Page 24 of Single Dad’s Fake Bride (Billionaire Baby Daddies #7)

SADIE

I heard the rumors before first period started.

Harrison Vale—new headmaster—had been seen with one of the teachers. The whispers followed me down the hallway as I walked to my classroom, fragments of conversation that made my stomach twist.

"—completely inappropriate?—"

"—after hours in the library?—"

"—knew something was going on?—"

I unlocked my classroom door and stepped inside, trying to block out the voices. But the damage was done. The seed of doubt had been planted, and now it was growing roots.

I knew the woman they were talking about. Not well, but well enough to recognize her in the faculty lounge. A substitute teacher covering in the upper grades. Pretty, young, eager to please. The kind of woman who would be flattered by attention from someone in Harrison's position.

Was she the reason he'd kissed me last night? Some twisted way of managing his guilt over sleeping with someone else? Or was he playing both of us, trying to choose the lesser of two evils when picking a mail-order bride?

The thought made me feel sick. I arranged papers on my desk with shaking hands, trying to focus on lesson plans and lunch counts and anything other than the possibility that I was being played by another wealthy man who thought he could have whatever he wanted.

My father had been charming too. Full of promises about the life he was going to give us, the security he would provide. Right up until he decided we weren't worth the trouble anymore.

I'd been so young when he left, but I remembered the pattern. The late nights. The hushed phone calls. The way he'd started asking my mother to trust him even when nothing he did made sense.

Was this the same thing? Harrison insisting our arrangement had to look genuine while he carried on with someone else on the side? A man who had everything handed to him, who'd never had to worry about consequences because his family's money could buy his way out of any situation?

Except Harrison had walked away from that money. Or so he'd told me. But men lied all the time, especially when they wanted something from you. Maybe he'd never given up anything. Maybe he was still the spoiled rich boy who'd gotten his girlfriend pregnant and then scared her away with a prenup.

My students filed in for first period, their backpacks dragging and their voices still heavy with sleep. I smiled at each of them, took attendance, started the day's routine. But underneath the familiar rhythm of teaching, my mind kept circling back to those whispers in the hallway.

The morning dragged by in a haze of math lessons and reading groups.

Every time I passed another teacher in the hallway, I wondered if they knew.

If they were looking at me and thinking about Harrison, about what they'd heard, about whether I was involved.

Because whether or not I wanted it, it was going to come out that I was marrying him.

The board would have our marriage license application soon enough.

During my planning period, I sat alone in my classroom and tried to grade spelling tests. But the words blurred together on the page, and all I could think about was how quickly this arrangement was spiraling beyond my control.

At lunch, my phone buzzed and I picked it up to read a text from Harrison.

Harrison: 11:47 AM: Courthouse at 7 tomorrow morning. We'll tell Eloise afterward, then you can stay for dinner. I'll help you move this weekend. Home health nurse starts with your mother tonight.

I stared at the message until the words burned into my vision. Tomorrow. In less than twenty-four hours, I would be Mrs. Harrison Vale. I would be living in his house, dependent on his income, responsible for his daughter's emotional wellbeing.

The nurse for my mother was already arranged. The moving plans were set. The courthouse appointment was scheduled. Everything was falling into place exactly as we'd discussed.

So why did I feel like I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life?

I thought about Eloise, about the way her face lit up when she saw me each morning. About how she'd started bringing me little drawings and asking if I wanted to eat lunch with her. About the trust in her eyes when she told me about her day or asked for help with a difficult math problem.

What was going to happen to that little girl when this was all over? When the five years were up and I disappeared from her life as suddenly as I'd entered it? She'd already lost her mother and grandfather. Now she was about to gain a stepmother who came with an expiration date.

The thought made my chest tighten. Eloise deserved better than adults who treated her feelings as collateral damage in their legal arrangements. She deserved stability, consistency, someone who would be there for her without conditions or time limits.

How could I do this to her? How could Harrison?

The afternoon crawled by. During science class, we talked about chemical reactions, about how certain elements combined to create something entirely different. I found myself thinking about arrangements and marriages and the unpredictable ways people changed when you mixed them together.

At recess, I stood by the playground fence watching my students chase each other around the jungle gym.

The October air was crisp, carrying the scent of fallen leaves and the promise of winter.

In a few months, these same children would be building snowmen and complaining about having to wear heavy coats.

Would I still be here then? Still pretending to be married to a man who might be sleeping with other teachers? Still trying to convince everyone that our relationship was real while knowing it had an expiration date?

Eloise appeared at my elbow, the way she always did when she wanted to talk about something important.

"Miss Quinn? Are you okay?"

I looked down at her serious little face, at the concern in her dark eyes, and felt tears prick at my own. "I'm fine, sweetheart. Why do you ask?"

