Chapter 2

That night, when we got home, he pulled me into his arms and asked how Mr. Mitchell had treated me at the office that day.

At first, I'd found it fun too.

After I got pregnant, he wanted me to quit, but I hated being stuck at home, so I insisted on staying.

I never imagined it would go this far—that I'd be just days away from giving birth and still have to beg his assistant for maternity leave for the fourteenth time.

I looked at Tanya. "I'm carrying a baby right now."

"If anything happens to this child, you won't be able to take responsibility for it."

Tanya's head snapped around. "Are you talking to me?"

She looked like she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. "Christine, did being pregnant fry your brain? You think I can't handle you?"

She jabbed a finger toward the conference room. "Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I'm the company's executive assistant! Let me make one thing perfectly clear!"

"I have exactly two rules."

"Either you put up with it."

"Or you give birth right here."

"Is that your rule, or Mr. Mitchell's?"

Tanya's face darkened. The folder hit the floor at my feet.

"You're picking a fight on purpose, aren't you?"

"You can't just take time off whenever you want. What about everyone else? If every single person acted like you, would this company run at all?"

Maggie quickly stepped between us. "Miss. Dawson, she's about to give birth. I'll submit her leave request to her direct supervisor later, so please don't be upset."

"Out of my way!"

Tanya shot her a glare. "Since when do you get a say in this?"

Maggie didn't dare say another word. She just gave my sleeve a discreet tug. "Chrissy, don't waste your breath on her. Let's go."

"The baby's what matters."

Of course, I knew the baby mattered.

That was exactly why I was done putting up with this.

I looked Tanya straight in the eye. "Any losses the company incurs as a result of my maternity leave, I'll cover them."

She stared at me for a moment, then gave me a slow once-over. "You?"

"You think you're good enough for that?"

She laughed right in my face. "One project at this company runs a few hundred thousand on the low end, a few million on the high end."

"Someone like you, showing up to work pregnant just to make ends meet — you think you can afford that?"

She tugged at my sweater. "Are you even wearing two thousand dollars' worth of clothes? I doubt you could even scrape together twenty thousand in savings. What a pathetic little act."

"Now get back to work!"

I glanced down at my clothes.

They weren't expensive, true.

My body had been changing so much during my pregnancy, so I'd just bought a few things that were comfortable to wear. As for everything Vincent had bought me, it was all sitting in the closet collecting dust.

Tanya turned to leave.

I spoke calmly. "One million, or three million?"

She stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"Didn't you say I'd cost the company money?"

I looked at her and enunciated every word. "One million, three million, or five million?"

"Name a number. I'm listening."

She slowly turned back to face me. Everyone around us was looking at me now.

Tanya was silent for a few seconds, then sneered. "You really are desperate for attention, aren't you?"

I said nothing more, waiting for her to name her price.

Instead, she waved a hand dismissively. "The meeting's starting. I'm not obligated to sit through your little performance."

I took off the ID badge I'd worn on my chest for two years.

Project Department. Christine Harper.

I gave it one last glance before tossing it into the trash. "Forget it."

"Do me a favor and tell Vincent."

"I'm done playing this game with him."

Tanya's face twisted with anger."You think you're important enough to say Mr. Mitchell's name? Employees these days really have no sense of their place."

I picked up my bag and replied with a polite smile. "You're a woman, too."

"I hope when you're pregnant someday, you get to carry the baby for three to five years."

She glared at me. I smiled again. "Although, looking at you—I suspect your mother really did carry you for two years."