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made a decision to leave me out.”
    “That’s not fair,” she shouted hotly.
    “You want to know what’s not fair?” Grant reached over and picked up the paternity agreement Mary had spent so much time putting together. “This shit isn’t fair!”
    “Grant, that’s enough,” his father admonished.
    “This is bullshit and you know it. That’s my baby, and she can’t keep me away from it.”
    “You’re just being petty right now. It eats you up inside to think you haven’t won . If I’d looked you up and asked you for money, I’m sure we’d be having a different conversation.” Charlie was really angry now. She wasn’t the one who brought in the high-priced lawyers. Yes, she should have told him sooner, and after she’d dragged her feet she would have told him eventually. But the key to this would have been her telling him, not his fucking legal team. She pushed herself up from her seat and glared down at Grant. The pain was becoming unbearable, and the anger she felt over his accusations wasn’t helping.
    “This conversation is over. I’d like to keep our relationship civil for the sake of our child. I’m willing to agree to visitation at some point in the future, but I will not be bullied. We have a baby now, okay, but you are not going to run over me.”
    “Ms. Ambrose, I’m sure if you sit down you and my son can have a reasonable conversation about the future of the child,” the elder Carter said, as he tried to play mediator.
    Mary was already up and out of her seat, helping Charlie maneuver around the deep conference chairs they’d been seated in. As far as grand exits went, hers was shaping up to be pretty pathetic.
    “I don’t plan to be bullied, either. I will have a say in my child’s life.”
    Charlie was prepared to blast him with a scathing rebuttal, but at that moment the pain she’d been silently enduring since late last night flared and left her with no ability to speak. She curled forward and rested one hand on the table and the other on her lower belly, taking deep breaths. The anxiety that had been a constant in her life recently beat a steady staccato of alarm through her brain. She still had two more weeks until her due date.
    “Charlie, are you okay?” Mary asked with concern as she leaned to help Charlie stand.
    Charlie hadn’t realized she was starting to fall until her friend righted her. It seemed she was only able to shake her head as a wave of pain crested through her body. When it was finally over, she looked up to see Grant staring at her with an ashen expression.
    “I’m fine. I’m fine,” she breathed through clenched teeth.
    “I’m going to take you to the hospital.” Mary’s worried expression didn’t help quell Charlie’s nerves.
    “I’ll take her.”
    Charlie hadn’t registered Grant coming around the table until she felt his strong hands pulling her toward him. She could be stubborn, and considering the heated argument they’d had earlier, pride was whispering fiercely in her ear to rebuff his attention, but pain was her master now, and she would do anything he requested if he could get her to the place that made it stop.
    “I think she is in labor. Harold, have someone call an ambulance.” There was no mistaking the authoritative tone of Robert Carter.
    “That won’t be necessary. I’m not going into labor. I’m sure it’s just the stress of today.”
    Okay, maybe pride was willing to fold for Grant, but she couldn’t help getting in one jab to his father. The older man didn’t respond but instead gave her a look she was all too familiar with. It was an identical replica of her father's favorite expression when she annoyed him. She'd started calling it the, "I hear you but choose to ignore what you are saying" face, as a young girl. Charlie winced as more pain coursed through her body, and Robert Carter turned back to the man named Harold and nodded his head. Harold leapt from his seat and headed quickly out of the room.
    “I