Page 126 of Nash Falls

“It’s obviously not my father’s, so who are—” Rhett stopped and gaped. “Wait a minute. Are you saying…”

She nodded. “When we did it in the massage room. You’re the only man I’ve slept with in the last six months, and that includes your father.”

His face turned red and he said furiously, “Shit, you’re pregnant withmykid? You said you were on the fucking pill!”

“Please, Rhett, don’t be that way.”

“What way do you expect me to be? You wanted to get pregnant, so youseducedme.”

“It wasn’t hard. It never is with you. You jumped me the night before my wedding just because I let you feel me up and French-kiss me when we were alone back at the hotel. You were like an animal. I loved it. But I have to look out for myself.”

“Right, you’re just as selfish as everybody else.”

“I acted surprised when you told me Barton had gotten a vasectomy, but the thing is I already knew.”

“How?”

“Barton got drunk one night and said some things that made me suspicious. I got the code to his wall safe. Some papers were in there that told me. So he couldn’t provide the baby that I needed.”

“You said you didn’t want to get pregnant,” he reminded her.

“I lied. Just like all you Temples lie. A kid was the only protection I was going to have. Absent that, I was going to be stuck with the puny prenup.”

“Puny? Twenty mill was more than you would ever earn in your entire life slopping on makeup and hair spray.”

Her features grew hard. “True, but my expectations changed when I married abillionaire!”

“Have to hand it to you, Min, you’re a sneaky little shit,” remarked a still clearly angry Rhett.

“Come on, this could be a happy occasion.”

He barked. “You’re my stepmother, for God’s sake. And you’re having my baby! What the hell is happy about that?”

“You’re going to be a father.”

“Right, uh-huh. Father by deception, always on my top five things to experience in life. So why do you need me?” Rhett demanded. “It seems I’ve already performed theserviceyou required.”

“Because of theothercondition.”

He shot her a glance. “Wait, of course. You need to prove it’s myfather’sbaby, right? And Dad knew that would be impossible. He screwed you over, Min, without actuallyscrewingyou.”

“But since you’re his son, the DNA shouldn’t be a problem, right? I mean, it’ll show that the father is a Temple. And you can back me up on that, right? You know he couldn’t be the father but you can take care of that part, can’t you? Pay off the doc who did the vasectomy?That’swhy I need your help.”

Rhett looked at her in disbelief. “Mindy, I’m not a scientist, okay? But I think the only people who have the exact same DNA areidenticaltwins. They’ll know it’s not my father’s baby, but they will be able to show that the actual father is related to my old man. And for all I know they may be able to tell that it’s hissonwho fathered the baby. And my father only has one son. Me!”

“Okay, then maybe you can help me give them a DNA sample that is actually yours, but you can say it’s your dad’s.”

Rhett shook his head while rubbing his temples, his expression weary. “Okay, I don’t want to say that you’re as dumb as a fucking rock, Min, but the lawyers are not going to take any DNA evidence fromus. I’m sure they already have a sample of my dad’s DNA, since that was a condition of the inheritance provision.”

Mindy collapsed back in her chair. “Shit, so I’m screwed?”

“Where does the money go if you can’t meet the conditions?”

“To that stupid foundation your father set up,” Mindy lied.

“Great! Thanks, Pops!”

“So there’s nothing we can do?” she said.