Two Secret Babies, Two Furious Fathers

My best friend and I both got pregnant by accident. Her baby belonged to her Alist ex. Mine belonged to the powerful Los Angeles billionaire who had backed my acting career.

Nora and Carter had already broken up. As for Adrian and me, I was sure I was only his secret, kept woman. Neither of us believed those men would welcome our children.

So Nora made a suggestion. “Why don’t we keep the babies and lose the fathers?” “Deal,” I said. “Wherever you go, I go.” We left Los Angeles for Portland and built a happy little life together.

Then, four years later, Nora’s son went viral because he looked exactly like Carter Cole. A street camera caught my daughter and me in the same video.

That night, black SUVs surrounded my bar. I called 911 as Adrian Bennett walked in alone.

He stopped several feet away and looked at the image of my daughter on the security monitor. “Call them,” he said. “I’ll wait.

Then you can explain why you hid my daughter for four years—and I’ll explain why I’m not leaving without answers.” Chapter 1 After another disaster in her love life, Nora Brooks dragged me to a bar to celebrate being single.

Her hand was inches from the abs of one of the younger male models when Carter Cole appeared at the entrance. The Alist actor wore a baseball cap pulled low over his face.

He stormed toward us and pointed at a model who looked a little like him. “Who is he? Are you using him as my replacement, Nora?” Nora glanced up at him.

When she stood, a cold smile curved her lips. “You used me as Sienna Vale’s replacement.

Why can’t I replace you?” She folded her arms. “Besides, your family’s heirloom bracelet is on another woman’s wrist.” Carter opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

When he finally spoke, his explanation sounded weak even to me. “I told you. I didn’t give her that bracelet.” “Great.

Then go get it back.” Silence stretched between them, making the music around us seem even louder. Carter stood there for a long moment. At last, he let out a breath. “I’m sorry.

I can’t.” Nora must have expected that answer. Still, the hurt broke across her face before she could hide it. Her eyes turned red.

She grabbed her purse, made a quick callme gesture in my direction, and marched out in her heels. Carter gave me a brief nod and followed her.

He had talked her into taking him back far too easily the last few times. I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted after her. “Nora, don’t give in!

This is about principles!” I took a breath and yelled even louder. “Dump him! You have to dump him this time!” My throat went dry from shouting.

A longfingered hand appeared over my shoulder and offered me a wedge of watermelon. I stared at the elegant hand and felt a spark of interest.

Now this model knew how to take care of a woman. I turned with my sweetest smile. “So, pretty boy. What’s your name?” The smile froze on my face.

I knew that sharp, handsome face far too well. At some point, every model in our booth had been sent away. Adrian Bennett stood behind me alone.

His features were cold, his jaw carved into a hard line. The look in his eyes could have put ice over the entire bar. I stepped back.

He caught my wrist. “You’re into younger guys?” Adrian asked with a smile that wasn’t a smile. His gaze dropped to my mouth and returned to my eyes. “Fine. Let’s go home.

I’ll show you exactly what I’ve got.” That night, we barely made it to his penthouse before he had me against the glass until long after midnight.

The Los Angeles skyline blazed beneath us. A glasswalled Century City penthouse like his cost more than I could earn in ten lifetimes.

Without Adrian, I wouldn’t even have been allowed through the lobby. But I couldn’t possibly call myself Adrian Bennett’s girlfriend. At best, I was his kept woman.

During my first year in Hollywood, a director had tried to trade me a role for sex. Chapter 2 I refused him again and again over dinner, but the director only became bolder.

His hand was nearly under my skirt when Adrian appeared. One quiet sentence from him ended the whole thing. He was a powerful Los Angeles billionaire.

I was a struggling unknown actress. Adrian never chased me with flowers filling a room or flashy public declarations.

He simply took care of problems before I even knew they existed. And then there was his face, handsome enough to put most actors out of work.

After enough time, pretending I felt nothing became impossible. But I knew my place. A kept woman was still a kept woman.

That wasn’t the same thing as being someone’s real girlfriend. There could never be a future for us.

Sooner or later, I would have to leave. “You’re distracted now?” Adrian’s voice pulled me back to the glasswalled bedroom.

He must have decided to punish me for letting my mind wander, because his next movement stole my breath. “What are you thinking about?” he asked. “Your pretty boy?” A cry escaped me.

