“Yes.”
He threw his arms in the air, his voice boomed through her house. “How can I trust what you say, Mia? How can I ever trust you to be open and honest with me? You of all people know how important family is.”
Okay, that was low, but she refused to let him pull her into a fight, refused to throw away this family she’d already come to love.
“Bronson, family means everything to me, too.” A soft flutter slid through her stomach as her baby moved. “But this was not my secret to tell, and if Anthony had decided to never open up, then my spilling the secret would’ve ruined everything.”
“Did you know he was going to talk to my mother?”
“Yes. He told me last week he’d be talking to her in the next few days.”
Bronson’s lids fluttered down, and a curse slipped through his lips. “So the whole time we were gone you knew what was happening back here?” he asked, directing those blue eyes at her.
Mia nodded. “I was so worried what we’d come home to, but I wanted that time with you, Bronson. I wanted that time with just us because I have fallen in love with you. Not because of the baby, but because of us.”
Bronson laughed. “There is no us, Mia. Us implies a unit, and I’m not going to be part of a team where I can’t trust my partner.”
The burn in Mia’s throat quickly spread to her eyes, but she wasn’t giving up. She’d known going in this would be hard, but she had never been a quitter.
“If you look back, you’ll see I did nothing to make you not trust me, Bronson. If you think that you can’t see where this relationship would go, then fine. Walk out that door and don’t look back. Don’t give me a second thought. But I know you can’t do that.”
“Not when you’re carrying my baby,” he threw back.
Anger fueled Mia. “The baby may have brought us together, but this baby is not the reason I want to be with you or the reason I love you. And you cannot tell me you aren’t in love with me, Bronson.”
“I’m not.”
“Now who’s lying?” she whispered through tears. “You make love to me like I’m the most important thing in your life. You whisk me away to a castle for a week when I know you never take that much time off work. You surprise me with all of my favorite things and you take me shopping for custom-made, Italian furniture. Don’t even deny those are signs of love.”
That gaze bore into her, but Mia held her ground. Her future, their baby’s future, was at stake.
“Leave if you want,” she told him, praying he’d come to his senses. “But know that no one will ever love you as much as I do. No one will ever be as faithful and loyal to you as I will. And know that you are throwing away a family that would’ve made you a lifetime of memories.”
The muscle in Bronson’s jaw ticked as he stared her in the eyes. Tension-filled silence enveloped Mia, but she hadn’t come so far in her own life by backing down from getting what she wanted.
“‘Throwing away’ implies I had something to begin with.” Bronson stepped away from the windows and crossed the wood floor to stand before her. “Yes, we have a baby, but that’s all. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing else between us. There never was, and there never will be.”
He brushed past her, careful to turn his shoulder so he didn’t even come in contact with her. Mia stood stone-still as his shoes clicked on the tile in the foyer. She didn’t even move when he opened the door and closed it.
It wasn’t until the roar of his engine died that she sank back onto the couch. Tears slid down her cheeks, one chasing after the other. But Mia didn’t feel defeated. She hadn’t lost this fight yet, and she certainly didn’t intend to.
Bronson just needed time to think. He needed time to adjust to all that had been thrown at him in one day. Mia couldn’t expect him to deal with her when she had no doubt the relationship with his mother was probably now strained.
Mia’s heart ached for Olivia. Protectively, she slid a hand around her baby. Mia couldn’t fathom giving this baby away, even if it meant a better life for the child. Olivia’s courage forty years ago astounded Mia, and she only hoped Bronson saw how his mother had always put her children’s welfare first.
Because if Bronson didn’t make peace with his mother and Anthony, there was no hope for her and the baby.
For the last hour Bronson had stared at his computer screen. Actually, at the title page of the script he and his mother had worked on, to be exact.
Everything had changed since they began working on writing their own film over a year ago. The script had been very loosely based on his mother’s life in the movie industry. She’d been adamant about keeping her personal life from the script. At first he’d assumed it was simply because she wanted to keep their personal family life to herself.
Now he knew she didn’t want to get into the fact that she’d given up her first child for adoption.
Bronson closed the script and came to his feet. His life had changed dramatically in the last three weeks, and he still hadn’t figured out what steps to take next. Who the hell did he trust? Victoria had certainly taken the news better than he had, but Victoria had always had a heart of gold and gave everyone a chance. One of these days she was going to get her heart broken.
There was nowhere for him to direct his anger. The emotion seemed to shoot out in so many different directions. He wanted to hate his mother for keeping something like this from him, but at the same time he knew she lived her own hell by not being with a child she’d given birth to and then by seeing her two sons turn into rivals in the public eye.
As for his feelings for Anthony, Bronson honestly didn’t know what to feel. Anger crept up from any emotion he battled with lately, but it wasn’t Anthony’s fault. He’d been given up for adoption and just recently discovered his mother was Hollywood’s most beloved star. As much as Bronson hated to admit it, Anthony was a victim of fate, too.
But Mia, the woman who carried his child and claimed to love him, had known for months. In all that time, she’d worked her way into his life with that innocent smile and loving nature. She’d simply glowed whenever talking about the baby.
Bronson ran a hand through his hair, turning to look out the wide window behind his desk. And now he was back to doubting the baby’s paternity. How could he trust her with anything? Did loyalty mean nothing to people anymore? How could he be so naive as to fall for another woman’s lies?
Dammit. How many times had he lectured himself not to get too attached to another child? He’d known going in that Mia’s past working relationship with Anthony made her questionable.
But he’d gone and fallen in love with the child anyway, and he knew, looking back, there was no way around it. The first time he’d seen the baby on the screen, the little heartbeat thump that resounded through the tiny exam room, there was no way anyone could avoid falling in love with that moment, that baby.
Bronson hated this helpless feeling that had plagued him since he’d come back from Italy and discovered the truth. Hated that control had been taken from his life and he’d had no way to stop it.
But he intended to get his life back in order, and the only way he knew to start was to confront each of the key players: his mother, Anthony and Mia.
The war raged within him, but he knew the person he needed to start with was the one who’d had the shock of his life, too.
Bronson didn’t call, didn’t want to think about his plan. He ran down to the kitchen, grabbed the keys to his two-door sports car and headed toward Anthony’s house before he could talk himself out of confronting him.
If Anthony wasn’t home, then Bronson would go to his mother. But right now he was too angry, and he didn’t want to talk to