real. Too perfect. Liam's eyes held mine, shorn of all his usual reserve for that moment. The grand lobby of Hawthorne Industries buzzed with anticipation around us — key clients, board members, the local press — but all I could think about was the weight on my finger and the lie we’d agreed to."Welcome home, fiancé," he whispered, quietly enough that only I could hear. Heat crept up my neck. I plastered on a smile. “Thank you, fiancé,” I said, a foreign and thrilling taste in my mouth.A little while later we climbed the wide marble staircase up to the event of the quarter: Hawthorne’s Annual Partners Gala. Here, our game would move from whispered rehearsal to public show. The valet rolled out a red carpet as if for a king. Reporters trained cameras on us. It was like being prey in the spotlight.Crystal chandeliers rained prisms of light upon swaths of midnight-blu