Page 17 of Legacy of Deception

She groaned, swatting my arm. “It’s not like you’re dead. Just do it.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Not by a long shot. Frankly, I’m not as naïve as people think I am. I know that without the connections my family has, I would be screwed.” She wasn’t wrong there. “Let me help you.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“By getting you an agent.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” She flashed me a smile that had a twinge of evil behind it. “Before you know it, you’ll have a job, a husband, and a baby.”

Everything I could have always wanted. “I’ll have the complete package.”

“You have the complete package, and you know it. Whatever the complete package is, anyway.”

“It means we’re going to be late to the christening.” And that I wanted to leave this bathroom that was becoming stifling.

“Don’t tease me like that.”

I clacked my tongue on the roof of my mouth. “Leave it to you to be late to your own funeral one day.”

She gasped. “Impossible. I refuse to have a funeral. I’ll only accept a celebration of life.”

As we moved around the men, I watched my belongings be shuffled out of the house, one packing box at a time. Everything compacted and clumped together to be joined with someone else’s belongings.

Except I didn’t think this was how it was supposed to feel—clinical. It felt required, like something I was doing to check off a list.

“Hey,” I said, getting Capri’s attention as I placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to meet you at the church. I have something I need to take care of.”

“Something or someone?” She raised a brow, her mouth curling up into a knowing expression. “Are you sure you need to do this right now?”

What was I waiting for? It was what it was, and I didn’t think it was changing. If I thought I could be wrong, that it was a false positive, I would have held off and gone to the doctor first. I would be making an appointment with the OB/GYN anyway, but not because I wasn’t sure. “Robert needs to know.”

I wasn’t looking for anything from him, nor did I expect it.

However, facts were facts, and they were pretty clear in that he was the father of my unborn child. Thus, making him privy to the information I had. Information that he could take and do with as he pleased.

After all, someone should be able to decide their future, since I had already been told how mine would be with Marco.

Chapter 7

Don’t be jealous

BROOKLYN

I could count on one hand the number of times in my life I’d felt like my consciousness was separated from my physical body. The first time my father had asked me to do his dirty work, sending me to Ocala, Florida to interfere in a horse auction. I had ended up not only sabotaging the deal but also had gotten tangled up in some illicit drug deal with an addict I had thought was just a trainer. When I had stepped on a pair of open scissors and sliced open the underside of my foot, causing the most blood loss I’d ever seen from a person. That made two. Until the pregnancy test had read positive, making that number go from two to three.

All throughout the drive, I had felt like I was floating above ground, taking everything in, but truly unable to process any of it.

My life was going to change.

That was the only thought I carried with me as I mindlessly got myself to Robert’s place in Lenox Hill. Naturally, Robert needed to know. If my life was about to change, then his should too. Although, I had a feeling that wouldn’t exactly be the case.

I walked up to his duplex in a stunning converted Gilded Age mansion on 73rd Street and took the last step before reaching the door. Before I could knock, though, one of his employees opened the door.

“Good afternoon, Miss Briggs. Please, come in.”