Chapter 6 - The Father of Abigail’s Baby
For the first time in weeks, Abigail slept six uninterrupted hours.
Then someone knocked on her hotel door.
She checked the monitor.
A man stood outside.
Tall.
Brown hair.
Navy suit.
Her blood went cold.
Daniel Mercer.
The father of her child.
Abigail opened the door only halfway.
“What are you doing here?”
Daniel smiled as if he had not disappeared five months earlier.
“I saw the news.”
“Of course you did.”
“I’ve been worried.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“Abby—”
“Don’t call me that.”
His smile disappeared.
Daniel had been charming when they met.
A financial consultant with polished shoes and easy promises.
They dated for ten months.
When Abigail became pregnant, Daniel had stared at the test and said:
“I’m not ready.”
She had answered:
“Neither am I.”
But Abigail had meant they would figure it out.
Daniel had meant he was leaving.
Now he looked past her into the expensive suite.
“So Romano moved you in.”
“Temporarily.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“I always knew you’d land on your feet.”
Something about the sentence disgusted her.
“You should leave.”
“I’m the baby’s father.”
“You remembered quickly.”
His expression hardened.
“I have rights.”
Abigail froze.
There it was.
Not love.
Leverage.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel.”
He exhaled.
“My firm works with Sinclair Holdings.”
Everything became clear.
“You’re here because Richard sent you.”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Richard thinks you’re confused about what you heard.”
“I was nineteen, not hallucinating.”
“He can make this easier.”
“For whom?”
“For you.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Two million dollars.”
Abigail stared.
“Walk back your statement. Say Matteo pressured you. Take the money and disappear.”
She almost laughed.
Instead she reached behind the door and pressed the security button Matteo’s team had installed.
Daniel did not notice.
“You could raise our daughter anywhere.”
Abigail’s eyes sharpened.
“I never told you it was a girl.”
Daniel stopped.
Silence.
“How do you know?”
“I assumed.”
“No.”
She backed away.
“You’ve been looking at my medical records.”
“Abigail—”
The door opened wider.
Luca appeared from the hallway.
Daniel’s face changed.
“Mr. Mercer,” Luca said pleasantly, “you should choose your next sentence very carefully.”
Daniel left without another word.
But he had already made a mistake.
The entire conversation had been recorded by the suite’s security system.
Within hours, investigators had another connection between Richard Sinclair and an attempt to silence Abigail.
Matteo was furious.
Not loudly.
That was worse.
“I want him nowhere near you.”
Abigail crossed her arms.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“He threatened custody.”
“He implied it.”
“He took money from Sinclair.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“We will.”
Abigail sighed.
“Matteo, I appreciate you protecting me.”
“But?”
“But I need you to understand something.”
He waited.
“I spent my whole life having people decide what was best for me because they had more money, more power, or a louder voice.”
She stepped closer.
“I’m not trading Richard Sinclair deciding my life for Matteo Romano deciding it.”
The words landed.
Matteo looked away.
For a moment, Abigail worried she had gone too far.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
She blinked.
“That was suspiciously easy.”
“It wasn’t easy.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“I simply prefer surviving arguments with you.”
She laughed.
And something shifted.
Later that evening, they ate takeout in the suite because Abigail refused another expensive restaurant meal.
Matteo stared suspiciously at a carton of noodles.
“You own restaurants,” she said. “Surely you understand noodles.”
“Not these noodles.”
“They cost eleven dollars.”
“That explains my concern.”
She threw a napkin at him.
He caught it.
Then her baby kicked.
Abigail stopped.
Matteo noticed.
“What?”
“She’s moving.”
He looked at her stomach.
A strange softness entered his face.
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.”
Another kick.
Abigail laughed.
“She’s apparently angry about dinner.”
Matteo hesitated.
“May I?”
The question surprised her.
Not because he wanted to feel the baby.
Because he asked.
Abigail nodded.
Matteo placed his palm carefully against the side of her belly.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the baby kicked directly beneath his hand.
Matteo’s eyes widened.
Abigail burst out laughing.
“You look terrified.”
“I’ve been shot at with less concern.”
Another kick.
His expression changed.
Wonder.
Pure, unguarded wonder.
Abigail stopped laughing.
Their eyes met.
Neither moved.
Then Luca entered without knocking.
He stopped.
Looked at Matteo’s hand.
Looked at Abigail.
“I can come back.”
Matteo immediately stood.
“What?”
Luca almost smiled.
“We found Daniel’s payment.”
The humor disappeared.
“Sinclair transferred one hundred thousand dollars through a consulting company yesterday.”
Abigail closed her eyes.
Daniel had sold his unborn daughter’s mother for one hundred thousand dollars.
Matteo watched the hurt cross her face.
He wanted to say something.
Instead, Abigail’s phone rang.
Dr. Carter.
She answered.
Her doctor sounded concerned.
Abigail had missed an appointment that morning.
“No, I didn’t,” Abigail said. “It’s tomorrow.”
Silence.
Then Dr. Carter said:
“Someone called yesterday and canceled it.”
Abigail looked at Matteo.
“Who?”
“We assumed it was you.”
Luca was already moving toward the door.
Then Dr. Carter added:
“There’s something else. A man came to the office asking which hospital you plan to use for delivery.”
Abigail stopped breathing.
“Did you tell him?”
“Of course not.”
“What did he look like?”
The description matched no one they knew.
But security footage did.
An hour later, Luca froze a frame.
Matteo recognized the man immediately.
Abigail did not.
“Who is he?”
Matteo stared at the screen.
“Richard Sinclair’s former head of security.”
Abigail’s hand moved over her belly.
May you like
And for the first time, this was no longer about what she had witnessed eight years ago.
Someone was planning for the day her daughter would be born.
