“Damn it!” Paul snapped, rage boiling over now. “Would you all stop calling her a hooker! Holly is the woman who carries my child!”

The words were out before he could stop himself. And for some reason saying it strengthened his belief that it was true, that the child Holly was carrying was his. There could be no other reason for her earlier hesitation when he’d asked her how many weeks along she was in her pregnancy.

“She’s pregnant?” his mother croaked, and dropped back onto her chair. “Oh God, no!” She clasped her husband’s arm. “Oh Brad!”

“You have to pay her off, now, immediately,” his father demanded.

His mother glared at Paul. “How could you be so stupid? You have to get her to have an abortion. I can’t have a grandchild by that h—”

“Don’t say it, Mother, or I’ll walk out of here and you’ll never see me again!”

“You’d choose your family over her, over that . . . that woman?” she choked out. “All I tried all these years was to make sure you found a good woman. All I wanted for you was a respectable wife. How could you do this? How could you get involved with such filth?”

Before Paul could respond, a heavy fist slammed on the table, but it was neither his father nor Quentin who’d demanded silence by such means. It was Mirabelle.

Surprised, Paul stared at his great-aunt, but she was glaring at Paul’s mother, not at him.

“Oh, get off your high horse, Nora! Like you were that much better!”

His mother gasped and her eyes widened in shock.

“Maybe it’s time for your children to find out about your past!” Mirabelle continued, undeterred. “You know I was the only one of Brad’s family who was always on your side, but what you’re doing now is not right, Nora.”

“You wouldn’t!” his mother shouted, but Mirabelle couldn’t be stopped. Then her eyes shot to Paul and Olivia. “Don’t listen to her!”

Mirabelle huffed indignantly. “Or shall I call you Nolene? Wasn’t that the name you used when you were stripping at the Gold Club in Boston—when Brad picked you up?”

“No! Liar!” Paul’s mother choked out, her eyes wide in horror. “Brad, tell them she’s wrong!”

His father looked indecisive.

Paul exchanged a look with his sister, who looked as stunned as he. Then he stared at his mother. Pure horror was etched in her face.

“Oh, yes, the woman who’s now judging everybody else was down in the dumps herself. Apparently she doesn’t like to be reminded of that time, does she?” Mirabelle blew out a breath. “And if I recall correctly, for a few extra bucks she would give her customers more than just a lap dance.”

“Brad?” Pleadingly his mother looked at his father.

He put his hand on her forearm. “I’m sorry, honey, you know I can’t . . . ”

Wet with tears, his mother’s eyes found Paul’s. “All I did was try to save you from what your father had to endure when he married me. I only wanted to make sure you ended up with a decent woman. One who was above reproach. Somebody better than—”

“No, Nora!” his father interrupted.

Sobbing, she stormed from the room. In that moment, for the first time, Paul wanted to hug her and comfort her. Because for the first time his mother had shown her human side, the vulnerability that she’d been hiding all this time. He understood so much now. She’d tried to find a woman for him to save him from making the mistake she believed his father had made.

“Mother,” he murmured as he watched her disappear down the hallway. Slowly, he turned to his father, who’d slumped in his chair and dropped his head into his hands. “So you fell in love with a stripper.”

His father nodded without looking up. “She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen. I wanted her more than I wanted anything else.” He looked up and their gazes met. “I can’t live without her.”

For a moment, Paul let his father’s words sink into him. Could he live without Holly? The two months that they’d been apart had been hell for him. Not a day had passed that he hadn’t longed for her. And the last week they’d spent together had been like paradise.

“Didn’t your family stop you?” Paul addressed his father.

He smiled. “They tried. But love always finds a way.” His father glanced at Olivia, then back at Paul. “We eloped, and by the time we got back, Nora was already pregnant with you, Paul. So your grandparents gave up fighting us. But they always looked down on her. That’s why she became the way she is. She tried so hard to be what they wanted her to be. But your mother became bitter, because they always judged her by what she’d done in her past.”