“After I gave birth, I brought my baby to meet the grandpa who raised me — but the moment he saw her face, he burst into tears and said, “This is impossible. You have no idea what you’ve done.” My grandpa was the only father I ever had after my parents died in a car crash. So when I got pregnant at 27 and the man I loved disappeared the same night I told him, Grandpa was the one who held me together. He had never met Caleb. I had kept putting off introducing them, telling …

“For two years?”

“Emily…”

“You listened while I talked about the family my mother worked for. You knew exactly who I was talking about. You let me fall in love with you without telling me you were part of it.”

“I was afraid you’d look at me and see him.”

I glanced toward William.

“And when I told you I was pregnant, you disappeared anyway.”

Caleb stepped closer.

“Not because I didn’t want Nora.”

“Then why?”

His hesitation frightened me more than the answer.

Finally, he spoke.

“The night you told me, I drove straight here. I made him tell me what he’d done to your mother. He confessed.”
William laughed bitterly.

“Don’t make it sound like I volunteered.”

Caleb shot him a look.

“Then he offered me a deal. Stay away from you until the baby was born, and he’d finally release the family trust—one-point-six million my grandfather left me, money he’s controlled since I was nineteen.”