might ask about Sky’s parentage, but he didn’t. Maybe her father was right, maybe he didn’t want to know.
“He’s been missing a week?”
“Yes.” She ached just thinking of the empty days and nights since she’d last held him. The hours she’d spent pacing and worrying, wondering who had stolen her son and what horrible things might have happened to him.
What had she done with her time before she’d had a baby? She couldn’t bear to think about going on now, doing mindless paperwork for her father’s investments.
“But you didn’t hear anyone come into the nursery and take him?”
Guilt assailed her as she shook her head. She should have heard something. She should have known he was in trouble. She should have been able to save her son.
“How did someone get past the security on the mansion?”
“I…don’t know.”
He gave her a suspicious look, as if he’d heard the rumors about the Langworthys staging the kidnapping to get sympathy for Joshua and believed them. Then he stepped inside the room, hesitating a second as his gaze scanned the simple decor. The native American border with mountains and bear and buffalo circling the room, the adobe color accented with navy and dark red and greens. Colors that had reminded her of Night and his heritage.
He stalked toward the crib, his trained gaze seemingly scrutinizing every feature.
“Tell me what happened the night he was kidnapped.”
Oh, God, did she have to relive it all again? “I’ve already told the police.”
“I read the report. I want to hear it from you.”
She swallowed, clasping her hands together, trying to block out the worst of the memory as she recited the details. If it helped, she’d tell her story a thousand times. Everything except the evening with Carlton Sanders. “I…I had been out.”
“With Sanders?” His gaze shot to hers with more accusations. Then she realized what he thought, that Carlton was her baby’s father.
She refused to talk about Carlton with Night. Especially with Night. “When I got home, I checked on the baby. He stirred, and I gave him a bottle.”
He simply stared at her, so she cleared her throat and continued. “I put him back down, tucked the covers around him, then went to bed.” There was more, but she couldn’t admit it. Not and watch his face twist with more disdain. He’d already decided she’d jumped straight from his bed to another man’s, when, God help her, the truth was she had never been with or wanted any man except Night.
“And you never heard a sound? No footsteps, door opening, the baby didn’t cry?”
She shook her head. “I was exhausted, I hadn’t been sleeping much, I don’t know how…why he didn’t cry.” Her voice broke off and she looked away, unable to keep the emotions at bay or tell him about the sedative she’d taken. The one she had refused, but the one she suspected their maid, Antonia, had slipped into her tea to calm her from the ordeal with her father and the man he’d wanted her to marry.
Night studied her for a long moment as if he was trying to strip her defenses and read her mind, uncover her secrets. Then he slowly dropped his gaze back to the crib. He ran his strong hands over the edge of the baby bed, stroking the blanket as if it held a connection to him or might offer him answers as to who had taken Schyler. His jaw was a solid rock, his cheekbones so defined her heart squeezed. Her son would share that same profile one day.
“The baby’s name is Schyler?” His voice sounded more hoarse than normal, strains of his Native heritage filtering through.
She nodded, her heart breaking. “North Schyler Langworthy.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. The flare of anguish that deepened his brown eyes to black sucked the air from her lungs.
Now, he knew the baby was his.
He remembered telling her that romantic story about his ancestors.
How could he even think she’d been with another man after that incredible evening?
“I’m sorry, Night…I—” her voice broke, the pain of the last week, of her father’s humiliating accusations the evening Night had walked out of her life resurfacing. Her father had never let her forget the depth of her sins for taking Night to her bed. Especially when he had discovered she was pregnant. And Night had never looked back. She had needed him….
“Did you ever plan to tell me I had a son?”
“I…wanted to,” Holly said, knowing her excuse would sound weak to his ears. But she had to try to make him understand. “You left and you never called, you never came back. I didn’t know how to contact you.”
“You didn’t try.” Steely rage underscored his softly spoken words.
She shook her head violently. In spite of her father’s fury, she had tried to find Night. “I did look for you, but you just disappeared, and then I…I was ashamed that I’d seduced you. You’d told me all along that you didn’t want me, that you would never be tied down, that you were like a wild wolf, free forever.” Her words rushed out, the contempt in his expression seemingly mounting with every word she spoke. “I didn’t think you’d want to be trapped into marrying me. And I was afraid you’d think I got pregnant on purpose.”
He squared his shoulders, fisting his hands by his sides as if fighting for control. “You were going to marry Sanders and let him raise my baby as his? Were you seeing him before the night we were together?”
“No.” Holly felt the color drain from her face. He couldn’t know the truth.
“Did Sanders kidnap the baby? Is he working for your father?”
“What?”
“Did your family arrange this kidnapping to get publicity for Joshua’s campaign?” He pinned her with a look that burned straight through to her soul. “Did you help them or did Sanders? Are you hiding our baby somewhere until after your brother is elected governor?”
She staggered backward at the depth of his distrust. “No,” she whispered. “Heavens, no. I swear it.” Defenses she hadn’t known she possessed flourished, then anger followed. “How can you suggest such a horrible thing? You have no idea the hell I’ve been through. You walked out of here the night we were together and left me alone to deal with everything, my father, the pregnancy. You never once looked back or tried to contact me. What was I supposed to think?”
“I had no idea you were pregnant because you didn’t bother to tell me,” he ground out. “Your family kept it a secret until the baby was kidnapped.”
“They were trying to avoid a media frenzy,” Holly argued. “And Daddy wanted to protect me. It’s not like you actually cared. I didn’t think you wanted me, much less a baby.”
“I do want my son,” he said, his words cold and clipped, leaving no doubt in her mind that he didn’t want her. “And make no mistake, Holly, when I find our baby, he will know his father. And his heritage.”
He
