Page 30 of Daddy’s Accidental Babies (Billionaire Baby Daddies #5)
DOMINIC
T he office was quiet, the way it’d been all day. So many times I wanted to get up out of my chair and walk down to Savannah’s office to have our little chat, but I made myself stay put. She would come to me when she was ready. I knew that.
I’d been staring out at the skyline, the glass of whiskey on my desk untouched, the burn of it still in my throat from the previous two glasses I’d had already since seven, when I officially finished work.
The headlines, the silence from Savannah, the way the entire building seemed to buzz with gossip now—I felt all of it crawling under my skin.
David Bennett barged in with the same arrogance he always embodied—his suit jacket rumpled, expression tight with restrained fury, jaw grinding like he was chewing concrete.
I spun around but didn’t invite him to sit or offer him a drink the way I would’ve under other more friendly circumstances.
I stayed behind my desk, arms crossed, every muscle coiled and waiting.
He slammed the door behind him. “What do you think you’re doing with my daughter?” His voice came tight and flat, like he was forcing control he didn’t have. There was no softness, no diplomacy left.
I looked up, meeting his glare without blinking, my own anger barely contained. “You don’t get to walk in here and talk to me like that, David. This is my office.”
“The hell I don’t,” he said, crossing the room in three sharp strides. “You’re using her to make yourself look better, and she’s paying for it. You’re smearing her name through the mud. She’s off-limits!”
I stepped out from behind the desk, squaring my shoulders. “She’s not property, David. She’s not yours to control.”
He pointed a finger at my chest, hand trembling with rage. “You were my friend. You were supposed to protect my daughter, not drag her into this PR circus and into your bed.”
I swatted his hand away. “She’s not a child. She made her own choices.” I wasn’t sure if his accusation about my bed was because of the gossip mill talking or if Savannah had finally broken down and told him, but I wasn’t going to offer facts to fuel his rage.
“She doesn’t know what kind of man you are,” he hissed. “What you did.”
I reached into my top drawer, pulled out the stack of emails Graham had printed out and given me, and threw them down on the desk between us. “No, but she knows who you are. And so do I now.” With this evidence against David, I hoped he would back off, but his reaction surprised me.
His eyes flicked to the pages but didn’t waver. “This isn’t about politics. This is about you crossing a personal boundary I shouldn’t ever have had to worry about.” I could see the rage in his eyes toward me, and it burned hotter than any other argument we’d ever had.
“You’re mad because I didn’t ask your permission?
” I said. “David, Savannah is an adult. You’re treating her like a child, manipulating her into fearing things that aren’t even true, to do what?
Protect yourself?” The situation baffled me.
I understood him being upset or angry about those boys being my children.
I had my own thoughts about it, but I wasn’t going to take it out on her. She had it hard enough.
He stepped in close, breath hot with fury. “You think she’ll love you when she knows everything? You think she’ll still look at you the same after Montauk?”
I didn’t answer. My jaw was locked so tight I could barely breathe as I held back my own anger.
“You think she can forgive that?” he said, voice quieter now but lethal. “You hit a man and drove off, Dominic. If she finds out the truth, she’ll never come near you again.” His eyes grew darker as he leaned in and steepled his fingers on my desk as he glared at me.
“Better she knows it from me,” I said through gritted teeth. “Not from a man who raised her on guilt and political leverage.”
“You paraded her around like she was your trophy,” David snapped. “You put her in the headlines, Dominic. They’re mocking her out there, and when this all ties back to you, to what you did, the whole thing will blow up. What will that do to her career and her future?”
I stepped in until we were toe-to-toe, and he straightened and pushed his chest out at me. “I love her. Can you say the same without qualifying it?”
David’s eyes searched my face as he tried to formulate a reply to me, and I finally figured out what this was all about.
It wasn’t me dating Savannah at all. It was Montauk and what happened.
He was afraid someone was going to start digging into his past because of his political campaign.
Too much digging would lead to unearthing that night and what we did—because it wouldn’t just blow back on me. He’d go down with the sinking ship too.
His mouth opened to reply, but the door burst open. Vanessa didn’t knock. She stormed in like the floor was on fire, her phone held up in front of her.
“We have a problem,” she said in a dramatic tone.
She marched straight to the desk and thrust the phone between us.
The glow of the screen lit up the headlines before either of us said a word.
Her eyes never left mine, waiting for the fallout to start before she even opened her mouth.
The headline glared at me like a warning flare:
DOMINIC KNIGHT’S SECRET CHILDREN? PR DIRECTOR TIED TO SHOCKING PATERNITY RUMOR
Under it was a photo of Savannah holding Cal.
I recognized the apartment building. He was laughing, mid-wiggle in her arms. Next to it, the same photo from an old article I remembered—one of those puff pieces about my father’s company.
I was younger, but it’s obviously me. The editor had cropped it to match the framing of Savannah’s photo. It wasn’t subtle. It was calculated.
“She saw it ten minutes ago,” Vanessa said, breath clipped. “And left the building. Didn’t say where she was going.”
David paled visibly, all the blood draining from his face.
I didn’t move. The air between us thickened until I felt my heart beating in my neck.
Vanessa turned her eyes to me. She lowered her voice. “Is it true?”