Clara smirked at him. "You don't want to get married, and I don't either. Why chain ourselves together just because of a baby?"
"Don't you want this child to have every advantage money can buy?"
She scoffed. "Of course I do. But how many kids get born into golden palaces like yours? Plenty of poor kids make something of themselves, while silver spoon brats might still turn out worthless."
"So you'd condemn your child to grow up fatherless? Have people pointing fingers at you forever—just like they whispered about your mom?"
Clara's fists clenched.
The memories came flooding back—that dingy apartment complex where she'd grown up. The neighbor women sneering behind their hands, calling her mother a slut, suggesting she was some random man's mistake.
Then there were the uncles. Their ga