"You look sad. And you keep rubbing your forehead the way my dad does when he's worried about something."

The observation was so perceptive, it took my breath away. This child knew me well enough to read my moods, to recognize my nervous habits. In just a few weeks, she'd become attuned to my emotional state in ways that most adults never bothered with.

"Sometimes grown-ups have a lot on their minds," I said carefully.

"Is it about my dad?"

My heart stopped. "What makes you ask that?"

Eloise shrugged, but her eyes never left my face. "He's been different lately. Happier, I think. And he keeps asking me questions about you."

"What kind of questions?"

"About whether you drink coffee or tea. About what books you like. About whether you have any pets." She tilted her head. "I told him you always smell like vanilla and that you never yell at us even when we're being loud."

The simple statement made me smile. Harrison had been asking about me. Personal questions. The kind of details someone wanted to know when they were genuinely interested in getting to know another person. This didn't sound like a man who was sleeping with other women.

Or they could just be the kind of details someone needed to make a fake relationship look convincing.

"Your dad is just being friendly," I said, but the words felt hollow.

"Maybe." Eloise picked at a loose thread on her sweater. "But sometimes adults cry too, you know. My dad used to cry after Grandpa died. But he's been happy lately. Really happy."

A tear slipped down my cheek before I could stop it. Eloise reached up and wiped it away with her small hand, the gesture so tender and trusting that it broke something inside me.

"See? Sometimes, adults cry. That's okay."

Before I could respond, the bell rang and she was off, racing toward the building with the resilience that only children possessed. I followed more slowly, my mind reeling.

Harrison had been happier? Because of our arrangement? Because of the woman he was supposedly seeing? Because he was getting everything he wanted without having to give up anything real in return?

I was almost inside when I heard my name being called. I turned to see a cluster of teachers approaching—Mrs. Evers from second grade, Dr. Sterling from the administration, and two others I recognized but couldn't name.

"Sadie, wait up!" Mrs. Evers’s voice carried the excitement of someone with fresh gossip to share. "We wanted to ask you something."

My stomach dropped, but I forced myself to stop walking. "What's that?"

"Have you heard about Eloise's father?" Dr. Sterling asked, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "About him sleeping with one of the other teachers?"

The words made me feel nauseous. I gripped my classroom keys tighter, feeling the metal bite into my palm. "I don't listen to rumors."

"Well, you might want to listen to this one," Mrs. Evers said. "They say that teacher got fired. Yesterday. Something about inappropriate conduct."

My mouth went dry. "Fired?"

"Completely hushed up, of course. But the office staff is talking." Dr. Sterling leaned closer. "Makes you wonder about his judgment, doesn't it? Getting involved with employees when he's supposed to be running the school?"

Panic shot through me like electricity. If they found out about Harrison and me—if they discovered we were getting married tomorrow—would they think I'd been sleeping with him all along? Would they assume I was just another teacher who'd gotten too close to the new headmaster?

And what if the rumors were true? What if Harrison really was involved with someone else, and I was just a convenient cover story? A respectable facade to hide his real relationship?

"The thing is," Mrs. Evers continued, watching my face carefully, "we're wondering if you've heard anything. You work with his daughter, after all. And he's been around your classroom quite a bit lately."

I could feel them studying my reaction, waiting to see if I would give anything away. My heart hammered against my ribs as I tried to think of something to say that wouldn't make them more suspicious. What would they think when they realized I was marrying him?

"I focus on my students, not their parents," I managed.

But even as I said it, I knew it sounded weak. Defensive. Exactly the kind of response someone would give if they were hiding something.

"Of course," Dr. Sterling said smoothly. "We just thought you should know people are talking. In case you hear anything that might be relevant."

I nodded and mumbled something about needing to get back to my classroom, but my mind was spinning. Tomorrow morning, I was supposed to marry Harrison Vale. I was supposed to move into his house, help raise his daughter.

But what if this was all just a huge mistake? What if he had no noble intention at all and he was really just using me? What if I was about to make myself completely vulnerable to a man who was already proving he couldn't be trusted?

And even if the arrangement was legitimate, how could I take his money when I had no job security? How could I ask him to support me and my mother if the school board found out about us and decided I was a liability? I'd never find work again and when the five year commitment was over, I'd be lost.

The teachers were still talking, their voices blending together in a buzz of speculation and gossip. But all I could hear was my father's voice from twenty years ago, making promises he never intended to keep.

Rich men always thought they could have whatever they wanted. And women like me—women who needed what they could provide—were always expendable when something better came along.

Eloise ran past with a group of her classmates, laughing at something one of them had said. She waved at me through the window, her face bright with uncomplicated joy.

In twenty-four hours, I was going to become her stepmother. And in five years, I was going to break her heart. What the heck was I doing and why hadn't I thought this through more carefully first?