Page 50 of The Cruel Heir
Dr. Laz simply turned back, fine-tuning the measurement box. “Given what you’ve told me, and what I’m seeing, you’re six weeks along. Which means the father,” he faced Sterling, voice flat, “is you.”
Sterling’s lips curved, not in surprise but in something darker. “Of course it’s me. Did you really think I didn’t know?” His gaze cut to me, sharp and deliberate. “I wanted to hear you say it, Zara. To watch you squirm. To see if you’d run or lie.”
Air left my lungs in a silent gasp. Sterling looked at me, eyes dark with possession, satisfaction, triumph.
And I? I had nowhere left to run.
STERLING
The drive back to the estate was suffocating, the silence between Zara and me stretching tighter with every passing mile. Each street lamp cast flickering shadows across her face, highlighting the tension in her jaw, and the way her lips pressed together in a thin, unyielding line. Her fingers knotted and unknotted in her lap, a restless energy vibrating through her entire body. She was wound so tight, I half expected her to shatter like glass.
She pressed herself against the door, her shoulders hunched, as if she could disappear into the leather seats. Her breath was uneven, chest rising and falling in quick succession, but she refused to look at me.
I didn’t need her to.
Her silence screamed at me louder than words ever could. She was afraid, not just of the truth, not just of what she was carrying, but of me. The knowledge stung in a way I hadn’t anticipated, but I pushed it down, locking it away with the rest of my feelings she didn’t need to see.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter, my knuckles aching with the force of it. Chadwick. The name burned in my skull, each syllable searing with rage. She thought throwing his name in myface would make me believe it? That I wouldn’t notice how she had flinched when she said it? That I hadn’t memorized every single reaction she had ever given me?
She had been mine for years, whether she admitted it or not. I had taken her apart, and put her back together, more times than I could count. I knew her body better than I knew my own. And yet, she thought she could lie to me?
The second the car stopped in front of the estate, Zara stared at the enforcers.
Before Zara could open the door, Frankie was there, calm and careful, as he offered her his hand.
She hesitated, then took it, shaky, like her legs might give out.
Her voice came soft, barely audible. “Who are they?”
I followed her gaze.
Isaiah and Malachi, my new enforcers, stood to the side of the SUV, dressed in all-black, sharp and silent as blades. Not watching us, watching everything else. That was their job.
“They’re mine,” I said simply. “You don’t have to be afraid of them.”
But she should be afraid of what happens if someone tries to touch what’s mine.
She didn’t answer. Just looked at them again, with the kind of caution you only learn after surviving monsters.
I got out and fixed my suit jacket, about to walk around and offer her my arm when she said, “Bodyguards?”
Her questioning lilt made me want to chuckle, but I held it back.
“Enforcers,” Frankie corrected her. She looked at them again, her chest rising and falling rapidly in panic.
I knew she was going to take off inside once she saw them. Their presence was menacing to say the least. She knew herfreedom was gone, so I let her go. Let her think she still had any control left, that she had choices. Let her run, for now.
Because soon, she would realize she had none.
I exhaled, staring at the house, the weight of what I had to do settling in my bones.
I needed to marry her.
The thought hit me with a force I hadn’t expected, but the more I considered it, the more it made sense. It was the only way to keep her safe, to keep our child protected. And it would ensure that no one, not Chadwick, not our parents, not anyone, could claim her as theirs. I’ve brought this up before, but now was the time to make it a reality.
She was mine. And now, she always would be.
The night air was crisp, a stark contrast to the fire burning inside me. I needed to handle Chadwick first. I needed to erase his name from her lips, from her thoughts. From existence.
