so independent. She’d had to fight hard to get where she was, and she’d no doubt been wrapped in cotton wool as the child who always underachieved—as well as being told that she was stupid by people who should never have judged her in the first place.
‘And I guess,’ she said, ‘there was a part of me that didn’t want to admit it because then I’d have to admit I wasn’t a real woman—that I’d never be able to give my partner a child of his own.’
‘Ella, being infertile doesn’t make you any less of a woman,’ Oliver said.
‘That’s easy for you to say, being a man,’ she said softly. ‘I knew my parents were desperate for grandchildren and I’d let them down, too.’
‘That’s seriously what they believe?’
‘No, of course not! They said it didn’t matter if I didn’t have children,’ Ella said, ‘but I’ve seen my mum’s face whenever she talks about her great-nieces and great-nephews. Just for a second there’s this wistfulness. She couldn’t have any more children after me, so me not being able to have children meant that she’d never have grandchildren. So she and Da were thrilled to bits when I told them about the baby.’
Oliver was shocked. Hadn’t they agreed to wait to tell their family until she’d got through the first trimester? ‘You’ve told them already?’
‘I’m sorry. I just couldn’t wait,’ she said simply. ‘I know things are tricky for you with your parents, but mine aren’t like that—they’re so pleased.’
She’d thought she was infertile but, because of him, she was having a baby. It was almost like the Justine situation again except there wasn’t any cheating, this time. Justine had wanted the lifestyle and not him. Did Ella want the baby and not him?
He shook himself. But he wanted this baby, too. And, before the Hallowe’en Masquerade Ball, he and Ella had been friends. So maybe they could make this work, the way it hadn’t with Justine.
‘My parents are dying to meet you,’ Ella said.
‘So do I need to ask your father officially for your hand in marriage?’ Oliver asked.
She blinked at him. ‘What?’
‘It’s the practical solution,’ Oliver said. ‘We both want this baby. We get along well, for the most part. So we’ll get married and give the baby a stable home.’
We both want this baby… Get married… A stable home.
But Oliver hadn’t said a word about love. Or actually asked her to marry him.
And all Ella could think of was what Sienna had said about it being better for a baby to have one parent who loved it to bits than two parents who fought all the time. Given the situation with Oliver’s parents, there was a good chance that she and Oliver would fight. A lot.
Marrying her meant he’d get custody of the baby: exactly what his mother wanted.
Even though Ella understood now what might have driven the Countess to take that view, she also didn’t want her life taken over by the Darringtons—to have to give her baby the name they chose, send the baby to the school they chose, and give up her job to take on the role they chose.
If Oliver had said one word to her about love, it would’ve been different.
But he hadn’t. And she couldn’t marry someone who didn’t love her. It wouldn’t be a real relationship. That wasn’t what she wanted.
‘No,’ she said.
OLIVER STARED AT ELLA, not quite believing what he was hearing.
He’d proposed to her—and she’d refused.
‘Why?’ he asked.
‘I’m not marrying you just for the baby’s sake. And I’m perfectly happy for my baby to be an O’Brien.’ Her expression was closed.
‘But—this is my baby, too.’ He looked at her, shocked. ‘Or are you telling me…?’
She blew out a breath. ‘Now I know what your ex did, I can understand why you’re worrying that it’s history repeating itself, but don’t you know me better than that?’
He’d thought he knew her. But maybe he didn’t. And maybe she did have one thing in common with Justine, then: her feelings for him weren’t the same as his for her. ‘I asked you to marry me.’
‘For the baby’s sake.’ She swallowed hard. ‘Like your mother—’ She stopped abruptly.
‘What about my mother?’
‘Nothing.’
‘It doesn’t sound like nothing to me.’
‘All right—if you must know,’ Ella said, ‘she wants the baby.’
‘What?’ He’d never heard anything more ridiculous in his life. His mother didn’t even know about the baby.
‘Provided you have a paternity test first to make quite sure it’s yours,’ Ella continued. ‘And then you’ll sue me for custody.’
This was getting more and more surreal. ‘What? Why?’
‘Because Darrington babies have a position to maintain.’
‘That’s ridiculous. Of course my mother wouldn’t say anything like that,’ Oliver said. ‘And when did she say anything to you? I was with you nearly all the time at Darrington.’
‘Not all the time. Not when I’d gone to splash my face with water.’
‘You’re saying my mother accosted you in the bathroom?’ That definitely wasn’t his mother’s style.
‘She’d been watching me and she’d worked out that I was going green around the lilies. And I was the first person you’d brought there in years, so there was obviously a reason why you wanted them to meet me.’
Oliver shook his head, unable to take this in.
‘Believe what you like,’ she said. ‘But I’m not marrying you.’ She turned away.
Oliver raked a hand through his hair. What the hell was going on? ‘Ella—’
‘I could do with some rest,’ she said.
Because she’d just had a car crash and a nasty scare about the baby. And she’d been here at the hospital all night, keeping Georgie company until Leo arrived from New York.
Of course she could do with some rest. She must be exhausted, physically and mentally and emotionally.
Maybe
