He glanced around the kitchen, with its shiny new appliances. “The deposit for this apartment must have been expensive.”
She blinked in surprise. He didn’t know that her uncle Dan had bought this apartment for her? How could he not know? She was sure he would have checked out her background and found out all sorts of things about her family.
Or perhaps that was still in the works.
If it was, then no doubt Matt would discover how wrong he was about this stolen money.
If it wasn’t, no way would she tell him anything. Her uncle Dan had been very kind to her and she loved him dearly, and she wouldn’t repay him by having the Valentes delve into his private life. She knew that her uncle was bisexual, with him married to Aimee but having a gay lover, Julien. It wasn’t common knowledge, and she’d only found out about Julien on their last visit to Australia—the same time Dan had discovered she was pregnant.
She couldn’t—wouldn’t—open Dan’s personal life up for gossip. Not even to prove to Matt that she wasn’t the person he thought she was.
“What? No answer?” he mocked.
She lifted her chin. “You’re wrong about me.”
“I don’t think so.” His eyes hardened further. “Now it’s payback time.”
“Payback?” The fine hairs on her arms rose in warning.
“We’re getting married. For a year, so that my daughter will be known as a Valente.”
Her mind stumbled in shock. She’d never expected him to offer marriage. She didn’t come from a moneyed background, nor was she of good stock. Marriage to Matt Valente just hadn’t been an option.
And she wouldn’t have pushed for that option even if it had been. She’d sworn never to marry for the sake of a child. She wouldn’t make the same mistake her mother had made, she’d promised herself years ago. Megan would not grow up in a hostile household like Lana had. There was nothing as bad as a husband who felt trapped. It brought out the worst in a man.
She shuddered. Her own mother had been pregnant with her when she’d married Lana’s father. Valerie Jensen had loved her husband and she’d prayed he would come to love her in return, only he hadn’t. He’d used that love against her every day of their married live.
Would Matt do the same?
Somehow Lana managed a strangled, “This is ludicrous. You can acknowledge Megan as your daughter without marrying me.”
“No. I want this official. I already have the license for this Friday at three o’clock.” She gasped but he ignored it. “Believe me, Lana, if you try to run I’ll find you and I’ll make sure the judge at the custody hearing learns all about how you stole money, about how you always put yourself first, how you were unwilling to give your daughter the best in life, and how you put Megan’s life at risk by running. I’ll get full custody of my daughter. And that’s not a threat, that’s a promise.”
“You wouldn’t,” she muttered. It was her worst nightmare.
The line of his mouth flattened. “Try me.”
“She’s my daughter, Matt. I carried her and I gave birth to her while you were out sleeping around with other women. You have very little right to her.”
A nerve pulsed near his temple. “I’m her father. But don’t worry. I don’t plan on sleeping with you. We’ll have separate bedrooms.”
“For all your comings and goings?” She shook her head. “I won’t have you parading your girlfriends in front of Megan.”
“I’ll take no lovers for the next year. And that’s out of respect for my child, not you.”
Defeat weighed heavily on her shoulders, but she was determined not to let him see it. She tried to think and could only come up with one thing that might help her.
“Okay, but I’ll only marry you if I can come back to work for you. I want to find the real thief.” She would prove her innocence without bringing Dan into it.
“Do you really think that’s going to happen?” he scoffed.
“I mean it, Matt,” she said, remaining firm but knowing she didn’t have a leg to stand on if he refused her request.
He shrugged. “As you wish. But just don’t plan on stealing any more money from us.”
His comment offended her. “If I wanted to do that I’d steal it from my current job, wouldn’t I?”
He looked surprised. “You work?”
The question would have amused her at any other time. “I have to earn a living somehow.”
“Not anymore,” he dismissed arrogantly. “I’ll support you and Megan. There’s no need for you to work at all.”