Marry My Billionaire Second Husband - Chapter 264

Chapter 264: The Baby’s Father I
“Of course it’s not!” Aiden immediately denied it, a patented look of disgust on his face. It wasn’t too hard to fake it; he had thoroughly regretted his decision to stick his cock into Emmeline.

“Mom, you can’t believe what those people are saying! I might not like Matteo, but that doesn’t mean I’ll go as far as to cuck him― and with Emmeline out of all people. Mom, I have standards.”

Catherine stared back at him, unimpressed. After all, she was his mother, and she knew all too well what standards her son had for women in the past. Either wide-eyed innocents who fell to the charms of a leather jacket and a motorcycle, or vapid bimbos who wanted a rich handsome man to hang off.

“What! Mom, my standards might be low, but I have them. And you know Emmeline isn’t my type,” Aiden continued. “She’s too annoying to be worth any fun.”

Case in point, right now. If he had never agreed to her ridiculous scheme, his life would be so peaceful and he could watch the fires happen from a safe distance. But no, now he was dragged inside this mess because his sperm was too virile!

If he had a time machine, he would travel back in time and slap his past self so hard that it would cause any non-Emmeline-related descendant to shake and shiver from the blow.

“You had better not be,” Catherine spat out, yet the suspicion continued to linger.

She had raised Aiden from infancy, so she was aware of the way his eyes would dart to the left the moment he lied. The harder he lied, the more evasive and defensive he would sound.

“In that case, where did this rumor come from?”

“How would I know?” Aiden shrugged nonchalantly. “Probably some of the girls decided to spice up the scandal further by dragging me into it. They’re not too happy that I’m replacing Matteo.”

“Are you very sure that Emmeline’s child is not your own?” Catherine asked again, completely ignoring the latter half of his response.

“Yes, Mother. I am not lying about this,” Aiden lied firmly. He had to get his mother off his back, and the best way to do so was to turn the tables. “But Mom, why are you so hung up about this? Are you planning to marry me off to Emmeline if I’m actually the father of her kid?”

He felt a sudden chill in the air as his mother raised her head to meet his eyes.

“Definitely not!” The vehemence in her tone caused Aiden to blink in surprise. “You’ll marry Emmeline over my dead body.”

“Really? I thought you would haul me to the altar to take responsibility,” Aiden said cautiously, half wondering if this was a trick. “Didn’t you want to tie us to the Hawthornes?”

“Matteo must be the one to marry Emmeline. I do not want you to take his place,” Catherine said, her eyes flashing with disgust. “I have other plans for you. In the meantime, keep your distance from Emmeline.”

Aiden stared at his mother, puzzled at her fierce reaction. Things weren’t making sense. But he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Avoiding Emmeline was just right up his alley.

He stood up and made his way to leave the room. “Fair enough. In that case, goodnight, Mom.”

As he left the room, Catherine clenched her fist so tightly that her fingernails gouged deep crescents into the soft flesh of her palms.

To think… She sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down while the stirrings of a fierce headache brewed behind her temples. How could she resolve this mess? Her grandchild… a monstrosity waiting to be born…

No. It couldn’t be born. The baby had to go. There was no doubt about it. Since it no longer functioned as a tie to Matteo, it was nothing more than a deadweight dragging her down, a timebomb waiting to explode.

She reached out for her phone. There was only one person she could use to convince Emmeline about this decision.

***

“You want me to do what?” Annalise whispered frantically into her phone while she was stuck outside Emmeline’s hospital room. Her daughter had thrown another tantrum― her mood swings were becoming more and more erratic the moment the news of her lies had been made public.

Frankly, it was too exhausting for Annalise to handle alone. Benjamin was so incredibly useless that he had only shown up once and left without saying anything of value.

“You want me to convince Emmeline to get an abortion? Are you crazy, Catherine?”

Catherine purposely pitched her voice low to make it sound more soothing and persuasive.

“Annalise, I know this is a tough time for both you and Emmeline, but with all the rumors… How can you bear to let Emmeline raise this child on her own now that Matteo has the means to refuse all responsibility?”

She paused for a while, just to let her words marinate in the brief shocked silence. “She’s still young, with her whole life ahead of her. Surely you don’t want her to have a baby out of wedlock! Her place in society would be ruined! Your father-in-law would never take her back!”

“Of course I don’t want her to be an unwed mother!” Annalise immediately replied. In her heart, she knew that Horace Hawthorne’s chances of accepting Emmeline back into the family were practically nil.

The Montgomerys were Emmeline’s only hope. And if the rumors from the streets were to be believed, Aiden was responsible for the baby growing inside Emmeline’s womb.

Annalise gnashed her teeth. To think Catherine was so heartless that she would rather Annalise’s daughter get an abortion so that her son wouldn’t need to take responsibility!

“I’m planning to get her to marry the father of her child,” Annalise said. “It takes two hands to clap, and Emmeline has no intention of aborting the baby she tried so hard to save.”

Her daughter had been cradling her baby bump in desperation, as though it was a lifeline. Annalise could not bear to think what would happen if she suggested an abortion.

“More importantly… I’ve heard rumors that your son Aiden was responsible! I cannot believe you would side with him now!”

“Like you said, those were nothing more than rumors,” Catherine retorted quickly, even as she tightened the grip on her phone. “I’ve asked Aiden about them, and he swore to me that he was not the father.”

“And I suppose your son is such a bastion of honesty?” Annalise fired back without mercy. “Catherine, if you have any love for me as your friend, you would send your son over right now to do the blood test!”