All Chapters of I Ran Away With His Child, the Don Begged Me Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

At a family banquet, I slept with Grayson Moretti, the Don of the most powerful mafia family on the East Coast. The next morning, he put out a citywide bounty hunting the woman who'd disappeared from his bed.I forced myself to look calm and clapped him on the shoulder."What if she's carrying your kid?"I watched his closed eyes.Grayson lifted his lids.His irises were the deepest ice blue, the fireplace flames dancing in them."Bastard or not, she's done." He tipped the pills into his mouth and washed them down with whiskey. "I want this woman erased from New York."The glass hit the oak table with a dull thud."Cheap perfume. Trash. Not worth my time."He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his mouth."Sloppy work. Has to be one of Fontaine's pawns. They actually think climbing into my bed gets them the South Side docks?"My fingers curled against my belly, nails digging into my palm. "Maybe she wasn't after the docks."Grayson sneered."If it's not the docks, it's money. Anyone w

Chapter 2

The family's private clinic was quiet, with only the soft beeping of the machines."Six weeks. Your uterine wall is unusually thin, and it's congenital. If you terminate, there's a high chance you'll never carry again."The doctor paused."This is probably your only chance to be a mother."Twelve years ago, when I was eight, Grayson brought me home from the orphanage to the Moretti estate.That day, he leaned down and told me: this is your home now. Nobody hurts you anymore.I pressed my palm flat against my belly.I pushed open the door to the main hall.Camille Fontaine was inside, on her toes, fixing Grayson's tie. A cloud of expensive perfume hit me at the door.The Fontaines and the Morettis had been locked in a cold war in New York for twenty years.This marriage was a truce hammered out by the two old men at the top, and Grayson was just a piece on the board."Grayson, the board's pushing. We're setting the wedding for the sixteenth, right?"Grayson didn't answer. His eyes went

Chapter 3

I was done.Shaking, I got hold of Mia. I had to run, and I had to run fast.She didn't ask, just said, "I'll set it up."My phone screen lit up on the desk.An anonymous text.I opened it.The image was blurry, but I could still make out myself: drugged, staggering out of the Meridian suite, my back to the camera.Camille had pulled that night's surveillance from the Fontaine archives, restored it, and was using it to blackmail me.Quinn, don't even think about taking Grayson from me.The second he saw a clean version, it was over.He'd be sick to look at me, and he'd throw me in the East River himself.Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets.Eleven-thirty at night. I heard Mia arguing with the guard outside my door.She smashed a vase to pull the hallway security off.I shoved the window open, and the rain instantly soaked me through.I slid down the drainpipe on the second floor. My palm tore open on the metal, blood smearing along it.The second my feet hit the ground, there w

Chapter 4

Footsteps came down the hallway, fast and chaotic.The door blew off its hinges and slammed into the wall, dust raining down.Grayson strode in.His eyes swept the surgical table, swept my face, and stopped."It's you."Not a question.He walked to the table and looked down at me. His voice dropped low."The Meridian. That night. It was you."I didn't say anything.The anesthetic was already crawling up my veins."Why did you run."He gripped my chin, forcing me to look at him."Run from what."His eyes were that deep ice blue, and right then they looked like they were going to burn through me."You slept with me. You should have come to me, not disappeared."I closed my eyes."Gray. Let go.""The baby."His voice caught for a second, like he was forcing himself to finish the sentence."I don't care whose it is. You're keeping it."I opened my eyes and looked at him."What did you say.""You heard me."He let go of my chin and sat down beside me, his movements going gentler."You slept

Chapter 5

Grayson stood in the doorway, his eyes nailed to my face.The muscle at the corner of his eye twitched, and his fingers curled at his sides without his realizing."Quinn."He said my name, his voice raw, like something was lodged in his throat.I took a step back, holding Claire, my shoulders hitting the chipped wall."You've got the wrong person."I turned my face away to avoid his eyes.Grayson laughed coldly.He crossed the room in two strides and seized my wrist.His grip was crushing, like he was about to break my bones."Wrong person."He bit out each word. The blood vessels in his ice-blue eyes were bright red."I'd know you if you were a goddamn pile of ash."Claire was terrified by his movements. She wrapped herself around my neck and burst into tears."Mama. I'm scared."She buried her face in my neck.Grayson froze.His eyes slowly slid to Claire's face.Her eyes were red from crying, and those ice-blue eyes and high, straight nose slammed right into Grayson's line of sight.

