Marrying My Secret Baby Daddy - Chapter #4 - by Tessa Kelwyn

POV Audrey

Kara drops into the chair across from my desk like she owns the corner office.

Which given how many times she's saved Lennox Industries from litigation she practically does.

Our Thursday lunch tradition hasn't changed since middle school. Only the setting has evolved from cafeteria trays to imported coffee and takeout from whatever restaurant is pretending to reinvent sushi this month.

"You look like death warmed over in Valentino," she announces, stealing a California roll from my container. "What did good old Willy do now? And don't say ‘nothing,’ because I've known that the crease between your eyebrows only appears when your grandfather is plotting something."

"Another arranged marriage attempt." I slide my coffee toward her, watching her perfectly sculpted eyebrows rise. "Don't look so shocked. It's his favorite hobby after hostile takeovers."

"Who's the sacrificial lamb this time?" Kara pops edamame into her mouth. "Please tell me it's not worse than that Hoffman heir who literally sobbed when you described your fictional collection of taxidermied rodents"

"You forgot the banker's son who needed therapy after I detailed my imaginary gambling debts using actuarial tables."

Kara shakes her head with grudging admiration.

"You’re my icon, girl. Really. But I didn't think your old man Willy had anyone left in Seattle society willing to be sacrificed to your psychological warfare."

​​I just smile because those are my best roles, and I deserve an Oscar.

But then Kara sighs, setting down her chopsticks, and it only means her preparing to deliver something I’d prefer not to he—

"Audrey, I know you hate hearing this, but maybe you should actually consider it this time. You haven't been with anyone since you got pregnant with Oliver—that's nine years of building walls and pretending you don't need anyone."

She paused to take a sip of coffee.

"Oliver needs a father figure. He's eight years old and practicing 'businessman faces' in mirrors because his only male role model treats affection like a leveraged negotiation."

She reaches across the desk, her voice softening. "And you deserve to be loved. Really loved. Not just respected by a board of directors. You deserve someone who sees you, all of you, and stays."

Before I can respond, my assistant Natalie appears in the doorway carrying an arrangement so massive it obscures her face.

White orchids cascade from a crystal vase—tasteful, expensive and utterly impersonal. The kind of flowers a corporate concierge selects when their client doesn't have time for sentiment.

"These just arrived, Ms. Lennox." Natalie sets them on my desk with visible relief. "The card is attached."

I wait until she leaves before extracting the envelope. The handwriting is precise, almost architectural:

‘Saturday evening. Private exhibition at the Belltown gallery. 7 PM. I'll send a car.’

His corporate signature sits beneath it like a seal on a contract. Shane Reed, CEO, Reed Logistics.

Not a date this time. A summons.

"Willy strikes again," Kara murmurs. "So? Who's the victim this time?"

"The one who didn't run."

I stare at the orchids, remembering Shane's composure as I flung every outrage I could manufacture at him. I threw everything at him—the vulgarity, the chaos, the deliberate tastelessness—and he just... absorbed it.

Like he was waiting to see what I'd do next. "Maybe you're right."

The words escape before I can catch them, and Kara's expression shifts from encouragement to shock. As if she hadn't expected me to actually agree.

"Maybe it's time I stopped fighting this. Oliver does deserve a father. And I…" My voice catches on something raw. "Maybe I am tired of being alone."

Kara stares at me, her coffee frozen halfway to her lips.

"Who are you and what have you done with Audrey? In fifteen years, I've never heard you admit to wanting anything that wasn't a business objective!"

Then she leans forward, taking my hand in hers.

"That's intriguing, I suppose. So tell me who it is—I need to run a background check before you spiral any further into this uncharacteristic vulnerability. Willy's candidate. Name."

"Shane Reed."

The color drains from her face. She releases my hand like I've burned her, and in her eyes I see it—the weight of nine years of kept secrets. The terrible knowledge she carries as the only person alive who knows Oliver's true paternity.

"That's not possible." Her voice comes out strangled. "Audrey… That cannot happen. Of all the men in Seattle, in the entire Pacific Northwest, Willy chose him? Does he know? Did he somehow—"

"He doesn't know anything. Nobody does except you."

I'm already standing, gathering my jacket.

"I need to talk to my grandfather. I need to understand what he's actually orchestrating here, because this feels less like matchmaking and more like a trap I can't see the edges of."

"Audrey, wait—"

"I'm sorry for cutting this short." I pause at the door, guilt twisting through my chest at the fear in her expression. "I'll call you tonight. I promise."

* * *

Grandfather's office radiates satisfaction before I even cross the threshold.

He sits behind his mahogany fortress looking like a general, and that smugness makes my blood run cold.

"Shane Reed sent flowers." I don't sit. "What did you tell him about me? What arrangement have you made without my knowledge, because I know that dinner was a disaster and yet he's still pursuing this, which means you've given him something I don't know about."

"The evening clearly wasn't the catastrophe you intended," Grandfather says, gesturing toward the chair I refuse to take. "Shane called me this morning. He finds you intriguing—his word, not mine. He wants to continue exploring the arrangement."

"I don't want to continue anything. The relationship is over before it started, and whatever leverage you think you have—"

"Lennox Industries and Reed Logistics are merging."

Grandfather delivers the words like a verdict, watching my face as comprehension crashes through me.

"The deal closes next quarter. Romy and I have been in negotiations for months. This marriage isn't merely advantageous, Audrey—it's inevitable. You'll be working together regardless of whether you share a last name."

The floor tilts beneath my heels.

He’s been planning this merger for months. While I restructured the Pacific routes. While I proved myself to the board. While I believed I was earning the CEO position through competence.

My voice shakes with rage I can barely contain. "All this time you were already setting up my future behind my back…"

"I was securing your future. The combined company will be the largest logistics operation on the West Coast, and you'll run it together—equal partners, equal authority. The board will approve your candidacy the moment you're married to Shane Reed, because together you represent something neither of you could achieve alone."

He leans back, victory softening his features into something almost paternal.

"This is everything you wanted, Audrey. I'm simply ensuring you get it."

"By removing my choice in the matter! By treating me like an asset to be merged rather than a person with agency!"

My phone buzzes before I can continue, and Oliver's name flashes on the screen.

I opened the message to find a photo from his museum field trip. My son stands beside a wall of patron portraits, his small face arranged in an exaggerated scowl that mirrors the man in the photograph behind him.

Shane Reed's corporate headshot looms over Oliver's shoulder while my boy mimics his serious expression perfectly.

Oliver: This guy is everywhere! I think he's stalking me. Ha-ha

The knife in my chest twists until I can't breathe.

Oliver—my innocent, brilliant Oliver—standing beside his father's image without any idea that their resemblance isn't coincidence. Joking about a stranger who shares half his genetic code.

"I won't be managed like a subsidiary." I pocket my phone. "Whatever you've planned, whatever you think you've orchestrated—I am not a merger to be closed. I am not a problem to be solved through strategic acquisition!"

I leave before he can respond, my heels marking a retreat that feels less like escape and more like walking deeper into a trap I can no longer see the edges of.

Shane Reed—who broke me once without ever knowing I existed—has now accidentally destroyed my life twice.

And the worst part is, he's still completely unaware of the damage he's done.