Those two were in love!
That must be why Megumi had told her father about him and Scarlett. So he’d break off the engagement and she’d be free to be with Hiro.
God, how blind had he been?
But at least no real damage had been done. He’d call Hiro after he broke things off with his uncle, telling him to rush to make a huge bid while the man was most open to compensatory offers. Even from someone he considered socially abhorrent.
For his uncle’s sake, Raiden hoped he’d accept Hiro right away. His snobbery, though socially dictated, was starting to grate. If he exercised it on Hiro now that he realized there was mutual love involved, he’d show him his displeasure. He was sure his uncle wouldn’t like to see his displeased side.
“So you just found out?” he asked.
“Megumi first told me three weeks after the ball.”
Raiden’s eyebrows shot up. That far back? The only way Megumi could have found out when he’d still been discreet was through Hiro. Being close to Scarlett, he must have noticed her sudden change of schedule, and all the other telltale signs of a woman being regularly, ferociously loved. Hiro could have also had a report of their garden house meeting and put one and one together. Maybe he’d even followed them to cement his deductions. As for how he’d realized Scarlett was pregnant, she did have all the signs for someone who was looking.
He sighed. “What kept you silent all this time?”
Hashimoto’s dignified face darkened with disapproval. “At first you were discreet, and I thought you’d indulge in this woman for a while before settling down to a life of respectability with my pure daughter. Then you started getting careless, letting our partners and rivals see you flaunting that loose woman everywhere, taking her home with you for all to see. It’s two weeks away from your wedding and I’m sure I just pulled you out of that woman’s arms.”
Raiden sighed again. “Yes, you just did.”
“Is it also right you’ve impregnated her?”
The idea that hadn’t sunk in fully yet, of Scarlett carrying his baby, a miracle baby by all accounts, spread his lips with its intense delight. “That is absolutely right.”
Hashimoto looked at him in such horror, as if he’d just watched him cut off his own arm. “Don’t you realize the magnitude of scandal this will cause?”
Raiden nodded calmly. “It won’t be as bad as you think.”
If he’d married Megumi, then had an illegitimate child with Scarlett, that would have been the stuff of permanent social stigma for the Hashimotos. But breaking off the engagement, even at this late date, for his pregnant gaijin lover... That would only be the stuff of malicious gossip. The most the Hashimotos would suffer would be a period of social ridicule. As for Raiden, he’d leave Japan, never to return. His exit from the scene would soon douse the scandal.
“Raiden-san, I truly expected better from you, far better. I never suspected you’d be so gullible that a woman like that could trick you into such a catastrophic position.”
He pursed his lips. It was time to put him straight and end this. “Ms. Delacroix is a noble, courageous and benevolent woman, Takeo-sama, and I won’t allow even a hint of disrespect toward her. She is the woman I love, the mother of my future child and the one I’m going to marry.”
Hashimoto now looked as if Raiden had hacked off his arm.