His jaw hardened.
—Get in. I'll take you.
This time I didn't refuse.
During the journey, he glanced at me several times out of the corner of his eye. He seemed to want to ask me something, but he could never find the words.
I decided to make things easier for him.
—I will not keep the baby.
His hands closed around the steering wheel.
"You don't have to worry," I continued softly. "I won't let this pregnancy interfere with your new life."
The air inside the car turned freezing.
Adrian turned towards me with a fury I had never seen in him before.
—Do you find the idea of having a child with me so unbearable?
I looked at him in surprise.
Adrian Sterling was known for his self-control. In business, he could destroy a company without raising his voice. No one had ever seen him lose his composure.
Until that moment.
I looked down and clutched a corner of my dress.
—And what will happen if I keep it?
He remained silent.
—When she is born, will she have to live as your illegitimate daughter?
Adrian's expression changed completely.
Everyone knew his family's story.
His father had brought his lover and the son he had with her to live under the same roof as his legitimate wife.
Adrian's mother, unable to bear that humiliation, ended his life.
After his death, Adrian was mistreated by his stepmother and tormented for years by his half-brother.
At eighteen, he gathered evidence of the bribes and frauds committed by his own father and handed it over to the authorities.
He himself sent his father to prison.
Three years later, his half-brother disappeared during a trip in international waters. His body was never found.
From then on, no one dared to utter the words "illegitimate son" in front of Adrian Sterling.
His face turned terribly pale.
Then, driven by an emotion that seemed to overpower his reason, he said:
—Elena… keep the baby.
My heart stopped for a moment.
But before I could answer, her gaze shifted away from me.
Adrian was staring at someone standing across the street.
I followed the direction of her eyes.
An elegant woman, dressed in white, waited by the entrance of the villa.
It was the same voice I had heard through Bluetooth.
And when Adrian got out of the car to approach her, I realized that his request to keep our daughter might not have anything to do with me.
PART 2
The woman by the entrance was beautiful in a delicate, almost studied way.
Brown hair, pale skin, a white dress, and a vulnerable expression capable of awakening the protective instinct in any man.
When she saw Adrian, her eyes filled with tears.
—I thought you weren't coming to see me.
Her name was Sophia Bennett.
The woman Adrian had loved before he met me.
The woman who, according to rumors, left him to marry the heir of a European family when Sterling Group was going through its worst financial crisis.
Adrian got out of the car without saying a word to me.
Sophia ran towards him and hugged him.
He did not return the hug.
But he didn't immediately move her away either.
I observed the scene from the passenger seat.
It was curious.
For three years I had imagined that if I ever saw Adrian hugging another woman, I would feel like the world was collapsing.
However, all I felt was tiredness.
Sophia lifted her face.
—Adrian, I didn't know she was with you.
Then she looked at my belly and pretended to be surprised.
