The CEO reluctant bride

Chapter5

CHAPTER FIVE: Secrets and Revelations

POV: Judith

Mom died on a Tuesday morning with Mirabel and me holding her hands, and her last words were that she was happy I had found someone to take care of me even though we both knew that was a lie. Benjamin came to the funeral without me asking and stood in the back of the small church, and when it was over he drove us home in silence that felt less hostile than before but still miles away from comfort.

The morning sickness was getting worse, and I could not hide it anymore, could not pretend the crackers and ginger tea were just for an upset stomach, and when Benjamin found me throwing up in the bathroom one morning his face went from concern to shock to something cold and calculating. He insisted on taking me to his private doctor immediately despite my protests, and I sat in that expensive office feeling my whole world crumble as the doctor confirmed what I already knew.

Pregnant, approximately eleven weeks, due in late spring, and Benjamin's face went blank in that terrifying way it did when he was processing information he did not want to accept. The doctor left to give us privacy and Benjamin turned to me with ice in his eyes, asked if I had planned this from the beginning, if getting pregnant was part of my scheme to trap him into marriage.

I was too tired and sad and sick to defend myself, so I just told him the truth, that the baby was from the night in his office weeks before he ever proposed the contract, that I had been trying to find the right time to tell him, that I never wanted to trap anyone into anything. He looked at me for a long moment like he was trying to decide if I was lying, and then he stood up and walked out without another word.

I thought he was going to file for divorce or demand I terminate the pregnancy, thought this was the end of everything, but instead he came back an hour later with his lawyer and a revised contract. The baby changed things, he said in that cold business person voice. We would stay married for the child's sake and present ourselves as a real family, and he would increase my compensation significantly, but I would have no claim to custody if we divorced.

I signed because of what choice I had, and that night Benjamin made an announcement to his parents and the press that we were expecting. Patricia looked thrilled for exactly three seconds before her face twisted into something ugly, and she pulled me aside at dinner to tell me that Morgan children were raised by nannies and boarding schools, that I should not get comfortable thinking I would actually be allowed to mother my own baby.

The media went crazy with the pregnancy announcement and my life became a circus of photographers and reporters camped outside the penthouse, and then one morning I woke up to headlines that made my blood run cold. Billionaire CEO's Secret Wife Is Hartwell Heiress, they screamed, and suddenly everyone knew that I was Richard Hartwell's abandoned daughter, the scandal he had tried to bury for twenty-six years.

My phone exploded with calls and messages from reporters and people I had not heard from in years, and then Richard himself showed up at the penthouse with security and photographers in tow. Benjamin tried to turn him away, but Richard pushed past like he owned the place, and I came downstairs to find my father standing in my living room for the first time in my entire adult life.

He said he wanted to reconcile now that I had married well and made something of myself, said he was proud of me for landing a Morgan even though he always knew I had it in me. The hypocrisy made me want to scream, but I kept my voice level when I told him to leave, that I did not need his approval or his money or his presence in my life after he spent twenty-six years pretending I did not exist.

Richard's face went hard, and he said I was making a mistake, that the Morgans were new money trash compared to the Hartwell legacy, that if I came back to his family he would make me his heir and I could divorce Benjamin and raise my child as a Hartwell. He actually expected me to abandon my husband and my marriage for the father who had abandoned me first, and I laughed in his face before Benjamin physically escorted him out of our home.

That night, the stress of everything caught up with me and I started bleeding, and Benjamin found me on the bathroom floor crying and terrified that I was losing the baby. He carried me to his car and drove like a maniac to the hospital while I held my stomach and prayed to a God I was not sure, I believed in, and for the first time since we signed that contract, Benjamin held my hand like he actually cared whether I lived or died.