A Very Bad Billionaire (BWWM Contemporary Romance Novel) (11 page)

I wanted to do what I could to make her feel comfortable. I didn’t want her to worry that there was some devastating news in front of her. I had no idea how she would take the news I was about to drop on her, but I hoped that it would go over well. In an attempt to set her mind at ease, I reached over and took her hand in mind. Almost immediately, the tenseness in her body seemed to disappear and she began to relax for the first time during the trip. She looked over at me, placed her other hand on top of mine and smiled. She was right there with me no matter what. I knew it and she didn’t even have to say a word to convey that to me.

The drive seemed like it was taking forever. It was just an illusion because there was nearly no traffic and we actually made it to Bear Mountain in record time. When the car pulled to a stop, Natalia turned her attention from me to look out the window. We were as close to the middle of nowhere as you could get. In front of us was a quaint house located in the center of a wooded area. I was happy to see that there was a single light on in the house since I hadn’t called ahead to let them know I would be coming.

“Here we are,” I said to Natalia. “Are you ready to learn something about me that very few people know?”

“I’m ready. At least, I think I am,” she replied.

We got out of the car and walked up to the front porch. I led the way while Natalia followed close behind. Once we were in front of the door, I adjusted my clothes to make sure I looked presentable. A glance over to Natalia showed that she was nervous although she had no idea why. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Natalia

I wondered what was going on. For the entire drive to Bear Mountain, my mind kept going back and forth as I tried to imagine what kind of secret he might have to share with me. I couldn’t imagine it would be something good. Why would he drag me so far away from home if it wasn’t bad? At the same time, it seemed odd that he would want to travel almost an hour away from his home to share bad news with me. I decided to stop over thinking things and let the chips fall where they may.

When we pulled up to the house, I couldn’t believe how adorable it was. It was exactly the type of house that I’ve always dreamed of living in. It wasn’t the big sprawling mansion that Kaiden lived in, but it was far bigger than my tiny little apartment. There were gorgeous, mature trees all around it and a long driveway leading right up to the front of the house. Most of the time, when you have homes located out in the middle of nowhere, they appear to be scary, especially at night. Not this house, though. Even with only one light on inside, the house seemed warm and inviting.

Once Kaiden rang the doorbell, I felt like I was in the middle of a movie. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen next. After a few moments, I heard the door lock disengage and the door opened slowly. Inside, there was an older woman who greeted us with a smile.

“Kaiden,” she said. “It’s really great to see you. He’s already asleep but please, come in.”

I wasn’t sure who this woman was, but she seemed incredibly warm and sweet. She was obviously very familiar with Kaiden and looked extremely happy to see him. The woman looked over at me, never allowing the smile to leave her face.

“And who do we have here?”

“This is Natalia. Natalia, I’d like you to meet Eva,” Kaiden said, seemingly proud to be introducing the two of us.

“It’s nice to meet you, Natalia.”

“Likewise.”

Other than the fact that her name was Eva, I still had no clue who this woman was. I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to seem pushy. Kaiden looked to have a plan in place and I figured I would know everything I needed to know soon. Kaiden grabbed me by the hand and led me into the house.

“Eva, I know you said that he’s sleeping already but would it be okay if the two of us went upstairs?” Kaiden asked.

“Now Kaiden, you know I would never tell you no. You’re always more than welcome. Just try to be quiet. He hasn’t been asleep all that long.”

Still holding onto my hand, the two of us walk through the living room, into a hallway and up a set of stairs. I loved the sound of the older house creaking under our feet. It reminded me of the house I grew up in. At the top of the stairs, to the right was a door that was slightly cracked. The room was dark except for the shine coming from a nightlight plugged into the wall.

Kaiden walked into the room and motioned for me to follow. Standing at the foot of the bed, I could see a little boy sleeping. He was adorable. He had light brown hair and a fair complexion. He had the adorable chubby cheeks that kids have when they are not quite a baby any longer but still not grown out of their baby fat. I looked over to Kaiden and could see that he was beaming. He had a sincere, permanent smile.

He walked over and sat down on the mattress next to the sleeping boy and started to gently stroke his cheek. I was amazed to see this side of Kaiden. He was being so soft and gentle. I would have never guessed that this side of him even existed. I watched in awe as the boy began to stir, tossing and turning until he sensed our presence. He rubbed his eyes, sat up in bed, smiled and wrapped his arms around Kaiden’s neck.

“I love you, daddy,” the little boy said.

“I love you too buddy,” was Kaiden’s response.

Kaiden gave him a kiss on the forehead as the boy laid his head back down onto his pillow and fell right back to sleep. He looked over to me just as I was wiping a tear from my eye. I was so surprised to see such a genuine moment of love and emotion, even if it was just for a few seconds. After taking one more long look at the boy and smiling, Kaiden got up off the bed and walked over to me, whispering into my ear.

“Come on, he needs his rest. Let’s go downstairs so we can talk about this.”

I followed him out of the room and felt a warmness in my heart. That boy called him daddy. That had to be his son and just going by what I witnessed with my own eyes, Kaiden loved him like crazy.

When we got downstairs, Eva, the woman who had answered the door earlier was seated on the couch watching television. To her right was a man that appeared to be about the same age. When they saw us coming, they both stood up. Kaiden introduced me to the man. His name was Frank, and he was Eva’s husband.

