“Couldn’t I?” she asked. “She was always a little… intense when we talked about relationships. I thought she was just being protective. Turns out she was jealous.”
She closed her laptop.
“I lost twelve clients today,” she said. “Twelve. That’s more than half my regular work. I don’t know how I’m going to pay rent, let alone prepare for a baby.”
“Let me help,” he said immediately.
“No,” she said.
“Natalie—”
“I said no,” she repeated, her voice firm. “I won’t be the woman who needs to be rescued, who takes money from the father of her baby because she can’t support herself. That’s exactly what everyone says I am. I won’t prove them right.”
“No one—”
“Everyone thinks it,” she said. “The articles, the comments, the messages I’ve been getting—they all say the same thing. That I’m a gold digger who got pregnant on purpose to trap you. If I take your money now, I’m just confirming their worst assumptions.”
He wanted to argue. Wanted to tell her he’d take care of everything. That money didn’t matter.
But he could see the stubborn set of her jaw, the fierce independence in her eyes.
He loved that about her.
He wasn’t going to trample it.
“Then let me fix the media,” he said instead. “I’ll hold a press conference. I’ll set the record straight. I’ll explain that Charlotte leaked false information.”
“So you look like you’re defending your ‘baby mama’?” she asked tiredly. “That’ll go well.”
“I don’t care how it looks,” he said.
“Well, I do,” she replied. “I care that your mother already thinks I’m after your money. That your siblings are wary. That everyone in your world expects me to mess up.”
“My siblings aren’t wary anymore,” he said. “Ben texts me constantly asking how you are. Jasmine wants to know if the baby is a girl so she can teach her about ocean life.”
Natalie blinked.
“Really?” she asked.
“Really,” he said. “They like you. They respect you. You stood up to my mother. You refused money. They know who you are.”
His phone rang.
Marcus.
“What?” Carter answered.
“Sir, you need to see the news,” Marcus said. “Right now.”
Carter pulled out his phone and opened the article.
His blood ran cold.
Victoria Sullivan Offers Translator $500,000 to Disappear.
“Oh no,” Natalie breathed, reading over his shoulder. “She didn’t.”
The article described an alleged meeting where his mother had offered Natalie money to leave and never contact him again.
“You know that didn’t happen,” he said immediately.