Chapter 6

Grayson actually moved in.Ryan took a few of the bodyguards and drove the Bentley out of sight.Before he left, he had a folding cot brought in and wedged right next to my single bed.The room was already tight, and now there was a six-foot-two man in it. Even breathing felt crowded.At ten p.m. I tucked Claire in and pulled the blanket up to her chin.Grayson was sitting on the squeaking cot in a gray sweatshirt that didn't fit him.Ryan had grabbed it from the thrift shop in town.He had a stack of merger documents in his hand, reading by the dim lamp."What exactly do you want."I stood by the bed, watching him."Reading."He didn't look up."I'm asking why you're staying here."I kept my voice down, afraid of waking Claire."You're the Don of the Moretti family. You've got a mansion in Manhattan, and you're crammed in a shack with me."Grayson closed the file and looked up."I'm afraid the second I leave, you'll fake your death again."He held my eyes."You're never out of my sigh

Chapter 7

Late autumn rain always came out of nowhere.That evening, Claire suddenly spiked a fever.Her temperature hit 104, her little face flushed bright red, and she slipped into unconsciousness.I panicked, grabbed her, and ran into the rain.Grayson took her out of my arms and wrapped her in his overcoat."To the town hospital."He was already running.The Bentley tore through the storm, ran three red lights, and skidded to a stop at the ER entrance.In the exam room, they gave Claire a fever shot and started her on an IV."Acute pneumonia."The doctor looked at the chart."This child has a weak constitution. Was she premature?""Yes."I stood by the bed, holding Claire's burning hand.Grayson stood behind me, eyes on Claire, his jaw set hard."We're moving her."He pulled out his phone."I'm calling a chopper. Top private hospital in New York.""No."I cut him off."They can treat her here.""Quinn."He kept his voice low."You're going to risk her life to spite me."We were locked there

Chapter 8

By early the next morning, Claire's fever had broken.I walked out of her room and saw Grayson against the hallway wall. His eyes were red-rimmed from the long night, and there was dark stubble across his jaw.When he saw me, he pushed off the wall and almost stumbled, because his legs had gone numb."How is she."He couldn't meet my eyes. His voice was wrecked."Fever broke."I walked past him toward the washroom.He followed two steps behind."Quinn."He said my name, with something close to begging in it."Come back to New York with me. I'll get Claire the best care money can buy."I stopped and turned."Back to do what."I looked at his bloodshot eyes."Back so you can confirm I was the woman that night and decide what to do with me? Or back to deflect Camille while you marry her?"His face went white."There is no Camille."He spoke fast and urgent, pulling a folder out of his coat and holding it out to me."I broke the Fontaines five years ago. Camille's in a psychiatric ward. Sh

Chapter 9

Winter in our Maine town came in thick. Snow piled past your ankles, and the wind cut to the bone.I pushed open the wooden door and saw Grayson sitting on a tiny stool, helping Claire with her kindergarten math.He was in his thirty-dollar gray sweatshirt, a pencil in his hand, brow furrowed over a workbook."Three apples plus two apples equals how many."He asked it patiently.Claire chewed on her finger, thinking hard."Five."She announced it loudly."Smart girl."Grayson smiled and ruffled her hair, his eyes soft.For the first time, there was real warmth in those ice-blue eyes.I stood in the doorway watching them.For half a year now, Grayson had done everything he said he would.He hadn't gone back to New York, and he hadn't reached out to anyone in the family.He walked Claire to and from kindergarten every day. He helped me in the bakery. At night, he slept on that folding cot.He was patching what he'd broken five years ago, slowly, with his hands."You're back."He stood up

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