I caught his arm, my nails pressing into his skin, and shook my head. That answer didn’t satisfy him.

He turned me to face him. “Then stop thinking about anyone but me.” I lost track of time after that.

When the storm between us finally passed, Adrian carried me to the bathtub and settled me against his chest.

As my breathing slowed, I asked, “I heard Vivian came back.” “She did.” Adrian had always been close to his older sister, Vivian Bennett.

She had a say in nearly every major decision the Bennett family made. More importantly, rumor had it that Vivian had returned to Los Angeles with a woman.

The woman Adrian was supposed to marry. I tried to make my question sound casual. “Can I meet her?” Adrian’s eyes opened at once.

He studied me as if he were searching for the real question beneath my words. In the end, all he said was, “There’s no need.” Of course there wasn’t.

Kept women didn’t meet the family. I buried my disappointment and smiled at him. “Okay.” Nora had promised to call me that night, but my phone stayed silent.

She finally texted around noon the next day. [Don’t worry. We didn’t get back together.] I thought life would keep going that way.

Then, one month later, both Nora and I missed our periods. We made a doctor’s appointment together.

When the prenatal ultrasound reports came back, we stared at the same words in stunned silence. Pregnancy confirmed.

Nora snatched my report out of my hand and glared at me. “You said you’d use his connections and leave. How did you manage to get pregnant?

Did you forget protection exists?” “We used it!” I shouted.

Then I remembered that night against the windows, and my voice dropped. “But it might have broken.” Nora rolled her eyes so hard it looked painful.

I grabbed her ultrasound report. “You don’t get to judge me. You aren’t even dating anyone. Which random guy got you pregnant?” Her lashes fluttered.

She glanced away and mumbled something too fast to understand. “Carter.” “Who?” I gave her my best areyouserious squint.

She closed her eyes, drew a deep breath, and shouted directly into my ear. “My exboyfriend! Carter Cole!” My ears rang. “I heard you. It’s Carter.

You didn’t have to blow out my eardrum.” Nora had already broken up with him, and Carter still had Sienna—the childhood sweetheart everyone assumed he would marry.

As for me, I was a secret kept woman, and Adrian’s supposed future bride had just arrived in Los Angeles. Chapter 3 Nora and I looked at each other and sighed.

Neither of us dared to tell the fathers. We had already convinced ourselves those men wouldn’t want our babies.

After a long silence, Nora grabbed my hand. “What if…” She hesitated. “What if we keep the babies and lose the fathers?” I thought about it. “Adrian has been pretty generous over the years.

Between that and the money I made acting, I should be able to buy us a house in Portland.” Nora’s eyes began to shine. “We’ll get a dog and a cat.

One house, two moms, two babies.” It sounded like the perfect retirement plan for two best friends. So we decided to leave.

Carter still wouldn’t leave Nora alone, but at least they had broken up and lived separately. She could go whenever she wanted. My situation was harder.

For days, I searched for the right way to end things with Adrian. The chance never came. Then, one night, he came home drunk. The instant I opened the door, my smile disappeared.

Half his weight rested on a beautiful woman. I recognized her from the photographs reporters had taken when Vivian returned to Los Angeles. Camille Hart.

The woman everyone said Adrian’s family had chosen for him. “Hello.

You must be Maya.” Camille gave me a warm smile. “Adrian had too much to drink, so I brought him home.” She looked kinder than I had imagined.

More unsettling, she seemed to know all about Adrian and me. I forced a stiff smile, took Adrian from her, and lowered him onto the couch. Camille didn’t leave.

She looked around the penthouse, then smiled at me again. “Could I have a glass of water?” I walked to the kitchen island without a word.

Behind me, she continued in the same easy tone. “I heard you took care of Adrian while I was away. Thank you.” “I’ve seen your movies.

Making it in Hollywood without family connections can’t be easy. Vivian and I both admire you.” Then she added, “Vivian mentioned inviting you to a private family dinner soon.

Did Adrian tell you?” My hand stopped in the middle of pouring her water. I turned and met Camille’s eyes. There was no mockery in them.

She didn’t sneer at the secret woman hidden in Adrian’s penthouse. She didn’t brag about her own family name. She didn’t need to.

