The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions Book 5)

by Holly Rayner

  “Of course I do,” Zach said.

  “Then trust that everything is going to be okay,” she said.

  They heard footsteps approaching from the far side of the door. Then the lock turned and the door opened.

  Rhea’s brother Stephen stood on the other side. Though Zach had only met him once, years ago, he had seen photos of him plenty of times around Rhea’s apartment, and he felt as if they were already well acquainted.

  Apparently, Stephen recognized him too. His eyes flicked from Zach to Rhea.

  “Oh, man,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re really doing this?”

  “I’m really doing this,” Rhea said firmly.

  “Dad’s not going to like it.”

  “He’s the father of my child, Stephen,” Rhea said. “Dad’s going to have to deal with it.”

  “What am I going to have to deal with?”

  Zach felt himself grow tense. Rhea’s father had appeared in the hallway.

  Rhea stepped forward slightly. “Dad,” she said. “I’m sure you remember Zach Danes.”

  She sounded so confident, so sure of herself. Zach had never felt more proud of her than he did in that moment.

  “I remember,” Tom Wilson said, his voice frosty. “Why is he here?”

  “Can we come in?” Rhea asked. “I’d rather discuss this in the living room than standing in the doorway.”

  Her father hesitated, and for a moment Zach thought he was actually going to tell her that they had to leave.

  “All right,” he said at length. “Come inside.” He turned and walked away without another word.

  Rhea turned to Zach. “That could have gone worse,” she said under her breath.

  Stephen let out a long, low whistle. “I’d better go get Mom,” he said.

  Rhea and Zach followed Rhea’s father into the living room. By the time they had arrived, Tom was already sitting down, his hands fisted in his lap.

  “Dad,” Rhea said. “Don’t be angry.”

  “If you didn’t want me to be angry, you shouldn’t have brought him here,” her father said.

  “You know we’re having a baby together,” Rhea said.

  “And you know how I feel about that,” Tom said. “I thought we had an understanding. I thought you had agreed not to have any further involvement with him, beyond what was strictly necessary for the sake of your child.”

  “Dad, I love him,” Rhea said. “We’re in love.”

  Her father’s face was like a slab of granite. “I can’t accept that.”

  “You’ll have to,” Rhea said. “I’m an adult. I can make this choice for myself.”

  “And you’re willing to turn your back on your family?” Tom asked. “You’re ready to choose him over us?”

  That was too much for Zach.

  “Why does she have to choose?” he demanded. “Are you saying that you’ll cut her out of your life if she’s involved with me?”

  “Young man,” Tom Wilson said, “are you aware of what your father did to our family?”

  “I’m aware,” Zach said. “And I also know that my father would never have cut ties with me, no matter what I did. No matter who I loved. He always made it clear that I was the most important thing in the world to him. There was nothing I could have done that would have ruined our relationship.”

  Tom flinched, and Zach knew that he had struck a nerve.

  “I know what my father did,” he said. “It was wrong. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make things right between my family and yours, for the sake of my child. But I’m in love with your daughter. And if that means you can’t accept her, then I feel sorry for you, because she’s absolutely wonderful.”

  “Please don’t try to educate me about my daughter,” Tom said. “I’ve known her all her life. How long have you known her?”

  “Not long enough,” Zach said. “It’s one of the greatest regrets of my life that Rhea and I have missed out on so much of what we should have been able to share. We should have remained friends through college and during the years that followed. Instead, we drifted apart and lost track of each other because of a conflict between our parents that neither one of us even knew about.”

  “I know you’re not about to tell me that I was in the wrong for firing your father,” Tom said.

  “Of course not,” Zach said. “He shouldn’t have stolen that formula from you, Mr. Wilson. He can’t make his own apologies, but I know him well enough to know that if he were alive now, he would regret what he did. The most I can offer you is an apology on his behalf.”

  Rhea’s father crossed his arms and said nothing.

  “Dad,” Rhea said. “Come on. Zach is being more than accommodating. And you know that none of this was his fault.”

  “He’s been living for the past fifteen years on money that was stolen from our family,” Mr. Wilson said.

  “The only thing I want now is to put my money to use to help raise my child,” Zach said. “Your grandchild. Surely you must agree that that’s a worthy conclusion to this story.”

  “Dad,” Rhea said. “I know you’re angry. I know you’ve been angry about the theft for years.”

  “It isn’t just about the money,” Tom said. “That was my creation. I worked hard on it. Now I have to see my rival selling it. How would you feel if someone stole the plans for a building you designed and built it in their name?”

  “I’d feel terrible,” Rhea said.

  “And how would you feel if I brought home the person who had stolen your plans and told you they were going to be a part of the family now?”

  “But that’s not what’s happening,” Rhea said. “Zach didn’t steal your formula, his father did. And Zach isn’t the one selling it now. That’s just some other whiskey company. Zach didn’t know any more about any of this than I did.”

  “Mr. Wilson,” Zach said, “I’m sorry about what’s happened between our families in the past. But what I’d really like, what I hope for, is that we can find a way to leave the past behind us. I’m going to be a father. You’re going to be a grandfather. What matters now is this baby, not what’s happened before.”

