A Deadly Betrayal✔ [Completed]

Chapter Three



Andy stepped back, and he wavered for a moment, wanting to make sure he had heard right. A flash of nausea crashed over him. He felt so sick—not because she had a baby—but because she had a child with someone else… someone other than him. His knees threatened to fold at the discovery. 

He inhaled an unsteady breath, cleared his aching throat, and asked the dreaded words, “You’re a mom?” 

Annie searched his face, ignoring the bitterness in his voice. She didn’t owe him anything. “Yes, I am.” She told him and tugged hard on her wrist. But his grip didn’t ease. She didn’t want to shout and alarm her son, so through gritted teeth, she hissed, “Let go of me.”

Andy was silent for a moment. His expression was blank like the look in his eyes. Annie needed a little sensitivity, and he wasn’t helping at all. She sucked in a breath when he moved closer, their chest almost bumping. He was so damn big, all broad shoulders and muscles. His presence was intimidating—so intimidating that she wrenched her hand away from his hold with a grunt. 

Nibbling on her lip, she waited as realization bled in his near vacant eyes. His eyebrows drew in close together as if he were trying to put sensible thoughts together. Then the strangest thing happened: he seemed to snap out of whatever trance he’d gone into.

Annie lifted her head higher and stared at him square in his eyes. She showed him she didn't have an ounce of fear in her heart. Andy didn’t look away as emotions flooded his face. Honey brown eyes locked onto hers, reflecting shock and confusion. And playing just behind them was—pain. Sadness. He tried to hide it, but she saw right through it. Her stomach churned just at the sight of it. But she would rather walk away than show him any sympathy. 

He stepped back. “I didn’t know you had a baby.” His voice sounded hoarse.

Of course, he did not know. It’s not like he’d been keeping tabs on her. Had he? Annie didn’t have room in her mind to sort that out, so she brushed it aside.

She sighed. “I did—he’s a year—and a few months old.”

“He?”

Annie arched an eyebrow. “Yes, his name is Reon.”

It looked as though her words pained him. Andy looked away not before she saw his eyes squeezed shut, and his hands trembled just as he shoved them into his pocket.

“I’ll be right back. Let me check on him. He’s probably hungry.”

He didn’t look at her, but he nodded.

Annie spun on her heels and marched into the bedroom to collect her baby from his crib. The nerve of him to feel anything akin to sadness. His sorry ass should feel more than that. He didn’t know half of what she’d endure. Lord knows her pregnancy wasn’t the easiest. It was one of the hardest, stressful and most painful things her body ever felt. But as she struggled to bring her sweet son into the world, she knew God had given her the greatest gift a woman could ever have in this lifetime. 

Annie loved Reon with everything in her. Her precious baby boy. He was her heart and soul.

Andy. His name was bittersweet in her mind. He was the man who broke—stomped on her heart. She resisted the urge to press her hand to her chest. She remembered the stabbing pain she’d felt the last time she saw him. Blazing hot tears stung her eyes. What did she do to deserve all this? Why were all these things happening to her? Not just her life was in danger. Her son’s life was at stake. Would he take her son away when he learned the truth?

God knows she could not suffer the devastating loss of her baby. She couldn’t handle such pain. The feeling was like—carving her heart out with a rusted spoon. And that was just thinking about it.