The word did not need decoration.
It did not need explanation.
Dominic looked at Grace.
She watched understanding arrive in stages.
First disbelief.
Then calculation.
Then something far more dangerous to a man who had spent his life controlling what people were allowed to see.
Fear.
“How long have you known?” he asked.
“Since this morning.”
His eyes returned to the report.
“And it’s—”
He stopped.
Grace felt the unfinished question like a slap.
She folded the paper once.
Dominic realized too late what he had almost asked.
His face hardened with immediate regret.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it was.”
“No.”
“You were about to ask whether the baby is yours.”
He said nothing.
Grace nodded slowly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making leaving easier.”
She pushed the report back into the envelope.
Dominic crossed the remaining distance before seeming to remember that she had told him not to.
He stopped an arm’s length away.
“The child is mine.”
It was not a question this time.
Grace looked directly at him.
“Yes.”
Something in Dominic’s posture changed.
The man who had just dismissed their relationship as though deleting a line from a ledger suddenly seemed unable to decide where to place his hands.
He looked toward the window, then back at her.
“You’re carrying my child.”
“Our child.”
The correction was immediate.
Dominic’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Grace continued before he could answer.
“And before whatever part of you starts issuing orders, understand this clearly.
Being the father does not make you the owner of what happens next.”
His mouth tightened.
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“You were already thinking it.”
That stopped him.
Grace knew his expressions too well.
She had watched him enter rooms filled with men twice his age and leave with every important decision in his hands.
She had watched him turn emotion into strategy before emotion had finished forming.
Even now, she could see the machinery moving behind his eyes.
Where would she stay?
Who would know?
Who would protect her?
What risks existed?
What arrangements had to be made?
