Page 131 of Daddies' Holiday Toy

“Maggie, leave her alone.” Liam comes over to put himself between us both.

She slaps him hard across the cheek the second he’s close enough. The sound ricochets like a bullet.

“Don’t you care get near her! You sick pervert!”

“I’m pregnant!”

It rips out of me before I even know I’ve made the decision to say it.

One second my mouth is clamped shut while trying to wrestle out of my mother’s steel-like grip, and the next it’s just tumbling out of me.

Her lips part, but nothing comes out.

For a long, suspended moment, she’s just standing there, blinking at me, the color draining from her face once again.

When her voice finally comes, it’s small, and almost child-like. “Y-you’re…what?”

I can’t look at her.

My eyes find Jack first, his eyes wide as he stares at me in disbelief.

Then Liam, statue-still, frozen in place with his hand raised to his rapidly reddening cheek.

And finally Reece, still rooted to where he’d been moments before, his jaw dropped and shaking his head like what I’ve just said can’t be true.

I swallow hard, forcing the words out of my mouth before they leave again.

“That’s why I invited you over last night. I was going to tell you then. I just…didn’t get the chance. I panicked.”

The faint hum of the fridge is the only thing that cuts through the silence.

I make myself look back at Mom.

“There’s no point in called the cops. You’ll be wasting their time and ours. Just…please go.”

Her eyes are glassy now, filling until one tear escapes and tracks down her cheek.

She catches it with the heel of her hand, his fingers trembling so hard that she looks on the verge of having a panic attack.

“Oh, my god,” she whispers, more to herself than at me.

I pull in a slow breath, untangling myself from where she’s still gripping my wrist, and take a few steps back, giving myself the space to both move and breathe.

“Mom. I need you to promise me something.”

She stares at me, speechless.

“Do not tell Dad about this. Aboutanyof this.”

“What?” She shakes her head. “Holly?—”

“Promise me.” My voice doesn’t rise, but the steel in it is unmistakable, even with the tremor that threads through the edges of it. I’ve nevereverasked her for anything like this before.

This is the one time in my life I’ll ever do so again.

Her throat works as more tears slip free, cutting quick tracks down her cheeks.

She doesn’t even bother wiping them away. “Fine…I promise.”