Chapter 20 Carter
"I'll give you two a minute."
A woman’s voice cuts through the charged silence. She’s tall, dark-haired, her stance protective. Her eyes are flicking between Jamie and me like she's calculating exactly how much damage she could inflict if I make a wrong move. This must be the roommate. I like her.
She sets a knife on the counter with a deliberate click and disappears down a narrow hallway. A door closes. We're alone.
Jamie stands in front of me, one hand braced on the doorframe like he needs it to stay upright.
His apartment is smaller than I expected. There’s a cramped living room with mismatched furniture, a small kitchen and a window that looks out onto the street below.
There's a half-packed duffel bag on the sofa. He was leaving.
The thought of it—Jamie disappearing into the night, raising our child alone, never knowing I'd have burned the world down to find them—makes something feral rise in my chest.
"You should come in," Jamie says. His voice is flat, careful. "Before someone sees you lurking in the hallway."
I step inside. The door closes behind me, and his scent hits me full force.
It's different now. Richer. Layered with something sweet and warm underneath the honey and citrus I remember. The pregnancy, I realize. I can smell it on him, that fundamental change in his chemistry, and my whole body responds with a possessiveness so primal it nearly brings me to my knees.
Mine. Both of them. Mine.
I force myself to stay still.
Jamie moves toward the sofa, lowering himself carefully around the swell of his belly.
Every movement is deliberate, adjusted for a center of gravity that's shifted.
He's wearing an oversized sweater that does nothing to hide how much his body has changed. His face is softer and there’s a fullness in his cheeks.
He's beautiful. He's always been beautiful, but now—
"Stop staring at me like that," Jamie says.
"Like what?"
"Like that."
I've spent six months with nothing but memories, replaying every moment at the cabin until they wore thin. Now he's here, real and close and carrying our child, and I can't look away.
"I didn't know," I say again. The words feel inadequate, but I need him to understand. "Warren showed me a surveillance photo. That's how I found out. If I'd known—"
"What?" Jamie's laugh is bitter. "What would you have done differently?”
I stare at him and answer honestly. “I don’t know.”
The silence stretches between us. Jamie's hand moves to rest on his belly—an unconscious gesture, protective. I track the movement, transfixed.
"It's a girl," he says quietly.
Everything stops.
A girl. I'm having a daughter. The word reshapes itself in my mind, taking on weight and meaning. Not an abstract concept anymore. A person. A daughter. Our daughter.
"A girl," I repeat, and my voice comes out strange. Thick.
"I just found out." Jamie's watching me now, his expression unreadable.
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Not if I could help it.”
Something cold spikes at the pit of my stomach. I could have gone my whole life without knowing. “Why not?”
He takes a moment before of answering. "I was scared of what you'd do if you knew. What you might do now?"
"What I'd do?"
"Custody. Alpha rights. Your family's lawyers against—" He gestures at the cramped apartment, the half-packed bags. "Against this."
The realization hits me like ice water. He thought I'd take her from him.
"Jamie." I move toward him without thinking, then stop myself. "I would never—" I lower myself onto the armchair across from him, keeping the distance he seems to need. “I want to be part of the baby’s life, but I would never do that. I am an asshole in a lot of ways and I’ve got a lot wrong, but I won’t do that.”
The cushion sags beneath me as I sit. He is so beautiful. I forgot. He’s still watching me warily, like he still doesn’t quite believe me.
"Warren knows about the baby," I say. "He threatened to expose everything if I didn't fall in line. When I refused, he made it clear he'd go after you directly."
"He already has." Jamie pulls out his phone, the screen cracked. "Forty-eight hours to leave town, or everyone finds out whose bastard I'm carrying." He reads the words without emotion, but I can see his hand trembling. "His words, not mine."
The rage that floods through me is incandescent. I want to find Warren, wrap my hands around his throat again, and this time not let go until—
"Don't." Jamie's voice cuts through the red haze. "I can see what you're thinking. It won't help."
"He threatened our daughter."
"And there’s not a lot that either of us can do about it." Jamie shifts on the sofa, one hand pressing into his lower back. "The moment anyone finds out about this, both of our careers are cooked."
"We go public first," I say. The idea has been crystallizing since I left the estate, since I felt Warren's pulse hammering beneath my palm. "Not on his timeline, on ours. We control the narrative before he can."