  He watched Rhea’s father, hopeful that his plea would be heard and understood.

  But Tom Wilson shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you’re not responsible for what your father did, and I don’t want to hold you accountable. But this is something I’ve been angry about for a long time, and I can’t just let it go. I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do at this point.”

  “Dad, please,” Rhea begged.

  “I’m sorry, Rhea,” he said. “I can’t.”

  She squared her shoulders. “If that’s your choice, then it’s on you,” she said. “But I’m going to be with Zach. We’re in love, and we’re going to raise our child together. I came here to ask you for your support, but I’ll do it without you if I have to.”

  Chapter 21

  Rhea

  “What’s going on?”

  Rhea turned toward the door. Her mother stood there, Stephen at her side.

  “This is the young man?” she asked. “The baby’s father?”

  “This is Zach,” Rhea confirmed.

  Zach got to his feet, crossed the room, and extended his hand to Rhea’s mother.

  “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Wilson,” he said. “I don’t know whether you remember having dinner with me when Rhea and I were in college.”

  “I remember.” Rhea’s mother’s voice was cool, but not as icy as her father’s voice had been. “What brings you here today, Zach?”

  “They’re in love, apparently,” Tom said.

  Dana Wilson turned to her daughter. “Is that true, Rhea?”

  “Yes,” Rhea said. “I know it’s not what you and Dad were hoping for, but I think you owe it to me to get to know Zach. He’s a much kinder person than Dad seems to believe he is.”

  “Rhea, nobody doubts that he’s a good person,” her mother said. “That’s not
what this is about.”

  “Then what is it about?” Rhea demanded. “Because I don’t understand how you can hold him responsible for something his father did.”

  “No one’s holding him responsible,” Stephen said. “We haven’t called the cops, have we?”

  “You told me yourself that the only reason charges weren’t pressed was that the recording of the theft was made illegally,” Rhea shot back. “You don’t have the grounds to press charges, even if you wanted to. There’s nothing the cops could do.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Zach said. He turned to Rhea’s father. “I owe you my thanks.”

  “I didn’t do it for your sake,” Rhea’s father said.

  “I understand that,” Zach said. “But if my father had gone to prison for his crime, I would have been alone in the world. Even though you weren’t trying to look out for me, it means a lot to me that that didn’t happen. So thank you.”

  Tom said nothing.

  “Mom,” Rhea said. “Dad. Listen. We know that what Zach’s father did hurt our family. We know that it still hurts our family, even now. But Zach isn’t his father. He would never do anything that would hurt me. And he knows that it would kill me if anything bad happened to anyone I loved.”

  “I wish I could undo what my father did,” Zach said. “If I had some way of making it right, I would.”

  “I’m just asking you to try to see past that,” Rhea said. “It was a terrible thing, but it was a long time ago. And now Zach and I are going to be parents. We’re having a child together. To me, that’s more important than anything that’s happened before. Can’t you set aside the past? For my sake? For the sake of your grandchild?”

  There was a long, painful silence.

  Finally, Rhea’s father spoke. He sounded eighty years old. “You know I’d do anything for you, Rhea.”

  “I know,” Rhea said.

  “I suppose, if this young man means that much to you, I can try to accept him.”

  Rhea’s heart soared. “That means the world to me,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

  “I know I’ve held a grudge,” her father said. “I know I’ve made it difficult for the family to move on from this. And the truth is that, if we had been impoverished, I probably would have done whatever I had to to get money. I would have broken any rule if it meant providing a better life for you and Stephen.”

  “That’s how my father felt,” Zach said. “It’s how I feel too. And I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to a place in my life where I’ll be able to provide for my child without having to worry.”

  “You know,” Tom said, “I liked your father when I met him, Zach. We all did. He seemed like a good and genuine person. And I remember admiring how hard he worked to provide for you.”

  “He worked hard all my life,” Zach said. “He was the hardest working person I’ve ever known.”

  “It must have been frustrating for him to meet us,” Rhea’s father said. “To see how much our family had, and to realize that the daughter of the man he worked for was one of your peers in college.”

  Zach nodded. “I think that was hard,” he agreed. “I think it made him question whether everything he had done for me was enough. He could never hope to provide the kind of life you could give Rhea and Stephen. I remember him being very quiet that evening when we drove home from dinner.”

  “I was sorry to hear that he had passed,” Tom said. “I’ve considered him an enemy all these years, but I do wish he and I had had the chance to make amends.”

  “I think he would have liked the opportunity to apologize to you,” Zach said. “I never knew what he did while he was alive. But he never did seem quite as joyful about the fact that we’d come into money as I would have expected if the money really had come from winning the lottery, the way he told me it had.”

  “Guilt can weigh heavily on a man,” Rhea’s father said.

  “It’s going to weigh on me,” Zach said. “I hope you’ll accept my apology on my father’s behalf, Mr. Wilson. Truly, I wish that none of this had ever happened between our families, and I’d like us to find a way to move forward as one.”

  Tom Wilson hesitated, then held out his hand to shake.