She carried the calm confidence I imagined the future Mrs. Bennett would have—the kind I had never felt, no matter how long I stayed beside Adrian.

The answer I had avoided was suddenly simple. It was time to go. That night, I waited until Adrian was asleep and packed everything that belonged to me.

Maybe I had always known I would leave. I had kept very little at his place. I left behind every expensive gift he had given me. The only thing I took was my braided wish bracelet.

Adrian and I had gotten matching braided wish bracelets during a trip to a mountain retreat. One for each of us, both carrying the same wish: come home safe.

For weeks, I had tried to find the right words to say goodbye to his face. Maybe I didn’t need to.

Against the gray silk sheets, Adrian looked as breathtaking as he had the first time I saw him. He had always believed he was the one who chased me.

He never knew I had fallen for him at first sight, too. My chest filled with a dull, bitter ache. I sent one last message to his phone. [I’m leaving. It’s a long road from here.

Let’s never cross paths again.] Then I blocked his number and walked out. Adrian, I hoped we would both make it home safe, wherever life took us.

Four years had passed since Nora and I started our new life in Portland. Chapter 4 We both gave birth to healthy babies.

Nora named her son Luke Brooks, though we all called him Lucky. My daughter was Penelope Reed—Penny to everyone who loved her.

When Lucky and Penny turned three, Nora started a kidfocused video account. She posted plenty of Lucky, but never showed her own face. I opened a bar in Portland.

For a while, life was easy. We had money, free time, and no shortage of pretty young men working at my bar.

Then one day, a comment appeared under one of Nora’s videos. [Am I the only one who thinks this kid Lucky looks exactly like Carter Cole?] Carter had shared childhood pictures of himself online before.

Within hours, people dug them up and placed them beside screenshots of Lucky. The resemblance wasn’t close. It was almost perfect. Lucky went viral overnight.

People tagged Carter’s social accounts and joked about his tiny double.

Others flooded Nora’s page with the same question. [Who is this kid’s father?] Nora, cursed with a mouth faster than her common sense, replied: [No dad.

I made him from scratch.] That only made people accuse her of being a homewrecker and Lucky of being a secret son.

So Nora answered with even more sarcasm. [If you knew who his father was, you’d agree I had terrible luck.] One second later, an account under Carter Cole’s name replied. [You sure about that, Nora?] The name said Carter Cole.

The profile picture was Carter’s face. Most frightening of all, the reply called Nora by name.

It could have been a fan pretending to be him, but that explanation suddenly felt very thin.

Nora deleted every reply on the post and changed her settings so only approved followers could comment. That night, she came to my bar in a panic. “What if Carter finds me?

What if he tries to take Lucky?” I told her to breathe. “All he has are a few videos. Even if that account really belongs to Carter, Portland is a big city.

He can’t get our address from Lucky’s face.” She still looked sick with worry, so I suggested we take the kids out the next day and clear our heads.

The four of us were visiting a local attraction when a streetinterview crew stepped in front of us. With Lucky all over the internet, Nora and I refused at once.

We pulled the children away, but the crew uploaded the footage anyway. Lucky’s face was perfectly clear. The video also caught Penny and me beside him. The internet exploded. [Wow.

From this angle, that kid looks even more like Carter Cole.] [Could he be Carter’s secret son? Stars get exposed for this stuff all the time.] [Who’s the other little girl?

She’s gorgeous. And her mom looks familiar. Was she an actress?] As the clip spread, I turned to Nora. “Maybe we should move again. The bar hasn’t been doing well anyway.

I’ve wanted to close it for months.” She nodded without hesitation. “Wherever you go, I go.” Nora deleted her video account.

I posted an ad offering to transfer the bar to a new owner. Someone contacted me that same day and asked to meet that evening.

I waited until closing time, but the buyer never appeared. The bar grew quiet. A strange warning prickled at the back of my neck. Then I heard movement outside.

Black SUVs pulled up along the curb. Several security officers took positions outside, but no one entered with Adrian. The front door opened. Chapter 5 He walked in alone.

The scent of cedar reached me—faint, familiar, and impossible. I pulled out my phone and called 911. Adrian stopped several feet away.

His gaze moved to the security monitor behind the bar, where a paused frame showed Penny beside me. “May,” he said. “Have you been well?” It was an ordinary greeting, but the cold under it made my back go rigid