Chapter 4 - The Ultimatum
Griffin carefully shifted the girls onto the wide hospital couch, tucking his jacket around them.
Then he walked over to Sloan’s bed.
He sat on the edge of the mattress.
“What do you mean, from my family?”
Sloan wiped her face.
She was too tired to lie anymore. The secret she had carried for nearly a decade was finally too heavy.
“Nine years ago, after that night in Chicago… I found out I was pregnant.”
Griffin stared at her.
“I came to Seattle to tell you,” Sloan continued. “I went to the Drake Enterprises building. But I didn’t see you.”
“Who did you see?”
“Your father.”
Griffin’s jaw clenched.
Arthur Drake had been a ruthless, calculating man who viewed everyone as a transaction.
“He told me you were finalizing the merger with the Sterling group,” Sloan whispered. “He told me that if I complicated your life with an unplanned pregnancy, he would bury me in court. He said he would use his lawyers to take the babies and make sure I never saw them again.”
Griffin went completely still.
“He threatened to take my children,” Sloan sobbed. “I had nothing, Griffin. I was a junior architect drowning in student debt. He was a billionaire. I knew he could do it.”
“So you ran.”
“I changed my number. I took freelance jobs under a different name. I built a quiet life where he could never find us.”
Griffin looked back at his daughters.
His father had died three years ago.
Arthur Drake had taken his secrets to the grave, leaving Griffin to believe Sloan had simply stopped loving him.
“I fired my father from the board five years ago,” Griffin said quietly.
Sloan looked up.
“You did?”
“He tried to force a hostile takeover of a rival company. I realized he had no moral compass, and I pushed him out.”
Griffin looked at Sloan.
“If I had known, Sloan. If I had known he threatened you…”
“What would you have done?”
Griffin reached out and gently took her hand.
The IV line taped to her skin bruised his heart. She had been working herself to the bone to provide for their daughters, terrified and alone.
“I would have burned Drake Enterprises to the ground before I let him touch you,” Griffin said.
The absolute certainty in his voice broke the last of Sloan’s defenses.
She wept.
Griffin leaned forward and pulled her into his chest.
He held her just as securely as he had held the twins.
May you like
“I’m sorry,” she cried into his shirt. “I was so scared.”
“You don’t have to be scared anymore,” Griffin whispered into her hair. “I’ve got you. I’ve got all three of you.”