"Go public with what, exactly? That the journalist who exposed your family has been sleeping with the heir apparent?"
"That we're a prime match." I lean forward.
"Think about it. Everyone saw that interview with David Glass.
The whole country watched us lose our minds in front of the cameras.
They've been speculating for months. We confirm it—confirm that it's real, that we tried to fight it and couldn't—and suddenly the story isn't about scandal. It's about fate."
Jamie stares at me. "You want to spin this as a romance."
"I want to tell the truth. We are prime matched. We did try to stay away from each other. And now—" I gesture at his belly. "Now we're having a daughter."
"And your campaign?"
The question hangs in the air. I think about the town halls, the handshakes, the carefully constructed image of Carter Crane III, reformer and family man. I think about my father's face when he told me not to be naive.
"I’m still the same person. I promised to be honest so I will be," I say. "If I can't be honest about my own life, what business do I have asking for anyone's vote?"
"Carter—"
"I can't keep quiet. Neither of us can. If this doesn’t come out now, it’ll come out later. Our child can’t live her whole life as a secret."
Jamie is quiet for a long moment. His hand moves absently over his belly, a slow circle.
"There's something else I want to say. And that is thank you. For never revealing your source.”
Jamie frowns. “Obviously not.”
“I know, but now I know it was Kate, I am additionally grateful. My sister is a good person. I know she had her reasons for doing it, but she didn’t need to be pulled into this whole media shitshow. I’m glad she wasn’t.”
Jamie goes very still.
The confusion on Jamie's face shifts to something else. Disbelief. "I never met the source in person. We communicated through encrypted channels. Dead drops. There's no way..."
"She admitted it to my father in January. I just found out."
Jamie lets out a breath. "Kate Crane." He shakes his head slowly.
"She's also the reason my father knows something is coming." I pause, choosing my words carefully. "Kate told my mother you didn't know the half of it. There's more she didn't give you. Things even the expose didn't cover."
"What things?"
"I don't know yet. But if Warren's moving this fast, it means he's scared. Which means whatever Kate has, it's bad enough to bring everything down. I’m worried about her too. I’ve texted her to tell her what’s happening. I’d like to still keep it quiet that she’s the source. I know it’s a lot to ask."
Jamie closes his eyes. His hand has stilled on his belly, pressed flat like he's steadying himself.
"This is insane," he says quietly.
"Yes."
"You're asking me to go on television and announce that I'm pregnant with your child. To make myself an even bigger target than I already am."
"I'm asking you to let me stand beside you." I lean forward. "The only power they have over us comes from leverage. If we take that away, we take back control."
"You know your father will lose everything if you stand up on stage and admit that everything was true."
"He deserves to. There’s going to be fallout. I know that. It’s coming for my whole family, but it’s already torn us apart. My mother is a mess. She’s under so much stress. It’s not fair on her to make her keep these secrets. Kate has already decided she won’t. It’s time for me to do the same.”
Jamie opens his eyes. Studies me. I don't know what he sees, the rage still simmering beneath my skin or the desperate hope that he'll let me be part of his life.
"I need to make a call," I say. "If we're going to do this, we need a platform. Somewhere big enough that the story hits the headlines and fast."
“I can call my editor.”
“Yeah, do that, but we need more than that. We need prime time television. I want to be on tonight. In less than an hour, if we can.”
"That’s not possible.”
"It is if I call in a favor from Georgia."
Jamie's eyebrows rise. "Your ex-fiancée?"
"Her family owns one of the largest media empires in the country. If anyone can get us a slot on a major network tonight, it's her."
"And you think she'll help? After everything?"
"I think she'll want to." I pull out my phone. "Georgia hates bullies. And right now, Warren is the biggest bully in Washington."
Jamie doesn't object. I take that as permission.
Georgia answers on the third ring.
"Carter." Her voice is cautious, curious. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you."
"I need a favor, a really big one."
"That's quite an opening." A pause. “What do you need?”
"In person. Tonight, if possible." I look at Jamie. "I need a slot on a major network. Prime time. As soon as you can arrange it."
"For what?"
"An announcement."
"Carter, I can't just—"
"It's about me and Jamie Dean." I take a breath. "And about our daughter."
The silence on the other end is deafening.
"Your daughter," Georgia repeats carefully. "As in, yours and..."
"Jamie's. Yes."