I watched him, my heart a stone. "Talk? What's left to say?"
He walked into the room, closing the door behind him. "Indiana can be... demanding. She's high-strung, especially with the pregnancy. I was just trying to manage the situation." He ran a hand through his hair, looking genuinely stressed. "She followed me here, Alyssa. She showed up at the office, threatening to go public with everything if I didn't acknowledge the baby."
"Go public with what, Chase?" I asked, my voice flat. "That you cheated on your wife? People already know that."
"No, not just that," he said, his voice dropping. "Her baby isn't mine, Alyssa. At least, I don't think so. It's complicated. She was dating Sterling Thorne, the CEO of our biggest rival, Thorne Industries. There was a scandal, a paternity suit, a nightmare for both families. Indiana came to me, desperate. She said Thorne abandoned her. She begged me to claim the child, to save her reputation, and to protect the merger. She said if I didn't, she'd expose everything, and she threatened to claim the baby was Thorne's, but that I was the one who pushed her to abort our child. It would destroy everything, Alyssa. The merger, the family name, everything Clementina built."
My blood ran cold. "So you decided to sacrifice my child, our child, instead? To pretend her baby was yours, and mine didn't exist?"
He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes pleading. "No! That's not it. I just... I needed time. To figure things out. To protect us. I couldn't risk the company. Clementina... she agreed to this. She said it was the only way to save the Swanson name and the Thorne merger. She said once the merger was secure, and things calmed down, we could find a way. You and me. Our baby. We'd still be a family, a true family."
"A true family?" I pulled away from his grasp. "Chase, you just told me your mother agreed to disavow our child. She wants my baby to disappear. How is that a family?"
"She was just trying to protect the family, Alyssa! You don't understand the pressure she's under. The stakes are enormous." He tried to hold me again, his touch now feeling alien, contaminated. "I love you, Alyssa. I picked you. You're my wife. This is just a temporary measure. A public face. We'll get through this. You and I. We always do."
"No, Chase," I said, my voice barely a whisper, but firm. "Not this time. This isn't a temporary measure. This is a betrayal. If you go through with this, with claiming Indiana's child, with silencing mine, then we are over. I will leave. And I will take our child with me."
His face hardened. The mask of regret fell away, replaced by the cold, calculating CEO I knew so well. "You can't do that, Alyssa. You're my wife. And you're carrying a Swanson. I won't let you leave." His eyes were like chips of ice.
"Watch me," I challenged, turning back to my bag.
He stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "No." His voice was low, dangerous. "You will stay here. In this penthouse. You will be safe. You will follow the family's instructions. For the sake of the Swanson name. And for our child."
"You can't keep me here," I said, my heart starting to race with a new kind of fear.
"I can. And I will." He pulled out his phone, making a quick call. "Security. Alyssa is not to leave the penthouse. No visitors. No outside communication. Effective immediately." He hung up, his eyes meeting mine, cold and unyielding. "Consider yourself under house arrest, Alyssa. For your own good. Until this merger is secured, and until you understand the gravity of the situation."
He walked out, leaving me trapped, alone, in a gilded cage. The click of the lock, though I didn't hear it, echoed in my mind. A prisoner in my own home. My anger, my grief, my fear, all began to coalesce into something harder, colder. A resolve. He might have locked me in, but he couldn't break me. Not yet.
