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“I can’t believe you organized all of this.” Gia smiles widely, and my heart thuds in my chest as I entwine our fingers together. Then she scans the room again, and my eyebrows furrow. This is the third time she’s done this in the span of only five minutes.

The restaurant is high-end, with crystal chandeliers that the candle lights flicker off of and a violinist playing Mozart in the corner of the room. The tone is romantic and elegant, but the way Gia fidgets from side to side and her eyes dart around the room gives away how uncomfortable she is, and I hate it.

I could be anywhere with her. I don’t need any of this, and neither does she.

“Sir, the Pinot Noir 1945 is available,” the server says, and I cast my eyes over Gia and her glass of water.

“I’m good, thank you.”

My eyes narrow, and she bites into her bottom lip, and my cock hardens. Her green eyes twinkle as if knowing my thoughts.

“You can have a drink, Reed. I’m happy to drive home.”

“Absolutely not.” I hold her eyes. “I don’t need a drink. I’m just happy to have you.”

“You already have me. Smooth talker.” She sticks her tongue out at me, and I chuckle. “Thank you for bringing me here, Reed. I love it.” Glancing round the room again, she smiles whimsically.

“Do you?” I lift my eyebrow and lean forward. “Because I’m starting to regret it.” Her face falls, and she darts her eyes away from mine, so I instantly regret my words. I tug on her hand to draw her attention back to me. “Let me rephrase that. I’m regretting choosing here. You deserve better.”

She scoffs on a laugh, then takes in the other customers again. “Pretty sure, you don’t get much better than this.”

“Anywhere with you being comfortable is better than this.” I motion around the room with my hand.

She pulls her top lip into her mouth. “This is the type of place my father would bring me to as a child.” Her eyes meet mine, and there’s so much sorrow in them I could drown in it. My spine straightens, and a newfound determination kicks in.

“Okay, we’re leaving.”

Her eyebrows shoot up, and I push my chair back, throw my napkin on the table, and stand. “Reed? N-no. It’s fine.” A spike of adrenaline floods my veins.

“Come on.” I hold my hand out for her, and the moment her shoulders relax, and relief floods her face, I know I’ve won, and when her hand slips into mine, I feel like everything is how it should be.

“Reed, is that you?” a sneering voice has my stomach plummeting, then I spin to face the one woman I truly cannot stand.

My mother.

GIA

Reed’s body locks up tight, and his hand almost chokes mine.

My eyes roam over the woman before us, with silver hair pinned back into a tight bun. Not a hair out of place.

She has pearls around her neck, and her chin is held as high as her heels, but she barely reaches Reed’s shoulder.

“Who is this?” Her gaze travels over me and latch onto our entwined hands, and I want to hide behind Reed, thanks to the vicious glare she’s throwing my way. Her stare lands on my stomach, then her eyes snap back up toward Reed’s face. “Is she? Is that yours? You’ve got to be joking!” She’s getting louder now. “I bet she’s a gold-digging whore!” I jerk at her words, so familiar and just as cruel. Is this where Reed got his assumptions from?

“Don’t speak to her like that,” Reed snaps back, and my mouth falls open.

His mother’s sharp eyes feel like lasers burning through me as her lip turns up, and she eyes me from top to toe.

“Yes, Mother. I have a baby on the way, and don’t look at my fiancée like that!” Fiancée? My gaze darts to his, but his steely eyes are narrowed in on this mother.

She gasps and throws her arm over her chest dramatically. It’s so theatrical I have to will myself not to giggle.

“You’re just like that bastard you call a brother,” she hisses, and Reed flinches. I squeeze his hand in support. “You’ll lose everything, just like him.”

Reed lowers himself to speak nearer her ear. “Don’t call him that.”

“You’re a letdown, just like him.” Then she flicks her gaze over to me. “He won’t stick around. He’ll want another whore soon enough. Just like his father, jumping from one to the next, leaving all the little bastards behind in boarding schools.”