—Autumn—
Day Six of Press tour
He couldn’t even give me a day to figure shit out.
Not. One. Fucking. Day.
We were supposed to be getting footage of him at the old junkyard he used to work at, not sitting at a rectangular mahogany table in the building he owned in Texas which was another extension of his office in Miami.
Of course, Julian Locke was sitting at the head of the table, and I was parallel to him with our lawyers by our sides.
They were both personally flown in on Julian’s private jet—God forbid he give me any time to think things over.
I didn’t want to involve lawyers. We could have worked this out on our own, but now I had no choice in the matter.
Like with everything, he’d stolen that away from me too.
For the last twenty minutes, all we did was fight back and forth over his ridiculous demands.
He wanted joint custody, one week off, one week on, when we didn’t live in the same state.
Along with exchanging of holidays, switching each year on who would get Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The last demand he had was a real kicker—Julian wanted our daughter to carry his last name.
I’m sorry, what?!
The desire to punch him and his stuffy lawyer, Anderson, in the face was palpable.
Especially when Anderson stated, “May I remind you, Miss Troy, that Mr. Locke has been more than flexible with the terms of his agreement.”
“Flexible?” I choked out. “You call this flexible? He just found out about our daughter yesterday, and he hasn’t even given me any time to explain anything to her.
This is the complete opposite of flexible!
This is entirely selfish on your part and utter bullshit, Julian! She doesn’t even know who you are!”
“Whose fault is that, Autumn? It sure as hell isn’t mine.”
I glared at my lawyer. “He doesn’t even know her name! Greg, do something!”
He nodded, looking over at them. “Miss Troy has been the sole parent for the last nine years—”
“I don’t need to hear your bedtime story. She either agrees, or I’ll take her to court for sole custody.”
“Julian! Do you hear yourself? What the fuck? You can’t do this to her!”
“I’m doing it for her. Big difference, kid.”
“I’m trying to keep my calm, alright? Do you know how hard that is for me right now?
Please.” I paused to let my words sink in.
“Just think about it for a second. She doesn’t know you, and I know deep down you understand how hard it will be to uproot her from everything she’s known for the last nine years.
I promise I won’t keep her from you. I want her to get to know you, but we can’t do it the way you want. ”
“You’ve left me no choice.”
“We don’t even live in the same states. How is joint custody going to work?”
“I have three private planes, Autumn. Pick one.”
“So you’re just going to completely turn her life upside down? What about school? And her friends?”
“I can get her a private teacher, and she’s a kid—she will make friends in no time.”
“Do you hear how insane you sound? You! The man who grew up from foster home to foster home. Why would you want her to go through that?”
“She’s not being tossed away like I was. I’m her father, and I have just as many rights to her as you do, sweetheart.”
“You’re being unfair.”
“I don’t give a shit what you think I’m being. I stand by my demands. If you don’t like it, I’ll see you in court.”
I wanted to bash his face in. “I’ve raised her for the last nine years, and no judge in their right mind would give you sole custody of a child who doesn’t even know you.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take, but as you know, I never lose, kid.”
“What is that?” I jerked back. “Is that a threat? You have judges in your back pocket, Julian?”
“What you’re doing is called entrapment, Autumn. And I’m not stupid enough to fall for your desperate antics.”
“I’m not trying to trap you. I’m just trying to make you see reason.”
“What do you suggest we do?” He leaned back against his leather chair. “What’s reasonable for you?”
I sighed in relief, feeling like I was starting to get somewhere with him. “I don’t think joint custody is the right answer, and I’m not saying it’s not something we can’t discuss later, but for right now, it’s too much for her. She needs to get to know you first.”
“And what exactly does she know? Have you told her anything about me?”
“For the last year or so,” I reluctantly gave in, but he’d left me no choice. “She’s been asking who her father is.”
“And?”
“And since she’s so incredibly stubborn like you, I had to tell her, but I didn’t give her your name. The last thing I wanted was for her to Google you and find out that you’re Alpha CEO.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, unaware of what I meant by that.
“You’re an asshole. That’s no surprise to you.
The last thing I wanted was for her to find out the man you’ve become.
” I took a deep breath, already dreading the fact that I was going to admit this.
“To say I was shocked when Claire called me to help you would be an understatement. It was like fate or something. I guess, I mean … I know. It’s one of the reasons I agreed to take you on as a client.
I thought … I hoped … I could change you back.
Okay? I wanted to help you become the man I used to know, not for me, but for Capri. ”
“You named her Capri?”
“Yeah. I wanted her to have a part of you, and you always liked the name. I know it’s silly, but it was something I could use without my family getting suspicious of who her father was. I couldn’t give her your last name, Julian, so I worked with what I had.”
“After knowing I was raised without a father, how could you do that to me? How could you betray me like this?”
“What was I supposed to do? You left me.”
“I would have taken the first flight back if you’d told me, Autumn.”
“And then what? Huh? What would have happened next?”
“It’s really quite simple, kid.”
Never did I expect him to declare, “I would have asked you to marry me, and we could have been a family.”
—Julian—
“You don’t mean that.”
“I never say anything I don’t mean.”
