Chapter 12 Chapter Eleven
ARA
“You fooled me." He said, and chills broke out on my skin.
Not from fear of Thayne, but from what this could all mean.
My brain knew that Madison and Nina were the brains behind whatever was going on. I wasn't that naive to imagine otherwise.
"Nina found it this morning after untying you from the bedstead and dressing you up as per my instructions. She was going through the cabinets in the bathroom and found it shoved in the last row.” Thayne explained, his expression blank and hard.
I couldn't even describe what exactly his emotions could be. Was he disappointed? Angry? Betrayed?
Honestly, he had no right to feel any of these things because he'd been nothing but a jerk to me since he stormed my mother's restaurant.
“Why didn't you tell me, Ara? You let me fuck you with another man's baby inside you?” He asked.
A muscle was ticking in his jaw, right now, he looked ready to punch someone into next year at the slightest provocation.
"I'm not pregnant, Thayne. I didn't put that in the bathroom." I told him as calmly as I could.
How was it that one of the richest under thirty in Forbes list couldn't figure out that I couldn't have been able to smuggle a pregnancy stick inside the penthouse without buying it.
I remembered that Nina had gone into the bathroom the day before to wash off the hair products and makeup on her hands.
That was when she'd probably stuffed the pregnancy stick in the cabinet.
Now, I realized that was the final phase of the plan which Madison had mentioned subtly in the text.
‘Make sure you finish the rest of the deal, Nina.’
“I've arranged for the family doctor to examine you. I know you're lying, but I'll be kind enough to listen to you do it in my face." I'd never heard him speak this way before, and for some reason, it stabbed me in the chest.
“Thayne, I did not put that thing in the bathroom cabinets. I would had to leave the penthouse to purchase it in the first place. You have CCTVs everywhere. You even have access to my room. How would I have been able to avoid the cameras to go out and buy it?” I sounded calm and put-together, but inside my head, I was roaring.
I wanted to find Madison and knock some brains into her head. It was crystal clear now that her miscarriage had been a lie.
If she was in the hospital, there was no way I could accuse her of conspiring with Nina to swap my dress, no way I could claim she'd been the one to leak the arrangement between Thayne and I to the press.
And worse still, no way to prove that she had given Nina the pregnancy stick to plant in the cabinets.
“I've watched you since I brought you here. You are smart, willful and dramatic, so —”
"Excuse me? Dramatic? You kidnapped me, then invented the word ‘fiancée’ to erase the fact that I was brought here against my will! You tied me up, fucked me, and left me hanging!” I was practically yelling now, but it was nothing compared to what I truly felt inside.
Thayne was smirking now, and I hated that he looked so damn good with that look good n his face.
“You are my fiancée, Ara. I wasn't trying to erase anything when I declared we were getting married. The doctor will be here by noon to take your urine sample. After that, we'll be on our way to visit your sisters.” His voice carried no emotions as he spoke, just a flat monotone that made me wonder if Thayne was even capable of displaying emotion.
“You still think I'm pregnant? My own fiancé cheated on me! If I was pregnant, I would have found a way to escape your pretty prison!"
“The test is not to prove if you are really pregnant or not. It's for PR. The news of your pregnancy is out already, and my father has requested that I break off our engagement.” He seemed truly furious by that fact, and I couldn't help but wonder why he was obsessed with the two of us getting married.
It couldn't be because he liked me or anything like that.
“There is no engagement." I scoffed.
“Yet." He intoned without missing a beat.
I rose from the bed, and Thayne's eyes immediately went to my bare legs.
It seemed we both remembered last night at the same time, but I remembered it more. The way he'd made me gasp for air while pounding his cock into me….
He had claimed me in a way no man had ever done, not even Gabe. I belonged to Thayne already, but he didn't need to know that.
“Prepare yourself. It's going to be a long day.” He said finally before leaving.
I immediately went to grab my phone from the nightstand and went straight to Instagram.
The very first thing in my newsfeed was a blog post announcing I was pregnant with my ex's baby.
At least two hundred people had tagged me in the comments section, calling me obscene names.
Pictures I'd taken with Gabe when we were still together were flying around in the comments, and I couldn't help but stare in shock as the likes and comments on the post increased.
I scrolled up, and my face blanched when I discovered that most of the posts in my newsfeed were about me.
Thayne's father would never let the arrangement work. Not with this going on.
If this arrangement was called off, it meant I would never be able to pay off Neil's debt and my sisters would suffer.
I couldn't let that happen.
I flung the phone on the bed and turned in the direction of the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, I was ready to face the Slade's family doctor.
I was wearing a simple, black dress with a wide slit in front. The dress was tight—most of the dresses in the closet were either one size too small or two—but at least I wasn't begging for air like last night.
When Munroe came to fetch me, he had looked me up and down as if the dress looked funny on me but I ignored him.
Almost everyone in Thayne's world either didn't like me or thought I wasn't good enough for Thayne.
Munroe stopped in the middle of the hallway and gestured for me to knock on the black door in front of us and go in before turning around and leaving me alone in the wide hallway.
I waited until he got into the elevator before raising my fist to knock.
But then, I discovered the door was slightly open, as with most of the doors in the penthouse, the doors either slid open or close, but this one seemed to be different.
It was manual, and whoever had gone in last seemed to have forgotten that fact and had thought the door would slide close behind him.
I pressed my ear close to the door without leaning my weight on it and tried to listen.
Now, I could hear Thayne speaking. “Until we see the test results, father, I won't call the engagement off."
I gasped. Thayne's father was here?!!
“I didn't come here to trade words with you. You have one week to get all the PR you need back in your favor. Find Madison, beg for her forgiveness and propose to her. Get rid of that slumgirl and toss her back in the slums where you found her.” The coldness and razor-sharp bite in his voice was like a talon in my chest.
He hated me, I knew this the moment I met him for the first time.
I heard the loud scraping of furniture and a bang.
“If you want Madison in the family so damn much, why don't you just marry her, father?” Thayne asked tauntingly.
“You know I can if I want to." His father's voice came a minute later.
“Now, listen up," he continued. “Unless you want to go back to being my bastard son, you will do as I say. I will not hesitate to give Madison the go ahead to leak it to the press if you defy my orders."
Hold up…. Bastard son??
"You told her?” Thayne asked.
"She asked me for your weakness. And I gave it to her,” came his father's cold response.
I stood by the door, too stunned to do anything other than breathe and blink.
Thayne was his father's bastard son?