Virgin Mistress, Scandalous Love-Child

Her grandmother sighed. “All right, all right. It’s your day.” She pushed her into a tiny antechamber inside the church, past the ushers and last few arriving guests. “Wait here.”

Ellie waited. And waited. She paced, staring out the tiny window.

In the distance, she saw the rolling hills and green forests. But it wasn’t all beautiful. She could see the stacks of the old, abandoned steel mill. The boarded- up storefronts. Flint, Pennsylvania, was only four hours from Manhattan by car, but felt like a world away.

She and Timothy had both grown up poor here. Returning this past Christmas as a wealthy lawyer, he’d been welcomed back to town like a hero. Timothy had already bought the nicest mansion in town and was fixing it up for her. He was spending money all over Flint, hiring carpenters and cleaners, sparing no expense. He would do anything, he’d told her, to make her love him. Anything.

But before they could marry, she had to tell him she was pregnant. Then let him decide if he still wanted to marry her.

Was it even fair to marry him like this? She took a deep breath. In spite of all his assurances that she would grow to love him, the idea of being his bride somehow felt…wrong.

But her instincts were plainly screwed up. Ellie’s short-lived affair with Diogo had proven that. The night Diogo had taken her in his arms in Rio, it had felt so right. When he’d kissed her on the street, amid the explosion of music and bright color, she’d felt truly alive for the first time in her life.

Passion was dangerous. She had to try to learn to make choices with her head, not her heart.

Taking care of her mother over her long years of illness, Ellie had spent many dark nights yearning for adventure in far-off lands. For the hot kisses of scandalous men. But Diogo’s hot embrace had seared her to the core. He’d arrogantly changed her whole life—and he didn’t even care.

She’d wanted to tell him the truth—but how could she? Even just knowing half of the truth, he’d assumed the worst about her, that she was a calculating gold digger who would use an innocent baby to trap a man into marriage. He’d coldly and cruelly insulted her.

He didn’t know her at all—and he never had!

“Ellie.” Timothy’s voice was muffled through the door, but she could still hear his affectionate exasperation. “Don’t you know we’ve got three hundred people waiting? What do you want to talk to me about?”

“Timothy.” Her whole body was still shaking from remembering what Diogo had said to her. She forced herself to take a deep breath. To steady her hands. She had to forget Diogo. She had to erase him from her mind completely and try to be glad that she would never see him again. She licked her dry lips. “Will you please come in here?”

“No—it’s bad luck!”

“That’s just a superstition!”

She heard him laugh. “It’s taken so long to convince you to marry me, I’m not taking any chances.”

Was she supposed to shout out her pregnancy confession through a door, to the shock of his ushers and the last guests walking into the church? “Please. I really, really need to talk to you!”

He paused. Then he spoke, and his voice glowed. “Whatever you have to say, I’m longing to hear it. Just wait a few minutes more, and you can tell me every day for the rest of our lives.”

Horrified, she realized he thought she finally meant to tell him she loved him. Her forehead broke out into a cold sweat. This was getting worse and worse. “Timothy, you don’t understand—”

“Wait,” he said firmly.

She had no choice.

“I’m pregnant!”

There was a pause. Then the door flung open.

Timothy’s pale, thin face was ghostly white—but he looked like he was breathing fire. He slammed the door closed behind him and grabbed her wrist.

“How is that possible,” he ground out, “when wehave never slept together?”

His eyes were so hard through his wire-rimmed glasses, his face so wild and different from his usual placid expression, that she backed up a step.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It was a mistake. I never meant to hurt you…”

“Who’s the man?” he demanded, his slender hand tightening around her wrist.

She shook her head desperately. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll never see him again.”

“Who is he?”

“You’re hurting me!”

He tossed her arm aside. “So that’s why you suddenly agreed to marry me? Because you were pregnant and your lover had deserted you?”

“No!”

“But you made a mistake if you planned to pass this baby off as mine,” he sneered. “Even I’m not stupid enough to believe you’re pregnant with my child, when you never let me touch you!”

“It was a mistake!” she cried. “The worst mistake of my life! I just found out I was pregnant this morning. I never intended to deceive you!”

“Right,” he said sarcastically. He ran his hand through his blond, thinning hair. “Sure.”

She watched him miserably. “I understand why you want to call off the wedding. It’s probably for the best…”

He looked at her sharply. “What do you mean? I’m not calling anything off.”

“But…”

“You’re not backing out. Pregnant or not,” he said in a hard voice, “you’re going to marry me. Today.”

She swallowed. “And the baby—”

His lip curled. “I’ll take care of it.”

He threw the door back with a bang and stalked out.

Take care of it?

Timothy was willing to be her baby’s father?

He was truly willing to help her raise her child?

Dazed, she stumbled out of the room. She’d thought, really thought, he would call off the wedding. But he hadn’t—so that meant…

She was getting married. Right now. In just moments, she would be Timothy’s wife—for the rest of her life. She heard the string quartet finish Pachelbel’s “Canon in D major.” He’d spent a fortune on this wedding, inviting the whole town to see them wed like some kind of royal coronation. As if to force everyone who’d ever treated them badly to see them crowned king and queen of the town.

Lilibeth came toward Ellie, reaching up to kiss her cheek before pulling the gauzy veil over her face. “I couldn’t help but overhear!” she said joyfully, her lips pressing an air kiss of her signature orange lipstick. “Pregnant! Oh, Ellie, I’m so happy for you, my dear!”

Happy that Ellie was marrying a man she didn’t love?