“Stop it!” he snapped, losing patience with her. “What’s gotten into you?”
“What’s gotten into me?” She drew a trembling breath and yanked off her helmet so that she could wipe unhampered at her eyes. “Oh, that’s rich! Well, let me tell you what got into me, mate. ’Cause I’ve been dying to tell you for years! You want to know about Florian’s father? He was a bastard son of a bitch! A prick! A dick who ran off and got himself convicted of murdering his family and left me alone to deal with his psychotic uncle. Another bastard son of a bitch I was terrified, day and night, would find us and kill my son for the blood that runs in his veins. Just like he did his father’s family and my parents!”
She turned the link on and shoved it into his face. “Florian’s your son, Bastien.”
CHAPTER 10
Bastien sat there, stunned, as he stared into the face of his son. He would deny it as impossible, but there was no way. The kid looked just like he had at that age. Same dark blond hair that had a tendency to appear brown, depending on the light. Same hazel eyes. He even had the same small cleft in his chin.
If not for the modern clothing, he’d swear it was a picture of either him or Quin.
“I don’t understand.”
Ember laughed hysterically. “Those prenatal photos Alura gave you? They were mine, Bastien. Alura told Barnabas I was pregnant and he stole the medical files to fool you. That was your child, and he didn’t die—not even when he almost set the house on fire when he was six. Though I felt like killing him for it. However, the only thing you had wrong was the name of the mother.”
Bastien felt ill as he thought back and remembered the times he’d heard Ember being sick and had attributed it to her being upset by his marriage to Alura. To the fact that he’d noticed she was gaining weight back then, but hadn’t dared to ask about it as his mother and sister had tutored him well on the fact that no man who valued his life, or balls, ever commented on a woman’s fluctuating weight.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She clicked the link off, but Bastien gently took it from her so that he could see more pictures of his son. “I’d just found out I was pregnant the night you asked me to marry you, after you were almost killed and your father threatened us both. I was still reeling from the shock of it all when you sprung the other on me. All I kept thinking was that your parents would force me out of the military the minute they found out I was pregnant, especially if we were married.”
He wanted to deny it, but she was right. His mother wouldn’t have stood for it and his father would have done whatever his mother demanded.
“How did Alura know?”
Her lips trembled. The expression on her face said it was from anger. “I don’t know, but when she found out I was going to tell you about Florian, she ran ahead of me and told you she was pregnant—literally a matter of hours before I’d planned to. I was just waiting for the party to end before I said anything.…”
Because Ember, unlike Alura, would have never embarrassed him in front of his family, or caused more harm to his tarnished reputation with a public scandal.
“She knew I’d marry you immediately.”
Ember nodded. “And I knew your parents would take me into custody if they learned of it.”
For the baby’s safety.
Bastien felt ill over the thought of her going through all that alone. He hated the fact that she’d kept it from him. “Did you tell anyone else?”
“Cin and Kindel knew within an hour of the test coming back positive. It was why I switched wingmen. I was terrified you’d catch on given how sick I was during the first trimester.”
It’d never entered his mind that she might be pregnant. In spite of all the paternity suits he’d been hit with, he’d never impregnated anyone else. Since they’d been using two different forms of birth control.…
He’d stupidly assumed she’d done it only to get back at him or to punish him.
“Is that why you avoided me after my proposal?”
Ember licked her lips. “I was afraid I’d tell you. And you’ve never been able to keep a secret.”
That was true enough. He told on himself even when he didn’t mean to.
Bastien stared at the boy who was a stranger to him as he flipped through her pictures. “You’ve had him in hiding all this time?”
She nodded. “I didn’t dare risk his life. My mother and father covered up my leave so that I could have him in secret. I stayed with him as much as I could when he was an infant, but once you were arrested, in spite of what my dad thought, I knew we were on borrowed time. It wasn’t long after your arrest that I learned my medical files had been hacked by Barnabas. I had no doubt since Rian was the last surviving heir of the direct ruling family that your uncle would be coming for us, so Tasi took Rian to live with her family.”
Bastien was aghast. “Her outlaw family?”