“Other than when you’re lying to me.”
“If you’re going to bring up our past every time you don’t get your way, we’re in for a rough road ahead.”
“We’re in one nonetheless.” She abruptly stood. “You can’t say shit like you would have asked me to marry you!”
“Whether you want to hear it or not, it’s the truth.”
“It’s so easy for you to say that now, in retrospect, but back then … it wasn’t like this. You weren’t like this. You spent years pushing me away. Years, Julian!”
“I know, and you don’t have to remind me every chance you get. I was there, Autumn.”
“You’re so fucking arrogant. How can you sit there and make all these demands when the only reason we’re in this situation is because of you and your choices in the first place? You’re the reason things went down this way.”
I slammed my fist on the table, making her jump. “Don’t you think I know that? I’m trying to make it right. I’ve been trying to make it right all week.”
“It’s going to take longer than a week to make things right between us, and now you’re throwing our daughter in the mix, and it’s not fair!”
“You want to know what’s not fair? I’ll tell you what’s not fucking fair!
First and foremost, missing out on your pregnancy, watching your stomach grow with our baby.
Feeling her kick, seeing you pregnant with my child, glowing, radiant, and fucking breathtaking.
The first ultrasound, finding out we’re having a baby girl, and then preparing for it.
Her birth, cutting the cord, seeing you hold her for the first time, me holding her for the first time, taking her home from the hospital, her first bath, her first steps, her first word, her first birthday!
All the firsts I missed! Every. Single. One.
Now that’s not fucking fair! You took everything away from me, and you’re damn lucky I’m not demanding to knock you up, so I don’t miss out on those first again! ”
She didn’t just fall back—she stumbled from the truth of my words. With wide eyes, she replied, “Knock me up again? Are you hearing yourself? We’re not together, Julian!”
“Again, not by my choice, sweetheart. If I thought for a second there was a possibility of you saying yes, I’d get down on one knee and ask you to marry me, right here and now.”
“I’m not eighteen anymore. You don’t need to marry me because you got me pregnant.”
“That’s not the only reason I’d ask you to marry me, kid.”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Great. Sign the papers then.”
“Julian, please… I don’t want to keep her from you. She deserves to know who you are and to have a father. I promise I’ll do whatever I can to make this easy on all of us.”
“If I agree to wait this out, what do I get out of this new arrangement?”
“You’ll get to know your daughter.”
“I’ll get that regardless.”
“I don’t know. What do you want?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I want a month.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“What does that mean? A month of what?”
“A month of getting to know our daughter.”
“Julian, I don’t understand—”
“For the next month, I want you and Capri to move in with me.”
She jerked back. “Move in with you?”
“Take it or leave it.”
“I can’t move to Miami for a month.”
“Not Miami. Here. In Texas.”
“You want us to move into a penthouse suite?”
“No. I own a ranch about an hour out of Fort Worth. We can live there. It’s close enough to your parents where we can see them, and I can try to fix what I broke with your parents and your brother.”
“I have to work.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’ll handle Laurel.”
“Laurel? What, you’re on a first-name basis with my boss now?”
“She’s going to make you partner, and that means you’re in control. You can start your new position next month.”
“I can’t work, but you can?”
“I haven’t taken a day off since I started Locke Enterprises. I’m more than due.”
“What about the rest of your tour? Your announcement is in four days.”
“My tour is over tomorrow, and I can make my announcement anywhere. Including the ranch.”
“People are going to think we’re a couple.”
“They already do.”
“Ugh! You have an answer for everything!”
“It’s what makes me Alpha CEO.”
She shook her head. “You’re delusional if you think I’m going to agree to this.”
“From where I’m sitting, you don’t have much of a choice. Either you agree to my new terms, or you deal with settling this in court, where I go after full custody of Capri.”
“Wow. Now you’re bribing me?”
“Again, you’ve left me no choice.”
Her stare shifted to her attorney. “Greg.”
“Autumn, I think this is the best it’s going to get. If he does take this to court, there’s a huge chance he will win.”
“How? He doesn’t even know her.”
“I know, but you’re leaving it up to the judge and they could rule in his favor. He has money, and you lied to him about having a daughter— that’ll hold up in court. I’ve seen it happen before.”
Anderson added, “Mr. Locke is being more than fair, Miss Troy.”
“Unbelievable. Now it’s three against one?”
“Believe it, kid. This is your best option. You’ll be there, and you can help me get to know our daughter and her to get to know me.”
“I don’t even know you.”
“Then we can all get to know each other. After we finish the tour tomorrow in LA, we can fly straight from there to pick up Capri. You guys can pack, or I can buy you all new things. We can head back to Texas in the morning.”
“Oh my God, Julian. This is too fast.”
“On the contrary I’m being very lenient with you.”
“You’re being an asshole is what you are!”
“At this point, it’s your term of endearment for me.”
“I hope you can get our daughter to like you, because I sure as hell don’t.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
She threw the contract across the table. “I want my own room. Furthest away from yours.”
I grinned, looking at Anderson. “Write it up.”
For the next month, she would be mine. They both were.
And I was going to make damn sure it stayed that way.