“Then make it simple for me,” I snapped back, wrapping my protective arms over the baby carrier. “Tell me why you walked away from your own flesh and blood.”
Ronald let out a heavy sigh, pouring himself a measure of bourbon from the glass decanter on the sideboard. “Because we specifically required a male child, Alison, due to a binding legal clause in my late grandfather’s financial estate.”
A sickening coldness settled deep within my chest as I stared at them in utter disbelief. “Are you telling me that all those desperate tears over the last two years… all those agonizing months of begging me to be your surrogate… were all driven by money?”
Ronald took a slow sip from his glass, speaking with the cold detachment of a corporate lawyer reviewing a contract. “My grandfather established a family trust worth over twelve million dollars decades ago, but the trust agreement clearly stipulates that the vast principal can only be transferred to a direct male heir carrying our family surname.”
