The Heir He Left Behind Chapter 03
After I put the apartment on the market, I moved into a cheap motel.
Dante didn’t reach out. He was busy parading Elena around, announcing her as his fiancée.
The messages kept coming.
“Did you fight with the big shot?”
“Is Elena about to become official?”
“They went ring shopping…”
I ignored all of it.
I looked at myself in the mirror. My waist was still slim, but my lower belly had started to round out just a little.
I called the realtor and dropped the price by fifty thousand dollars. I had to leave New York. For good.
The baby was a surprise. By the time I knew, I was already three months along.
The doctor showed me the ultrasound. Tiny hands. Tiny feet. Looked like an angel.
But I couldn’t keep him. I’d made a promise to that man.
I lay on the exam table, sobbing. I couldn’t afford a child. I decided to terminate.
But during the procedure, a gang shootout broke out outside. The power went out. They had to stop.
I told myself maybe that was fate.
At least the baby’s father was handsome.
When Dante abandoned me in that hellhole, I knew what happened to pretty women alone.
Sold into a brothel. Left to rot. Or forced to accept help from a stranger.
When I screamed for help in English, I’d already accepted whatever came next.
Then a man reached out his hand.
To this day, I don’t know his name.
But I know my baby’s father is a good man. He saved me. Whoever he is, he’s better than Dante.
The day the apartment sold, Elena called.
“Cassie, I said yes to Dante.”
“Congratulations.”
“I want you at our engagement party. Will you come?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong, Cassie? Still sulking? Is this part of your plan too?”
Her voice was sickly sweet. “I’ll admit, you’re patient. But this won’t work. He only listens to me. It’s always been that way. I told him to dump you, and he did.”
“Elena, what do you really want?”
A pause. Then: “I’m taking back what’s mine. Stay away from him, Cassie.”
“Am I in your way?”
“You think I don’t see through you? You love him. And now you’re broke.”
“If he only listens to you, why are you scared?”
She hung up. A few seconds later, a voicemail came through.
Dante’s voice. Tired and arrogant. “Finally got that chewed up gum off my shoe. Never felt better.”
“Congratulations, Don!” his men cheered in the background.
I shook all over. I turned off my phone.