Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires, #2)(63)

I inclined my head. “She’s fine. She’s at school.”

“She’s my daughter,” he said in a rush. “I don’t give a damn what the test says, I feel it in here.” He pounded on his chest twice. “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have the same genes. I don’t give a shit. And I know there has to be a good reason why you said she was mine. Talk to me, Skye. Explain, like I never gave you a chance to do last night. I shouldn’t have left. We’ll get through this if you swear never to lie to me again.”

He’s actually going to give me another chance? He’s willing to accept Maya as his daughter even though he thinks she’s not biologically related?

I was stunned, and my tears were falling freely down my cheeks all over again.

“Are you as in love with me as I am with you?” I asked before I could censor my words.

His eyes were wild as he answered, “Crazy in love, Skye. Insanely in love with you. We have to work this shit out or I’m not going to be any use to anybody ever again. It’s that bad.”

I started to bawl like a child. “I love you that way, too.”

Aiden got up and lifted me out of my chair, and then took us to the living room. He sat on the couch with me sprawled on his lap.

I sobbed tears of relief onto his chest, letting him shoulder the pain that had been eating me up.

He stroked my back, murmuring incoherent words of comfort in my ear.

Years of pain, fear, and sorrow were being released, and I couldn’t stop. I cried until all of those negative emotions were completely gone.

And Aiden did nothing except support me.

It was crazy that he seemed willing to accept me, even if I had lied to him about Maya.

But once I’d calmed down, I couldn’t let him continue to think she wasn’t really his daughter. “I called the lab,” I said in a voice weak from having cried for several minutes straight.

“Then you have the test results?” he asked. “I wanted to call them, but I couldn’t find the papers, and I really didn’t give a shit because I was too worried about you and Maya.”

I moved back so I could see his face.

Everything I’d ever dreamed about was there in his eyes.

His commitment.

His desperation.

And his unconditional love.

“Maya is your biological daughter, Aiden. The lab thinks they swapped two samples and labeled them incorrectly. Another guy called them. A man who matched and shouldn’t have. He’s sure the child isn’t his, but he just needed the paperwork to confirm it. Your samples came in on the same day. The results you got were probably his. And he got yours. You need to do a retest, and so does he. But I swear on my life that I was never with anybody but you. And that I was already pregnant when I left for San Diego. It’s not possible for her to be anyone else’s child.”

I could see that he was listening this time, and his gaze was tormented.

“Fuck!” he cursed. “How does that shit happen? And how the hell can I ever make something like that up to you? I called you a liar, Skye.”

I shrugged. “Human error. And if you love me, I give you a pass. I’m not always rational when it comes to you, either. And it meant the world to me that you’d accept Maya even if you knew she wasn’t your biological child.”

“She’s a perfect kid. Why wouldn’t I? I love her, too.”

I nearly went into another crying phase, but I managed to force myself to hold it back this time. “So you believe me now?”

He nodded. “I’ve got my head on straight now. I shouldn’t have ever doubted it in the first place. Tell me what I can do to make it up to you. Please,” he rasped.

I could feel in my heart that he wasn’t doubting what I’d told him. “Just tell me that you love me again,” I insisted. “Because I love you so much it hurts.”

He gently slid me off his lap, stood, and rummaged in the pocket of his jeans.

When he found what he was looking for, he knelt beside the couch. “I love you, Skye. Probably more than I can ever express in words. I need you in my life forever. Just marry me and put me out of my misery, for God’s sake,” he rasped.

He popped open the box he was holding and held it out to me.

It was the most beautiful diamond solitaire I’d ever seen.

I was searching for words. “You don’t have to do this to try to make up for saying some things you shouldn’t have. I was hurt, but I understand why it happened,” I said breathlessly.

“I’ve had this ring in my pocket since we came back from Vegas. That’s how bad I wanted you to be mine. And I still do. Maybe worse than I did when I bought it.”

“I’m already yours.”

“Then maybe I need reassurance,” he said huskily. “You don’t have to start planning the wedding, but wear my ring. When you’re ready someday, then we’ll get married. I know you’ve been through hell. And I don’t blame you for not wanting another husband. But I swear I’ll try to be everything he wasn’t.”

Maybe he didn’t know it, but Aiden was already everything my first husband wasn’t.

I opened my mouth, but I didn’t know how to tell him that there never had been and never would be any comparison.

Aiden was the only man for me and always had been.