The day I went with Sally James to pick up her prenatal results, she suddenly confessed.
"I cheated on you."
"And the baby isn't yours. It's your driver's. It's Sebastian Henson's."
Sally said it the way someone sets down a heavy bag, her tone so light it bordered on cruel.
"Sebastian's young, you know. He's different. He knows how to sweet-talk a woman, how to wear her out."
"Not like you. You were raised on rules your whole life, the perfect young master. He's a refreshing change."
My fingertips tightened, inch by inch.
She added with a smile,
"But don't worry. I'll still be Mrs. Gilbert."
"I'll still give you all the dignity you need."
"You can't just chain me down because I'm pregnant."
"A woman wanting a little excitement on the side, that's perfectly normal."
I laughed.
To marry Sally, I gave up my claim to the family inheritance.
Then, with my own two hands, I built her company up from nothing.
But surely she didn't actually believe that being called "boss" a few times made her one of us?
I could lift her to the heights. And I could shatter her into pieces.
——
Sally watched the color drain from my face and sighed.
"Ulysses Gilbert, I was always going to find the right moment to tell you."
"I just didn't expect the pregnancy to show up today."
I looked down at the crumpled prenatal slip in my fist.
"How long?"
Sally paused.
"Six months."
Sebastian, standing behind her, supplied with a grin,
"Longer than that, isn't it, Sally?"
"The first time was the night Ulysses flew to Harbor City to negotiate your funding. You were drunk. You held onto me and said Ulysses had every good quality except one. He was always so buttoned up."
Something inside me clenched, like a hand crushing my chest.
I went to Harbor City to lock down the funding that would save her company.
Her cash flow had been days from collapse.
The Gilbert family had thrown me out. Everyone was waiting to watch me fail.
But I still flew into Harbor City through the typhoon, drank at that table until my stomach bled.
So while I lay in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, she and my driver were tangled up together.
Sebastian tilted his head and looked at me, his eyes shining with open triumph.
"Mr. Gilbert, that morning, Miss James even praised me for being young and full of energy."
"Said being with me was a lot more fun than being with you."
I looked at that familiar face and, for a moment, couldn't speak.
Ten years ago, I went to do charity work in the mountains.
Back then he wasn't Sebastian. He was just a boy with a different name.
So thin he was nothing but bones, too starved to even stand steady.
I paid for his treatment. I put him through school.
After he graduated, afraid people would look down on him, I kept him close as my driver and assistant.
I taught him cars. I taught him how to read a room. I taught him how to bow his head with dignity in a world full of money and ego.
He once knelt in front of me, eyes rimmed red, and said,
"Ulysses, without you, there'd be no me. None of this."
So this was the gratitude he meant.
Getting Sally pregnant with his child.
Seeing me fixed on Sebastian, Sally frowned.
"Ulysses, this isn't really his fault."
"I'm the one who fell first."
But Sebastian reacted as if he'd heard the most moving words of love, his eyes welling up.
"Sally..."
They nearly made me laugh out of sheer disgust.
Sally looked at me, her voice softening.
"Don't blame him. Sebastian's young, his heart's simple."
"He's not like you, raised on rules from childhood, always so stiff about everything."
"With him, it's easy. And exciting."
When she finished, her gaze finally settled on the prenatal slip in my hand.
"Ulysses, if the baby bothers you, we can just tell everyone it's yours."
