Page 216 of Wicked Proposal

“And whose fault is that?” he snaps.

“Yours!” I’m yelling now, but I don’t care. If Eli wakes up, even better—I can get him out quicker if he’s walking. “You forfeited any right to him. Or do you not remember what you did when you found out I was pregnant?”

He averts his gaze. “Let’s not dredge up the past.”

“No, actually, let’s.”

“Mia—”

“You kicked me in the stomach.” The memories come flooding back as if it was yesterday. “You threw me to the ground, stomped on me, yelled that you’d never stand for?—”

“That’s enough.”

“—a bastard child with a whore for a mother. You called me a gold-digger, said he wasn’t yours, and that if he was, I’d better get rid of it or you’d kill m?—”

“ENOUGH!”

His fist connects with the glass wall. Spider cracks spread from the point of impact, ugly and jagged like the line of his snarl. He’s red-faced, panting, eyes bulging, hands twitching like he wants to?—

I step back. One step, just in time to avoid his other hand swiping for me.

“Don’t touch me,” I croak. “Don’t you fucking dare, Bradley Baldwin. Not unless you want your son to see exactly what kind of monster you are.”

His eyes clear at those words. With difficulty, he puts his right hand back down, unclenches his left fist on the glass. “I’m not that man anymore, Mia.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Always so high and mighty,” he huffs. “You want to know what Eli thinks of you? He thinks you’re a fucking liar.”

“Whatever you told him?—”

“I told him the truth. Nothing else.”

His gaze flicks to the sleeping figure on the bed, too drugged to be disturbed by our argument. My heart clenches for him—my son, my world, unable to even hear me. No doubt, this was exactly what Brad wanted.

“The truth is complicated,” I rasp.

“Actually, he didn’t find it so hard to understand.” His sneer is back now, as cold and sharp as the edge of a blade. “You lied to him. You told him I was dead. Apparently, that was a big blow for the little guy. He kept going on about a promise—that you’d never lie to him, or something.”

Guilt pierces me. “It was the only lie.”

“It was enough.” He’s smirking now, victorious. “He doesn’t want to see you anymore. He hates you, Mia. You betrayed him. How can he ever trust you again?”

I want to call Brad a liar.

But I know, in my heart, he’s not lying about this.

Eli’s pure. He’s too honest for his own good, and very strict about it. I’ve been dreading the day we’d have to talk about this—how he’d react, if he’d ever forgive me. I wanted to wait until he was old enough. Until he could understand.

But now, that choice has been taken from me.

“Face it,” he says. “You’ve lost him. He doesn’t want you anymore, and I’m sure as fuck not going to give him back.”

Those words light a fire under me. “Yulian will never let that happen,” I say. “He’s far more powerful than you, and he cares about us. He?—”

“‘Cares’?” Brad barks out a laugh. “Oh, please. Don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Figured out what?”