Page 64 of Secret Baby for Dr. Billionaire

“She doesn’t want you, you piece of shit!” I grabbed his collar, and I pulled him to his feet. He struggled but was on his feet in a split second. I heard Chloe run to get Sofi.

“And who do you think you are, huh?”

“Shut the fuck up!” I sneered as I dragged him across the room and towards the door. “The next time I fucking see your face here or anywhere near her, you won’t have one to show. Do you hear me?”

“I’m pressing charges against you, man.” He had the audacity to threaten me in my own goddamn building? He was mistaken.

“Try me, Franklin Hollis, and let’s see if another agency would want to book a molester for their magazine cover,” I challenged as I threw him out the door. He swayed a little but gathered himself immediately, fixing his shirt and staring at me with anger and guilt. “Get the fuck out of here. And I swear to God, if you come to see her again, I’ll ruin your career right here, right now, pretty boy.”

He sneered at me but walked towards the elevator anyway, massaging the part of his face that had met with my fist. I slammed the door so loud that Sofi's screams only intensified.

Regretting it, I looked up at my two terrified girls.

Chloe was sobbing, biting down her lips to stop the sobs from escaping her as she rocked a frightened Sofi in her arms. Sofi’s tiny head was nestled against her mother’s shoulder. As I stepped closer, I could see the way Chloe was shaking, and I could hear the faint wheeze from her every intake of breath. Was she okay? Was she hurt?

The thought of that man touching her made me want to chase after him and bash his head against the wall. But I knew that being violent wouldn’t do anyone any good.

Her words after that only angered me.

“Are you really going to hurt him?” she asked, and it made my blood boil even more. How could she still be thinking about him when he didn’t even have any regard for her own safety?

Obviously, I wouldn’t dare kill him, but I had my way of ruining his career so other companies would hire him. I wasn’t some type of psycho. “I’m not going to fucking hurt him, Chloe,” I promised, my blood still boiling.

Given the look of pain in her eyes, I might as well have stabbed her. More tears escaped her eyes at my query, but there was no guilty feeling that followed. There was only anger. Anger at Franklin for harassing her, Gwen for ruining everything, and Chloe for letting her so-called best friend in her penthouse without me knowing.

And, mostly angry at myself because I was an asshole who hadn’t been here earlier for starting this whole fiasco and thinking that things would be so easy for us after making amends.

Chapter twenty-one

Chloe

Thenightwasquiet—notpeaceful. Quiet. It was the type of silence that made me want to scream. It was the kind of stillness that wanted me to go crazy.

Billy Anne had come earlier, right after school, to say goodbye to Sofi because she was going to spend her weekend at Maggie’s. It was her first weekend away from her sister since the night we told her. She had asked me if she could bring Sofi to meet her cousins and play with them at the beach. Her lips wobbled when I told her it wasn’t a good idea.

God, I hated seeing Billy Anne upset. It was like seeing Sofi upset since they had some identical features. I almost wanted to give in, to agree that maybe it was time to tell Ben’s family about our little secret.

But I was still so frustrated about the whole Gwen thing that I hadn’t talked to him yet. Sure, we saw each other passing, but I didn’t know how to tell Ben I was jealous. What if I told him, and he freaked out, and I never saw him again? He had told me no strings, so no strings.

Sofi had eaten dinner with me that night. It was the second night she had eaten something solid without an upset stomach. She and I had just finished eating dinner when the knock came.

Was it Ben again? He had knocked on my door earlier today, but I was in the middle of breakfast and didn’t know what I was going to tell him.

When the knocking didn’t stop and only got louder, I knew it wasn’t Ben.

“In a minute,” I said, pushing myself from the floor and carrying Sofi to her crib before she could run around the house and bump her head in some random corner.

The knock came again, but I opened the door before the person on the other side could continue to pound.

“Frankie!” His presence took me aback. I didn’t know that Frankie was coming home today.

“Chloe! God, you look beautiful,” he had chuckled, his words slurring. I could smell the stench of alcohol on his breath and the strong odor of cigarettes on his navy shirt.

Frankie occasionally smoked, usually when he was stressed at work or had problems he didn’t want to talk about. He said that too much smoking and drinking affected his skin, and that would mean hurting his career, which was why it was odd that he was showing up here trashed.

My first instinct was to tell him to leave and put Sofi to bed. The way Frankie and I had ended our conversation last time told me that we might end up in a screaming fight, and that would upset Sofi. I had reached today’s quota for upset children.

But Frankie was my friend, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him to leave, especially in this state. He must have taken a cab since his car was in the basement.

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