Claimed By My Billionaire Ex

Chapter 15

OLIVE

As Claire sat in the backseat between Lucas and me, his driver got behind the wheel and pulled out of the garage. The last twenty four hours had unfolded in a whirlwind, and my mind was so conflicted with thoughts that I was barely aware of Claire and Lucas's conversation.

My heart was pounding in my chest. Was I really going to tell my daughter that Lucas was her father? I spent ten years of her life explaining that her dad was never in the picture, and now I was just going to throw this on her?

After the events of the last twenty-fours, it had become clear that this was my only choice. If Claire didn't find this out from me and Lucas, it would surely come out at school tomorrow. The wrath of the wigs were going to eat this shit up, and I knew how the world of gossiping unfolded.

Kids were sneaky, picking up on even the most subtle of details even when their parents didn't think they were listening. Worse, kids were parrots, repeating whatever they heard. And I refused to let her find out from some snot-nose bully.

I owed it to her to be prepared.

As the car emerged from the parking garage, I spotted a group of reporters standing by the front door of the apartment building. A handful of them turned our way, but the windows were so tinted they couldn't see shit.

Among them, I spotted the paparazzi Lucas hated. Jake fucking something. Was this doomed to be our life? Would I ever be able to just walk into a building on the street again? What the fuck had I gotten Claire and myself into?

Claire was holding her favorite doll and telling Lucas how I bought it from a high-end store for her sixth birthday. I'd never tell her I bought it from the dollar store. It still surprised me that it'd lasted this long.

Lucas was nodding along, asking questions and agreeing with Claire in a way that most adults didn't have the patience for.

My thoughts must have been spilling onto my face because Lucas glanced and did a double take when he saw my face. Reaching over Claire, he squeezed my wrist. You okay?

He didn't ask the question out loud because he would have had to not only interrupt Claire's story, but also redirect Claire's attention to my concern. The fact that it was just second nature for him to do that surprised me. Had he thought about having kids and how he would act, or were these just instinctive reactions?

I forced a smile and nodded, not wanting to give away the depth of my fears.

This was more than the press discovering my past. Quinn contacting me had changed everything. I'd not only hacked into Lucas's company, but now I'd seen the video Jessie Isaacs wanted.

There were two things I knew for sure. Someone else was clearly blackmailing Jessie, and it was most likely that it was the woman in the video. But why did she look so familiar? I couldn't pin it. Maybe I'd seen her at the masquerade ball, but then again, everyone had been in masks, so that made no sense.

The second thing I knew was that Jessie—and Lucas, by proxy—knew of my existence, or rather my alter ego, the anonymous me as a hacker. I didn't know if he suspected whether they were connected or what, but none of this looked good.

So as we arrived at the park on the south side of town, a new timeline appeared in my mind. This was the arrival of Point A: telling Claire that Lucas was her father. Point B would be the day that I handed this video over to Quinn, received my fifty grand, took Claire and left.

That was still part of my plan.

Except Part B depended on two factors.

As long as I was in the clear when it came to the hacking plot, it wouldn't have to be so dramatic as starting a completely new life. I would break this off with Lucas and do my best to protect Claire from the public eye. And that, way they could have a relationship with each other. That was what I hoped, at least.