Page 65 of The Christmas Cowboy

“You can try. What’s the matter? Can’t stand to hear the truth?”

Between the two of them, Val would put her money on Liam. But fighting wouldn’t solve anything other than to make Trent even more obnoxious. She stepped in before Liam could punch him, grabbing his arm. “Don’t Liam. He’s not worth it.”

“That’s debatable.” But he let go of him. “Don’t say that again or I will finish this.”

“He’s trying to extort money from me.” Once she said it, she winced, realizing that was a dumb thing to tell him when he was already angry.

“What?” He didn’t quite roar the word.

“That’s not what I was doing. I just mentioned that I might be persuaded to sign off on my rights to the kid.”

Liam stared at him as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “You want us topayyou to sign over your rights? Are you for real? God, I knew you were disgusting but this is even more revolting than I thought.”

Trent shrugged. “There’s one other thing you could do.”

“Get out, Trent,” Liam said.

Trent looked at Val and lifted his eyebrows. “You could leave his ass. Then I’d sign off on my rights.”

Val stared at him. “You want me to leave Liam? To raise the baby on my own?”

“I told you, I don’t want him raising my kid.”

“But you don’t want to raise the baby yourself.”

Trent shrugged.

She’d had enough. She launched herself at him, ready to finish what Liam had started. But Liam caught her around the waist before she reached the bastard. “Let me go!”

He didn’t. “It won’t do any good.”

“It would make me feel better.”

Trent laughed.

“You selfish son of a bitch. You’d rather your baby have no father than to have Liam?”

“Think about it.” He left without another word.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked as he let go of her.

“No. I’m…terrified.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Liam, what if he tries to get partial custody? How could I trust my baby to someone like him?” She whirled away from him. “Maybe we should pay him.”

Liam put his hands on her arms and turned her around. “Absolutely not. He’s a piece of shit. Once you give him money it will never be over. He’d blackmail us forever. I think he can change his mind about giving up his rights whenever he wants.”

“Really?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask Marina. There might be a time limit on how long he can threaten that. But whatever she says, I know it’s a bad idea to give him money.”

“We could get a divorce.” A choice that would break her heart.

“Do you want a divorce?”

“No. But if that’s the only choice…”

“It’s not. We can face together whatever the son of a bitch throws at us. Together, not apart.”

*

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