Oh, God, this is hard! “Well, that wasn’t true. I lied to you when I said I was dating the guy. Sasha’s dad is actually someone I met at the club. We slept together a few times. I never told him I was pregnant, so he didn’t know about Sash until today when the paper printed it.” I covered my eyes with my hand, waiting for him to shout at me for deceiving him.

He was quiet for a minute before he spoke. The silence was actually a little painful. “Okay, I get that you lied. But I’m still confused as to why all the reporters are suddenly all over our flat. Why would they even care about you and Sash?”

“Her dad is Carson Matthews.”

“Holy shit! No fucking way!”

My mouth popped open in shock. I’d never heard Rory swear before. “Rory! Watch your language!” I chastised. “And you’d better not be anywhere near Sash speaking like that!”

“Oops, wait…” He went quiet for a couple of seconds, and I heard a door close. “No, she didn’t hear me,” he admitted sheepishly. “Carson Matthews, though? Seriously?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah.”

“Whoa, I didn’t see that coming,” he muttered. I swallowed the lump in my throat, grateful to Lucie for not spilling all and telling him what this was about. I needed to explain it to him personally. “He didn’t even know about Sash?”

“No. I never told him. He found out this morning from the papers. He’s really angry with me because I didn’t tell him about her. We’re trying to work some stuff out right now. He, er…” I frowned down at my lap. “He wants to be a dad to Sasha.”

“That’s good,” Rory replied.

“Yeah, kinda good. But he wants something else, too.” I had no idea how I could explain this to Rory. I decided just to put it out there and see how he reacted. “Carson refuses to let her live in our flat, so he’s insisting the three of us move in with him. He wants us to get married.” I winced, waiting for his reaction.

There was a sharp intake of breath down the line. “Married? Is this even what you want? How the hell is that going to work? You two aren’t even dating, are you?”

“No, we’ve never dated, but Carson isn’t seeing sense right now. He’s being irrational, and he’s not thinking clearly. He thinks this is a good idea for Sasha to have a parental unit. I don’t get a say, apparently.”

“Don’t get a say? Of course you get a bloody say! If you don’t want to move in with him and marry him then don’t!” Rory ranted angrily.

“It’s not that simple,” I countered.

“Why isn’t it that simple? Tell the twat you don’t want to marry him and that’s that. What can he do? Frogmarch you up the friggin’ aisle and force you to say the words? No, he can’t.” His tone showed his fury.

I sighed. “Rory, I haven’t got the energy for this right now, all right? I’m just going along with it for now, and I’ll make him see sense before it gets that far. He’s just angry and upset because I didn’t tell him he had a daughter. He’ll calm down, and then we can talk it all through.”

“You should punch him in the face,” he muttered angrily.

I smiled weakly. “I haven’t got the energy for that, either,” I admitted. Carson walked in then, setting a sandwich down on the table for me before heading over and pulling out a laptop, sitting on one of the other sofas. I looked at the sandwich. He must have taken over making it where I left off. That was actually quite sweet. I felt myself start to smile at him before I gritted my teeth and looked away. No, I’m not going to forgive him because he made me a damn cheese sandwich!

As calmly as possible, I explained everything to Rory: how Carson and I met, how we’d go to the backroom together, how he was now demanding we get married, how he would take me to court if I didn’t, and how I’d already packed up a few days’ clothes for the three of us. I deliberately left out the part about Carson’s father leaving when he was a kid; it seemed like too much personal information to share with my brother. I told him about the statement going out in the papers that was going to say we were dating on and off for three years. The whole time I spoke, Carson just sat there, either not listening to me or pretending not to. I made sure to add a few digs in there about how I thought the idea was stupid and how I would rather just live at our place. I could have sworn I saw Carson’s body twitch when I told Rory that two people who didn’t love each other shouldn’t get married, and that we were both going to be miserable in the long run. Carson’s fingers drummed a little bit too hard on the keyboard as I spoke, so obviously he was listening to me.

Rory hadn’t reacted as badly as I thought he would to the knowledge his big sister sold herself to a client at the club every weekend. In fact, he’d barely even acknowledged I’d said it. I had the distinct impression he didn’t know how to deal with the information so he just chose not to address it at this point. No doubt his feelings on the subject would become apparent sooner or later, though. For now, he just sided with me and vowed to be there for us both regardless. He promised never to tell anyone about the real circumstances of our relationship, and that he’d let me deal with it as requested.

After I’d told Rory everything, I spoke to Lucie, explaining everything to her. Her reaction wasn’t the doom and gloom or anger of Rory’s; instead, she was actually a little excited about it. “You should just make the most of it, Emma! You’re on easy street now. You’re marrying a millionaire; you’ll want for nothing!” she enthused.