Page 69 of My Big, Fat, Secret Billionaire Baby

Still. He trustsme. Which leaves the other question: can I trust mymother? Diane Taylor,pillar of her community, queen of quiet judgment? The woman whose disappointment in me still feels like a physical blow?

Telling her the father isn’t some anonymous Aussie but Leo Maxwell, billionaire adrenaline junkie… she’ll see him as everything she warned me against, everything my father was, only with nine more zeros in his bank account. She’ll panic. She’ll interfere. She’ll… disapprove even more intensely, if that’s possible.

“Sabrina? Are you there? What’s going on?” My mother’s voice crackles with impatience from the phone.

I take a deep breath. Okay. Leo trusts me. He’s right, she deserves the truth, however messy. And if I can’t trust my own mother, who the hellcanI trust? Maybe telling her, bringing it out into the open, is the only way to start dealing with this avalanche properly. Rip off the Band-Aid. Control the narrative by owning it, warts and all.

I press the unmute button.

“I’m here, Mom,” I say, my voice steadier now, if not resigned. “I’m... with him. I’m with Mia’s father.”

There’s silence on the other end. A heavy, loaded silence that stretches for an eternity.

Then, her voice, barely a whisper, laced with disbelief and dawning horror. “With…him? Sabrina, whoishe?”

I close my eyes briefly. Here goes nothing. “It’s Leo Maxwell.”

There’s silence on the line again. I can hear soft typing. Of course, she has her laptop open. Mom was always a big fan of the desktop version of Facebook.

And Google.

The sharp intake of breath on the other end isaudible even from here. “Leo Maxwell? It says he’s some kind of playboy Venture Capitalist?ThatLeo Maxwell? And...” Another audible gasp. “He almost died BASE jumping in France? Sabrina, no! Oh, honey, no! This is exactly what I was afraid of! A man like that! Reckless, unstable… he’ll disappear! Just like…”

“Mom,” I interrupt firmly, cutting off the inevitable comparison. “It’s complicated. I only just told him he was the father a few days ago.”

“A fewdaysago? And complicated? The worst decision of your life iscomplicated?” Her voice climbs, a mixture of horror and ‘I told you so.’ “Sabrina, what were you thinking? This is a disaster! A man with that much money and power… he could take her away from you with the snap of his fingers!”

“He’s not going to take her away from me,” I say, glancing at Leo who is now openly watching me, though his expression is unreadable. “We’re… figuring things out.”

Liar. We haven’t figured out anything except mutual distrust and potential legal action.

“Figuring things out?” she repeats skeptically. “Does he even want this baby? Does he even wantyou?”

“Mom, please,” I plead, exhaustion washing over me. “Can we not do this right now? It’s… overwhelming.”

“Overwhelming doesn’t begin to cover it, Sabrina!” she retorts. “This is your life! Mia’s life! You need to be careful! Men like him… they don’t change! Don’t let him charm you, don’t let him buy you off…”

Okay, enough. My own protective instincts flare, not just for Mia, but surprisingly, maybe alittle for Leo too? He’s sitting right here, holding our daughter, looking vulnerable, and my mother is painting him as the devil incarnate based on headlines and her own painful past.

It’s not entirely fair.

Even if it’s mostly true.

God, this is confusing.

“Mom, he deserves a chance to know his daughter,” I say, surprising myself with the conviction in my voice. “And Mia deserves to know her father as well, eventually. Hiding it… maybe it wasn’t the right call. But we need to figure out how to navigate this.”

“Navigate? Honey, this isn’t a business negotiation! This is your heart, your child’s future!” She sighs wearily. “All right. All right. Does he… does he seem serious? About being involved?”

I look at Leo again. He’s watching me intently, still holding Mia close. There’s a strange mix of determination and uncertainty in his eyes.

“I… I think so,” I say honestly. “He seems… willing to try.”

“Willing to try isn’t enough,” she warns. “Actions, Sabrina. Watch his actions.”

“I will. And Mom? Please. Don’t tell anyone about this yet. Not Aunt Carol, nobody. Please promise me. It’s... it’s still incredibly new, incredibly complicated. We need time to figure things out privately.”

The plea feels desperate and necessary. The thought of my entire extended family knowing, gossiping, judging... it’s too much right now. Not to mention the implications for Leo should this get out. I’m his PR manager, after all. Temporarily, anyway.

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