“I’ll do anything you want,” I said. “Anything you need. Just—” I swallowed hard “—marry me.”
He pressed his fingers together. “I want a child.”
My heart paused.
“My father has been demanding one,” he continued, tone cool. “An heir. That’s the only deal I’m offering. Marriage in exchange for a child. Everything else in the contract is negotiable. But that part isn’t.”
My pulse throbbed in my ears. I placed a hand over my stomach, feeling the fragile flutter of life inside me.
“Good,” I whispered. “Perfect timing, actually. I’m pregnant.” For the first time since I walked in, shock flickered across his face. “I was supposed to abort this baby,” I said quietly, “because he isn’t safe with the man I married. But… I won’t. The baby is innocent. And if you need an heir—then we can use this.”
The silence that followed was heavy, intense, cutting.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s get married. When?”
“Tomorrow,” I said without hesitation. “A shotgun wedding.”
I turned and walked out of his office, feeling his eyes on my back until the elevator doors closed.
The hotel room felt too large, too quiet, too painfully safe after the house I’d escaped.