Chapter 2

“My daughter is six years old. Where would she even get something like that? Don't think I can't see what you're scheming!”

She snatched up my bag and dumped everything in it out onto the table with a clatter.

Tania picked out a bottle of folic acid and hurled it down hard at my feet.

She whirled on Sebastian and demanded:

“So this is the one you called obedient and sensible, the one who's so good to Nina?”

“Smearing Nina, blaming her for the miscarriage, then playing along about the tubal ligation while she secretly refuses to do it. She's been quietly taking folic acid, prepping to get pregnant this whole time!”

“She just wants to have a son, then throw my daughter out the door and steal what belongs to her, doesn't she? If you dare let her little bastard fight Nina for it, I'll kill myself right in front of you!”

Sebastian frowned, exasperated:

“I never thought that. Say what you have to say properly. Losing your temper in front of the child, what does that look like?”

He didn't blame her for behavior that had no boundaries at all.

He didn't blame her for the way she'd cursed at me either.

Out of habit, he patted her back to calm her:

“Go on back first. I'll take care of it.”

Tania let out a cold snort:

“Of course I'm leaving, and I'm taking Nina with me.”

“So that certain people don't bully my daughter the second my back is turned, without the slightest fear of what they've got coming!”

Fuming, she led Nina, who kept glancing back with every step, into the room to pack their luggage.

The living room fell quiet again.

Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose, worn out:

“Shelagh, you've crossed a line this time. Nina is the apple of Tania's eye. You can be jealous, but you shouldn't have set your sights on the child.”

“The folic acid. I need an explanation.”

“So, have you really been trying to conceive behind my back?”

When he said it, the pressure in his eyes was something I knew all too well.

It was the reproach he reserved for a subordinate who'd made a mistake.

I threw the question back at him:

“And if I have been? Would you still make me get my tubes tied?”

Sebastian's tone turned sharp at once, the words out before he could stop them:

“Not yet, not now!”

Realizing his manner had turned harsh, he pulled me onto his lap and coaxed:

“Tania says that since the divorce, Nina has become very insecure. If we have a baby now, it'll hurt her mental health.”

“So while you're not pregnant yet, get the tubal ligation done first.”

“Once Nina is grown and can take over the company, if you still want one, I can take you to have it reversed, or we can do IVF. By then Tania should feel reassured too.”

Nina was six this year. I'd have to wait twelve years.

And even then it would depend on whether Tania agreed.

Sebastian pressed a soft kiss to the side of my face.

Once I'd been captivated by this tenderness of his, hidden beneath that aloof, high-born coldness.

But in this moment, none of the old flutter was left.

I pulled free of him and stood, laughing at the irony of it:

“So am I going to spend my whole life giving way to your ex-wife and your daughter?”

Sebastian's expression stalled, irritation seeping into his eyes:

“When you married me, didn't you know I'd been divorced and had a daughter? Now you want to make an issue of it. What's the point?”

“When Tania and I split, I was partly to blame too. It's never easy being a single mother. There's no way I could really just leave her to fend for herself.”

Listening to him, all I felt was how absurd it was.

Tania may have won custody, but most of the time she left Nina living here.

After all, Tania was his first love, and they'd been married for a few years.

Even though they'd divorced over clashing tempers, he always carried guilt toward her, and let her do as she pleased.

I was the one working and caring for Nina at the same time. What exactly was so hard for her?

Seeing that we were getting nowhere, Sebastian picked a box of stomach medicine out of the medicine cabinet and headed for the children's room.

His tone was indifferent:

“Calm down first. I'm going to check on Tania. She always gets a stomachache when she's upset.”