Fin (Irondad)

2

9 Years and 34 Weeks Ago

New York City died for a moment.

Despite being on the seventieth floor of Stark Tower, Tony's office is never safe from the hustle and bustle of the notorious city of life. But in that moment, the buzz of human activity fizzled out. Cars stopped smoking through the streets, their engines muted, people's voices left their mouths in wisps of air.

New York City died, just for a second, whilst Tony Stark tried and failed to compute the very simple words which left the woman's mouth.

He sputtered for a minute, like Dum-e on that unfortunately not isolated occasion that he wanted to copy his creator and threw coffee over his system, except this time there were no sparks and nobody rushed to comfort him and save him from the apparent sizzling of his internal organs.

Anais remained expressionless, waiting patiently enough for the genius to gather his wits and respond on a marginally intelligent level.

"Are you- I mean are you sure that it's mine?".

A perfectly shaped eyebrow arched above one of her almond eyes, "Tony I don't know what you're insinuating, but I am one hundred percent positive that it is yours".

He blanched again, trying desperately to think in a straight line. Sure, he'd had paternity claims before, but they'd always proven to be false and never once had the pregnant woman in question waltzed right into his office.

He had a protocol for this, set up by Obadiah (long before he attempted to kill him), he knew he did. Come on Tony; Think.

And it came to him in a tsunami wave, a scripted spiel he prepared long ago which was just waiting to be unearthed.

"Right.. right okay. I have a strong team of custody lawyers who will help set up the child support. Of course, money is no object. I can ensure that you live a comfortable and financially stable life with your child. They'll of course have access to the best education all the way through to college and I will cover any medical bills. Naturally, I'll allow you to raise them without my influence and without exposing them to the media, we can keep it all under wraps and the only input I'll have will be financial which can be organised through my lawyers. You literally never have to see me again".

And that was it, right?

"No".

Oh Lord.

The billionaire's mind went blank for a moment, shocked at the refusal. It had to be the money, right? She wanted more money. That's fine, he could do money. He'd do whatever it took to get that woman out of his office and out of his life.

God, why did he sleep with her?

"Like I said, money is no object. If a few extra numbers in your bank account would help to settle your mind then that can absolutely be arranged", he flashed a signature Stark smile, all teeth and no sincerity, acting as though his heart wasn't about to fly right out of his rib cage.

"No, Stark, that's not how this is going to work".

Fucking hell what did she want?

And he was getting frustrated. Why couldn't she just tell him what she wanted? If she was taking it to the press, why not just say so? Or did she want to watch him squirm? Was she even pregnant? Was it just an elaborate operation to get under his skin?

"I don't understand", because he didn't.

Even worse, he could see the satisfaction in her eyes. She knew that he was uncomfortable, that he was worried and impatient. She knew exactly what she was doing and she was loving every drawn-out second.