Page 79 of Bitter Heat

“We were thinking of calling her Maxine for Dad,” Colette said.

Ariana put a hand over her mouth and nodded because she couldn’t speak.

“Polara Maxine,” Jasmine said and shook her head. “Holy shit. She sounds like a terror.”

“You better believe it,” Lyle said as he took his daughter and began to walk around the room.

“It happened so fast,” Colette said faintly.

Colette was emotionally shattered and desperately trying to keep her composure. Jasmine bit back a smile and rubbed her arm.

“It’s all over now.”

Colette took a deep, shaky breath and waved her hand in front of her face as her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Hormones,” Ariana said sympathetically and handed her a tissue.

Colette’s eyes followed Lyle for a moment before she said, “Lyle, I want her.”

Colette, the cool-headed drill sergeant, was desperately in love, and it was a beautiful sight. Ariana stepped out of the room when her phone rang. Jasmine watched Lyle hand the baby back to Colette. He pressed his forehead against hers and whispered to her while he stroked her hair. Jasmine’s heart clenched with painful happiness. She stepped back to give them a moment.

The past two months had been a roller coaster of trials, but this… This was good and pure. Polara started a clean slate for all of them. She was so caught up in the moment that she didn’t realize Ariana was back until she grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room.

“Ariana, what—?”

“He’s here. I just saw him,” Ariana hissed.

“Who?”

“James Roth!”

The warm feelings in her chest began to dissipate. “He is?” She was hoping he’d left by now.

“What’s he doing here?”

She licked her lips. “He… I…” She gave herself a mental bitch slap. “I was on Madison Avenue and ran into him at Black Jade. You know Dai’s shop?”

Ariana blinked. “Yes, I know it.”

“Yeah, so Dai and I were catching up, and he showed up, and then I got the call so he brought me here,” she said as casually as possible. She wasn’t lying, just messing with the timeline and not accounting for everything in between.

Ariana’s brows drew together. “You guys are okay? I thought…”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” she lied and felt her spurt of joy crumple into a ball and sink to the pit of her stomach. Reality was a fucking bitch. “I didn’t know he was still here. I’ll tell him to leave.”

Ariana grabbed her arm. “Colette told me Roth’s willing to talk to us.”

“Yes,” she said cautiously.

“Maybe I should come with you and see what terms he wants to negotiate.”

Her stomach lurched. She hadn’t signed the prenup yet. He wouldn’t negotiate until she did. “I don’t think it’s the right time. Besides, Colette wants to be there too.”

Ariana hesitated and then nodded. “You’re right.” She cupped Jasmine’s cheek. “Thank you for speaking to him on our behalf. You don’t know how much this means to us.”

She gave Ariana a weak smile as her sister slipped back into the delivery room. She looked through the window at her family before she walked down the hallway. Roth was in a small waiting room by himself. He paced around the room with his phone to his ear. He caught sight of her and paused, watching her through the glass.

Roth was destructive, selfish, emotionally abusive, and unflinching in the face of unbeatable odds. He wasn’t the same man she married. That man had been reserved but not cold. Had Maximus hardened him, or had he always been that way and she ignored it? The man watching her through the glass had a detached Hannibal-like quality forbidding enough to make any sane person walk away. Instead, she stayed there while he continued the call, eyes fixed on hers.

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