A Secret in Her Father's House, A Pregnancy Neither Can Hide novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: You'll Stay

"You'll stay," Henrik said again, in case she had not heard.

Alana stared at him.

She had been expecting a hundred reactions in the last twenty hours.

She had rehearsed shock, and fury, and the cold calm he used with customers.

She had not rehearsed an order.

"I'm sorry?"

"You'll stay here. In this house. I'll call the doctor this morning, she's the best in Astoria, and she delivered half the town." He was already moving, pulling a pad of paper toward him. "We clear the study for a nursery. You'll need a car with a back seat. I'll take the autumn charters off the schedule..."

"Henrik."

"...and I'll talk to Janice myself."

"Henrik."

He looked up.

"You haven't asked me what I want."

"I'm telling you what's going to happen."

"That's what I said."

His jaw tightened.

"You're twenty-six. You're carrying my child. What did you think I'd say?"

"I thought you'd ask."

"Ask what?"

"Anything."

The kitchen went quiet.

She heard the river, and the refrigerator, and her own heart.

"Do you know what you did when I was nine?" she said.

He went still.

"I'm not talking about the divorce. I mean the weekend. Mom put my whole room in boxes on a Friday, and I stood in the driveway on Sunday with my backpack, and you were on the porch."

"Alana."

"You had your hands in your pockets. You said, 'Be good for your mother.' And you went inside."

"I know."

"I waited in the car for ten minutes. I thought you'd come back out."

"I know what I did."

"You never asked me to stay." Her voice cracked. "Not once. Not that day, not any summer. I was nine, and I sat in the back seat and waited for you to ask. I've been waiting for it ever since. And now you want to tell me to stay."

He stood very still.

His face did not change, but she saw something go out of it.

"That's not the same," he said at last, low.

"Isn't it?"

"I'm trying to take care of you."

"You're trying to decide for me."

"Yes." He said it flatly. "I'm bad at the difference."

"Then learn it."

"Alana."

"I won't be told, Henrik. Not about this. I'll have the doctor you pick if I want him, and I'll sleep in your study if I want to, and I'll tell my mother or I won't, and none of that is yours."

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