Then let it go. Or she’d stolen it back from him. She’d had cold feet. If he’d been a little more understanding, she might be married to him. He’d been done with her baggage. He couldn’t help her carry it anymore. She couldn’t be mad at him.
She’d done it to herself.
Now here was Amedeo, helping her with very little promised in return. She couldn’t handle it. She wanted to run away from him, afraid she’d be consumed by him. That she’d find out when the baby came that she was no longer there.
Then what would she have? She would be alone and not be there. She’d never have anything to give her child. Nothing to give her clients. How would she make money?
She let out a noisy breath. The driver was waiting for her in a parking spot. He leaned on the hood of the car, staring down at his phone.
She wondered at how simple his life was. Or complicated. It seemed that lack of money and too much money were equally problematic. She sighed, pushing off the wall and walking toward the car.
She needed to see Amedeo. He had to stop. Well, she had to confront him about this. There needed to be a line.
She climbed into the back seat, dialing Kalia’s number. She had no idea what time it was or if Kalia would be free. Her friend answered.
“Hey, Vi. What’s up?”
“Talk me off the ledge.”
“What?”
“I think Amedeo talked to one of my clients and now that person has paid me.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
“I don’t mind if he takes care of me and the baby, but the business is off limits.”
“Why? It’s all part of you. If he helps with your business, it’s part of helping you. That’s all he wants to do. He wants to keep you happy to keep the baby happy.”
“So it isn’t really personal?”
“No, sorry,” Kalia said. “It’s the baby.”
That put her in her place. None of this was about her. It was all about the baby. Part of her was disappointed. Even if she should be relieved. He wasn’t truly focusing on her. He was focusing on the life inside of her.
“So I shouldn’t be upset with him. He’s protecting his child. Like a father should.”
Like her father hadn’t because he wasn’t there for her. He’d left her to fend for herself with her mentally ill mother. What a man.
Amedeo was not that type of man. He was responsible and she was lucky that he was the father of her baby. Her baby was lucky to have Amedeo as his or her father. His. For some reason that gender kept coming up. Was she having a boy?
She’d bet Amedeo would love a boy. One he could raise like himself. Another man in the world like Amedeo wasn’t a bad thing.
Still, she wanted to tell him to back off.
“Exactly, Violet. He’s being a father. More of a father than we’d ever had.”
Kalia’s father had been absent also. He’d been in jail.
At least she knew who her father was. Well, sperm donor. He hadn’t ever stepped up to actually be a father.
“And here I am ready to yell at him.”
“You shouldn’t, Violet. He’s doing what he’s supposed to.”
“Thanks, Kalia. I wasn’t sure about how I was feeling.”
“Anytime. Gotta go.”
Violet tucked her phone into her pocket. She had to see Amedeo. Thank him, maybe for what he’d done. No one had ever treated her like this. “Could we go to Mr. Killiano’s office?”
“Sure, ma’am.”
He turned down a road. She stared out the window thinking about how out of her depth she was with Amedeo. She hadn’t even realized that he was acting like a father. She’d seen no example of it in her life so she hadn’t recognized it. How sad. How sad for her child, too.
The driver let her out at Amedeo’s building. She stared up at it, finally glad that Amedeo was the father of her child. He would make a good father and her child would be so lucky to have him in his life. His. She was calling it a him, for sure.
She didn’t know exactly what it was, but her instincts told her it was a boy.
She wasn’t ready to share that with Amedeo yet.
Chapter5
Amedeo looked at the printout his IT department brought him. Well, just the head of it. Carl Walker stood only five feet six inches tall, but Amedeo would want the man with him in a fight. He was a bull of a man with a thick neck and ham hocks for hands.
He’d been in the Marines and now was the smartest man that Amedeo knew. He’d hired him the day he’d interviewed and hadn’t ever regretted it. In fact, he’d let Carl choose his own employees because Amedeo had that much faith in him.
“You think we’ve been hacked?”