I Love How You Love Me(The Sullivans)(61)

By the barest of threads, Grace held back from punching him in the face. Not just for talking about her as though she were a slut with ulterior motives, but for daring to bring Mason into it. But she knew better—knew that if she so much as laid a finger on him, he’d likely call the police to have her arrested, and she’d be unable to protect her son while dealing with his charges.

“He isn’t yours,” she said first, knowing the truth of it all the way to the depths of her soul. “And he’s at his babysitter’s,” she lied. “But that’s irrelevant, given that you didn’t want to see him before, didn’t even want him to exist. What could possibly have changed?”

He’d looked so confident when he’d greeted her a few moments ago, but now she saw the first flicker of confusion cross the face she’d once been foolish enough to think was handsome. How had she not seen the weakness beneath the veneer of polish learned at the boarding school and Ivy League college his parents had sent him to?

“You’ve changed,” he replied. “You used to be so—”

“Malleable? Na?ve?” She shook her head. “All that changed the minute I realized what you and your family are really made of. What makes you think you have any right to come here?”

“I never thought you’d go through with it. That you’d actually have the kid on your own. But when I saw the pictures of you and him, I realized I already had the son I’ve been trying for with my wife—”

“And you suddenly thought you could change your mind? Well, you’re wrong. You can’t. You gave him up, and he’s all mine.”

“You’re just bitter because I didn’t want you, because I didn’t want to marry you and take care of you.”

A couple of months ago, she might have let him convince her this was true. But now she knew better. So much better that she didn’t even need to argue or to protest that it wasn’t true. When he’d turned away from her when she’d first told him she was pregnant, she had been horrified to realize that he didn’t want to know his child. Worse, that he’d told her to get rid of it without blinking an eye. But now she realized what a gift his disinterest had been, because Mason was a million times better off without the Bentleys in his life.

“You didn’t want to take care of anyone but yourself,” she countered. “Your name is nowhere near the birth certificate.”

“I can easily get a DNA test.”

“I suppose you could,” she agreed. “Although I can’t help but wonder how your wife feels about your plan.” She could see that he was still confused about why she wasn’t yet cowering or giving in to his demands. “Does she even know you’re here?”


“It doesn’t matter what she thinks. She’ll do what I tell her.”

“Even taking on another woman’s child after she’s ‘failed you’ by not being able to get pregnant?” But Grace didn’t need to wait for his reply. “Actually, I’m sure she will, since that’s probably how your entire relationship has been so far.” Grace knew she shouldn’t feel anything for Richard’s wife, but how could she help but feel sorry for someone who was a part of that horrible family? “What about your parents? Have you consulted them about your change of heart?” He flinched, and she didn’t care if it was small of her, she loved seeing it, enjoying his discomfort. “They wanted me and the baby even less than you did.”

All this time she had thought she wasn’t tough enough, wasn’t good enough, but now she knew better. She was strong. She was good enough…and she wasn’t putting up with her ex’s crap for one more second.

“They want an heir to carry on the name,” he told her, but she could see from the uncertainty in his tone and expression that he hadn’t yet run his plans by the senior Bentleys. Which, on the plus side, meant that they hadn’t personally sent him here to take Mason. “Now tell me where the babysitter lives so that I can go see my son.”

“The day you offered me money to get rid of him, he stopped being your son.” She knew it was finally time to play the cards she’d kept so carefully guarded just in case this should ever come to pass. And then, as soon as he got the hell away from her, she’d finally use her defense fund to hire the best custody lawyer to keep Mason safe. “I have proof that your parents tried to bribe me with fifty thousand dollars to abort the baby and then another fifty thousand to never speak of my time with you. I kept the checks they forced on me.”

“This isn’t over,” he said, but even as he said it, she could see that she’d shaken his confidence. First by asking him if his parents—who kept him on a very short leash—knew what he was doing right now, and then by reminding him about the Bentley blood money. “My son is going to want to know who his father is. What are you going to tell him?”

“I won’t lie to him. Not about you, or anything. One day, when he’s old enough, it will be up to him if he wants to see you. But right now it’s up to me. And I don’t want you or your horrible family to have any part in his life.” She moved closer to him, with enough fierce purpose that though she was nearly a foot shorter and he’d come here to intimidate her, he was the one taking a step back. “You are going to go away now and leave us alone. And if you come back at any point without my express permission, I will go to my extensive contacts in the press and expose you and your parents for the kind of people you really are.”