Pregnant and Rejected, Now She’s Back! のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 21 - チャプター 30

SETH POV I watched it from the outside, which was where I had always watched things involving Brynn and Darius, and the view from out here had never been comfortable. He was showing up more than the deal required. I had the calendar because Brynn kept me in everything, had always kept me in everything since the night she showed up at my door with a torn envelope and nothing else, and I could see it in the pattern of events and meetings and the occasional overlap that was too precise to be coincidental. A film industry dinner where his name appeared on the guest list two days after hers. A gallery opening connected to one of his charitable interests that happened to align with her schedule perfectly enough to require forethought. The architecture of a man who has decided he wants more access to someone and is experienced enough to create that access without appearing to have manufactured it. I recognized the architecture because I had watched Brynn use the same skills in reverse

The lunch invitation came through my assistant on a Wednesday morning, carefully worded as a joint business meeting to discuss the next phase of the merger integration.Lena brought me the email with her eyebrows already raised, her expression making it clear she knew exactly who had initiated the request even before I asked.“His office sent it directly,” she confirmed, setting her tablet down on my desk. “Not through the usual channels. Marcus reached out to me personally.”Which meant Darius had told his assistant to arrange this, had specifically requested a meeting that could have easily been handled through our respective teams, had found yet another excuse to manufacture proximity between us.I should have declined.Should have sent a polite response suggesting we handle the discussion via conference call or delegate it to our department heads, should have maintained the careful distance I’d been working so hard to establish.Instead I heard myself telling Lena to confirm the m

The site visit was Darius’s idea, presented through our teams as a necessary step in finalizing one of the production locations tied to the merger.I knew it was manufactured the moment I saw the proposal, knew he’d engineered this exactly the same way he’d engineered the lunch and the chance encounter at the gala.The pattern was becoming obvious and I was letting it continue because stopping it would require acknowledging what was actually happening between us.So I agreed to the visit and told myself it was still part of the plan, still moving us toward the inevitable conversation about Jake that I kept finding reasons not to have.The location was two hours outside the city, a sprawling property that had once been used for period films and was now being considered for a major production in our development pipeline.Darius arranged for a car and driver, which meant it would be just the two of us for the entire day.No assistants, no buffers, no easy escape routes.I should have ins

DARIUS POV She didn't answer. Six days of silence and I was starting to understand what it felt like to be haunted by my own mistakes. I sat in my office long after everyone else had gone home, the city sprawling out below me in a carpet of lights that usually soothed something in me but tonight just made me feel more alone. The photo sat on my desk where I’d placed it that morning after finally admitting I’d been carrying it in my wallet for three weeks. Brynn at a school event, smiling at the camera with her arms around two small children who looked to be maybe four or five years old. A boy and a girl, both with dark hair and features that seemed familiar in ways that made my chest tight. I’d found the image buried in a lifestyle magazine profile about successful women balancing career and motherhood, a piece that barely mentioned Brynn’s past and focused entirely on her meteoric rise in the film industry. The children weren’t identified by name, weren’t discussed beyond a b

Darius went completely still, his entire body freezing in a way that reminded me of prey animals sensing danger, every muscle locked and waiting.I didn’t give him time to process, didn’t let the silence stretch into something he could fill with denial or anger or whatever defense mechanism he’d reach for first.“I have twins,” I continued, forcing myself to meet his eyes. “A boy and a girl. Jake and Julie. They’re five years old and they’re yours.”His face had gone blank, shock wiping away every other expression, leaving nothing but a terrible emptiness that made my chest ache.“Jake is sick,” I said, and my voice cracked on my son’s name despite my best efforts. “He has a genetic blood disorder that’s getting worse. The medication that’s been keeping him stable isn’t working anymore and we’re running out of time.”I watched Darius’s throat work as he tried to swallow, tried to speak, tried to do anything other than sit there staring at me like I’d just told him the world was ending