Page 154 of Stolen Fate

I nodded. “Because of Elijah.”

“Yes, Elijah. But about a little over a year after he passed, on what would have been his second birthday, I served Camila divorce papers. I didn’t want to stay married to her, and with Elijah gone, there was nothing holding me to her.

“She found me and told me I couldn’t divorce her.”

“Why not?”

“Because she was pregnant with Elliot at the time.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that, because I was sure I wasn’t wrong. Elliot wasn’t Camila’s. He was mine. And Jace obviously didn’t know. I just didn’t know how she got her hands on Jace’s sperm to do the insemination.

“Yeah, oh. But the thing was, I hadn’t touched her in over a year.”

I wasn’t surprised. I licked my dry lips. Jace really had been nothing more than a victim in Camila and Marie’s ploy to keep on living the life of luxury. “How did she tell you she got pregnant?”

“I had my sperm frozen before Camila. It was my mom’s idea. She was worried I wouldn’t want to settle down until I was well into my forties, so she had my sperm frozen when I was in my early twenties.”

“And you agreed to that?”

He shrugged. “I’m a Reed. There are certain things I’m supposed to do as a Reed to ensure the family legacy lives on.”

“You don’t think like that anymore, right?” I asked. Because even the idea that he would want to do something like that with Elliot was turning my stomach.

“No, Evelyn. I don’t believe in doing that anymore.”

I could only nod at that. Jace’s eyes turned dark. “I don’t know how Camila found out about it, and I don’t know what she had done to gain access to it, but she did.”

I nodded. That would explain everything. But then Jace said something that made my blood run cold. “But she lied to me. She didn’t use my sperm on herself. Camila didn’t want to go through another pregnancy. There was nothing she valued more than her body and physical beauty, and she claimed pregnancy nearly destroyed her body the first time.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. “What are you saying, Jace?”

He walked over to me, his hands reaching for me. I flinched, and he paused in his steps. He shoved them in his pocket instead. “Baby, you know what I’m saying. I know you figured it out once you saw Marie here.”

My breath was getting harder to catch, and suddenly, there wasn’t enough air.

“Shit,” I vaguely heard Jace say, before he moved toward. “Just breathe, baby. Come on, listen to my voice, and take a deep breath for me. That’s it. That’s my girl.”

But I wasn’t his girl. Not with this.

I pulled away and I knew he could see the anger in my eyes. “You knew! You knew all along and you still brought me here? F-for what? Amusement?”

I stood up and moved away from him, and Jace tried to follow, but I held my hand out. “No, don’t fucking touch me.” I took in another deep breath, trying to calm down and not lose it in front of him. I didn’t want to lose it in front of Jace. “How long have you known?”

He was silent for a moment or two, and I didn’t think he was going to answer me, but then he said, “Six months before we met, I found out Camila wasn’t Elliot’s mother. The pregnancy timeline didn’t add up and Camila had been evasive from the moment she told me she was pregnant with Elliot. I hired someone to look into it, and sure enough, there was a paper trail. A deposit made into an unknown account in the amount of 150 thousand dollars. It took three more months before I found you.”

“So you knew who I was that first night we spent together?” I laughed a dry humorless laugh. “What a fucking joke. That first night you fucked me, I had been sad about missing another one of Elliot’s birthdays.”

“I had to find out what kind of person you were before I introduced you to Elliot.”

“And after? When you realized I was nothing like Camila?”

I shook my head when he didn’t say anything and tried to make my way out the door. “I didn’t want to let you go. I wanted you with me and Elliot, and I didn’t know how to tell you that I had been following you for months without sounding like a dick.”

“Are you serious? Had you told me three weeks into this job, a month… perhaps I would have understood. I wouldn’t have liked it, but I would have understood that you were trying to protect Elliot. But now? When everything blew up in our faces?”

“I know I fucked up, and I don’t know what I can say to you to make it better. When I saw you, you got under my skin, and I didn’t know how to explain it. You once told me you didn’t believe in fate. But I think I do because I shouldn’t feel this way about you, but I do. I shouldn’t have fallen in love with you, but I did.”

“Love? This is love?”

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