“So Natalia,” Kaiden said. “That little boy upstairs is named Andy. He’s my son and he’s two years old. Frank and Eva are Andy’s grandparents and they’ve done an excellent job taking care of him. Hopefully, you understand why I wanted to bring you here instead of just telling you about him.”

I nodded that I understood as I was so emotional that I found myself unable to speak.

“Why don’t you two come into the kitchen with me?” Eva said. “I’ll make a pot of coffee and we can catch up.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Kaiden

As we were all seated around the table, everyone seemed to be looking at each other to see who was going to start talking. Frank and Eva weren’t going to begin the conversation because they still didn’t know what was going on with me or why I had brought this woman they had never seen before to their house. I knew Natalia had questions but didn’t want to ask them, instead choosing to wait and see what information I would offer about the situation. I figured it would be better for me to lay everything out on the table.

“First of all, Frank and Eva, I appreciate you letting me in to see Andy even though it’s so late at night. As both of you know, I have never once brought a woman to this house. Natalia is someone that I believe could be very special in my life. I wanted to bring her here to show her that I was willing to be completely open and honest with her and also allow her to see that there’s a different side of me that almost nobody gets to see.”

“Oh honey, there definitely is,” Eva said while smiling at Natalia. “Everyone thinks Kaiden is nothing but a pompous asshole. Believe me, that’s what I thought when I first met him. There is such a soft side to this man, however. He is a great father and he loves his son so much. It warms my heart every time I see the two of them together.”

Natalia smiled at her, apparently liking what she heard. It was strange hearing someone talk about me that way. In the business world, I’m so used to being called every name in the book and not once do I ever get to hear what a great guy I am. Of course, that’s all in how I portray myself. In business, you can never appear to be soft or people will walk all over you. Fortunately, this wasn’t the business world. This was real life and I was allowed to be the real me. This, in turn, allowed Natalia to see a side of me that nobody on the outside ever gets to see.

“I’m not really sure what to say,” Natalia announced. “When you said you had a secret to share with me, this was probably the last thing I would have guessed.”

“I know and I probably should have told you instead of dragging you all the way out here, but I wanted you to see him with your own eyes. I hope this doesn’t make you look at me differently.”

“That’s the thing. This does make me look at you differently, but that’s not a bad thing. Before we came here, I thought you were pretty much one-dimensional. Now I know that there is so much more to you. I like seeing this soft side of you. It’s nice. I’m pretty sure there is a lot more to his whole story, though.”

“Yeah, there really is. There’s a LOT more to the story. It’s not a very easy story to tell, but I’ll tell it if you really want to hear it.”

“I do. I really do.”

“Okay, the story starts back in high school. I had a girlfriend that I was crazy about. I met her during my sophomore year when she came into school as a freshman. We were inseparable from day one. We did everything together and we were the couple that everyone else wanted to be. We were homecoming king and queen. We were prom king and queen. We were the definition of high school sweethearts.”

Eva interrupted me as she brought us all a cup of coffee.

“You still like your coffee with cream and two sugars?” she asked as she placed my cup in front of me. I nodded that I did.

“How about you sweetheart?” she asked of Natalia.

“I’ll take mine the same way, thank you.”

“So anyway,” I continued. “Our relationship continued into college. We actually accepted offers to go to different schools with me going to Columbia University while she chose to go to the University of Rochester. It was rough to be apart, but it seemed to be much harder for her. During our first year of college, she decided that she didn’t want to be away from me so she put in a transfer request. She ended up at Columbia when we started our second year of school.”

“This sounds like a sweet story,” Natalia said.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself sweetheart,” Eva replied with a laugh.

“Things were great for a long time. We were back together and spent all of our time together, just like we had in high school. We even rented a small apartment so we didn’t have to live in separate rooms on campus. During the last semester of college, right before we were set to graduate, she moved out of the apartment and dropped out of school.”

I looked up at Natalia to make sure I wasn’t boring her with my story. She was listening intently and seemed to be hanging on my every word. When she noticed me looking at her, she pursed her lips into a small smile, letting me know it was okay to go on.

“It turned out that she had gotten pregnant and didn’t bother to tell me. I would find out later that she went to stay with a friend of hers until she figured out what she was going to do. In the end, she made the decision to have an abortion. That plan was put on hold, however, when the clinic told her she was too far along and wouldn’t do the procedure. Apparently she tried a couple of other places and they told her the same thing. By this time, I had graduated and was already working on forming what my company had become today. Needless to say, I was surprised when she showed up at my door. I was even more surprised to see that her belly had grown.”

“I can’t even imagine that,” Natalia said. “How did she explain that one to you?”

“She didn’t bother trying to explain too much. She basically told me that she was pregnant and there was no way she was going to keep the baby. She told me about being denied for the abortions but said she had found a place in Oregon that would terminate her pregnancy. She demanded that I pay for her to get there as well as the procedure. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t believe in abortion, but I loved this girl and didn’t want to be responsible for ruining her life. I mean, she had already dropped out of college because I knocked her up, I didn’t want to make things any worse on her, you know?”

“I understand. So then what happened?”

“Well, I agreed to pay for the procedure. I took care of setting everything up so that she wouldn’t have to. I called the clinic in Oregon and scheduled the appointment. I booked airline tickets for both of us so that she wouldn’t have to go by herself. I even booked a hotel room she would be able to comfortably recover for a couple days before having to come back to New York. I was conflicted. I struggled between doing what I felt was right for her and doing what was right in general. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t go through with it. That was my baby as well and I wasn’t going to have any part in killing him.