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Chapter 32
So Sorry
Chloe
Gregor has a tight grasp on my hand as the woman before us fidgets in her seat. Her nose and eyes are red from the tears that have been rolling down her cheeks. I can feel Gregor’s patience is running thin right along with mine.
“You’ve come to tell me something, but you’ve yet to spill a word,” Gregor says, his voice still raspy from his cold.
I never did make it back to his room last night. I was exhausted from caring for everyone and warring with my own emotions and thoughts. I found him showered and slowly getting dressed this morning.
When he told me of the call and this woman coming to see him, something within told me to be here for him. He looked as if he were going to come unglued. I hate to think the worst, but I know it will rip him apart to find out that little girl isn’t his.
It hurts to say it, but he’s an amazing father. He’s patient and so attentive when it comes to Chloe, and she adores her father as much as he does her. I think I’ll fly at this woman if she says the wrong words this morning.
“I never wanted to be in the middle of this. Addison thought you would get here in time for her to tell you. She was going to come clean,” she sniffles.
“Come clean?” Gregor growls. “What the hell does that mean?”
“When Addison first asked for my help, I begged her to tell you. She told me everything. None of it was right. I… I couldn’t believe she would do something so… so.” She shakes her head.
“I’m going to need you to spit this out,” I snap.
Gregor squeezes my hand. I clamp my mouth shut and frown. I’m growing annoyed by the minute.
“Chloe isn’t mine?” Gregor asks in a strained voice that has nothing to do with his physical health.
The amount of pain I hear in his voice tugs at my heart. Another large chunk of my armor falls off and floats away. I turn to look at him and his gray eyes look so… afraid.
“No, no. She’s yours,” the woman says as her cheeks turn red. “Do you remember donating…do you remember giving. This is so personal.”
She looks between me and Gregor, licking her lips. She reaches to wipe the sweat from her upper lip. I swear I’m about to take my shoe off and throw it at her.
“You were a sperm donor at a clinic. Do you remember that?” she continues.
“Yes,” Gregor says, moving forward in his seat. “My samples were destroyed.”
Emma—the woman who calls herself Addison’s friend—shakes her head. She looks Gregor in the eyes as she drops a bomb on us both.
“Addison overheard your call to the clinic. She got in touch with them and made arrangements to intercept your instructions. She’d been plotting all along. When you tried to pull away from her, she played her final hand. Karma had the last laugh. She only found out about the cancer because of the pregnancy.
“They advised her to terminate the baby to undergo treatment. I think… I think she was going to try to use the baby to blackmail you into marrying her, but the illness progressed faster than she expected.
“Trying to trap you became less important. I… I just thought you needed to know the truth. She knew you were on to her. You knew something wasn’t right. She feared you would figure it out on your own.
“You never slept with Addison that night to make Chloe. She drugged you in the bar and took you up to your room where you passed out.” She finishes looking back and forth between the two of us. “Even your decision to take her on the trip was orchestrated by her. She manipulated it all.”
“And you came to tell him this now. Over two months later,” I say.
My face is burning with anger. I don’t know who I’m angrier with. Addison for her scheming, Emma for waiting until now to come clean, or Gregor for putting himself in this position to begin with.
“I don’t know why. I just couldn’t return home without telling you this. It didn’t seem right. It’s been weighing on me heavily. She should have told you, but I just couldn’t… I stood outside that hospital room door praying she would tell you before she took her last breath,” she says.
“I want you to go,” Gregor says, the word barely escaping his lips.
His head drops into his palms. I can feel his pain rolling off him. Emma stands, looking like a lost little mess. I nod for the butler to see her out.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmurs before she leaves.