  “I can put the past behind me if you can,” he said. “For the sake of the next generation, and because neither of us deserves to walk around with guilt or resentment in our hearts.”

  Zach shook his hand. “I appreciate that very much,” he said.

  “Shall we seal it with a glass of scotch?” Rhea’s father asked, moving toward the liquor cabinet.

  Zach glanced quickly at Rhea. “Actually, sir… I didn’t know that I’d have the opportunity to speak to you today, but now that we’re here, I’m very glad I do. Do you think you and I could speak privately?”

  Rhea’s father raised his eyebrows. “Privately?”

  “Just the two of us,” Zach confirmed.

  Rhea was puzzled. “Zach, what’s this about?” she asked.

  “You trust me, don’t you?” he asked.

  “You know I do.”

  “Then don’t worry. Stay here and catch up with your mom and brother.” He turned back to her father. “Is there somewhere we could go to talk?”

  “My study,” Tom said. He pulled out the bottle of scotch. “But I insist that you have a drink with me.”

  Zach grinned. “I can agree to that.”

  Rhea watched in confusion as her father led Zach out of the room and toward the stairs.

  “What do you suppose that’s all about?” Stephen asked her.

  “I have no idea,” Rhea said. “I didn’t know he was going to do that. He didn’t know we’d be coming over here tonight until he got home from work. Even I didn’t know that we’d be doing this tonight. I assumed he was going to have to work later. I was going to ask him to come over with me this weekend.”

  “Do you think he’s going to ask Dad for money?” Stephen asked.

  Rhea stared. “What?”

  “I don’t know,” Stephen said. “The money he got from his own father selling our whiskey formula must be gone by now.”

  “He runs a very successful business, Stephen,” Rhea snapped. “He doesn’t need any of Dad’s money.”

  “Have you seen his books?” Stephen asked.

  “Can you try not to be such a jerk?” Rhea asked. “He came here to apologize for what happened between our families. Even Dad has accepted his apology. You should too.”

  “Your sister is right, Stephen,” their mother said.

  Stephen stared at her. “You, too?”

  “We’ve wasted enough time as a family being angry about something that happened a long time ago,” Dana said firmly. “We owe it to each other to try to move past it. It’s hard to see a business rival selling your father’s formula, but the truth is that we haven’t suffered financially for the loss. We’re doing just fine.”

  “That doesn’t make what that man did okay,” Stephen said. “You and Dad have been telling me for half my life what a betrayal it was. He worked for us, and he did this right under our noses. Don’t tell me you’re just ready to let bygones be bygones.”

  “Zach isn’t his father,” Rhea said again. “Give him a chance, Stephen. You’ll like him a lot.”

  Stephen shook his head. “I really thought you had more sense than this, Rhea.”

  “And I thought you had more empathy,” she shot back. “You’ve always been the one person in the world I could turn to, Stephen. I’ve always relied on you to have my back when nobody else did. Now that I’ve finally found love, are you going to turn on me?”

  Stephen closed his eyes. “You know I could never do that,” he said. “But you’re asking a lot.”

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need it,” she said. “He’s the father of my child.”

  “I know,” Stephen said.

  “And I promise,” she added, “if you give him a chance, you won’t regret it.”

  “You’re lucky I love you,”
Stephen grumbled.

  Rhea smiled. “I know I am,” she said. “You’re the best brother a girl could ask for.”

  “It’s for the best,” Rhea’s mother said. “The fact that you’re finally forcing our family to deal with this issue is a good thing, Rhea. We’ve spent years not talking about it. We even kept it a secret from you. It was a poison that infected all of us. Now we can finally move on.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” Rhea said.

  Dana got to her feet. “I think I’ll go find those baby things now,” she said. “I never did have the chance to give them to you.”

  Rhea nodded. “Maybe we can go through them together and Zach and I can pick out what we want,” she suggested. “We’ve already bought some supplies on our own, so there might be some things we don’t need.”

  “You’d be surprised,” her mother said. “Babies go through a lot of things very quickly. I wouldn’t get rid of anything until you’re sure.”

  She started across the room, but before she reached the door, it was pulled open to reveal Rhea’s father and Zach.

  Rhea raised her eyebrows. “Back so soon?”

  “It turned out to be a shorter talk than I anticipated,” Zach said.

  He was smiling, but Rhea was still nervous. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

  “Can you tell me what it was about now?” she asked.

  Zach took her by the hand and led her into the middle of the room. Rhea followed, feeling hopelessly confused.

  That was, until he sank down onto one knee.

  She heard her mother gasp. Her own thoughts seemed to grind to a halt.

  Is he doing what I think he’s doing?

  Zach took her hand. “Rhea,” he said. “I didn’t realize it until recently, but I’ve spent half my life in love with you. I never managed to find love with anyone else, because in the back of my mind I was always comparing them to you, and nobody was ever able to live up. I know now that nobody ever will.”

  She wanted to fall to her knees beside him. She wanted to tell him that she felt exactly the same way. But she was frozen with shock. She had never expected this to happen tonight.

  “Will you do me the incredible honor of becoming my wife?” he asked.