THE BILLIONAIRE'S BABY REVELATION

  HOLLY RAYNER

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  1. Amelia

  2. Liam

  3. Amelia

  4. Liam

  5. Liam

  6. Amelia

  7. Amelia

  8. Liam

  9. Amelia

  10. Liam

  11. Amelia

  12. Liam

  13. Amelia

  14. Liam

  15. Amelia

  16. Liam

  17. Amelia

  18. Liam

  19. Amelia

  20. Liam

  21. Amelia

  22. Liam

  23. Amelia

  Epilogue

  Also by Holly Rayner

  Copyright 2024 by Holly Rayner

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  CHAPTER 1

  AMELIA

  “Jamie!” Amelia waved her arms to get her nephew’s attention. “Hold on tight, okay?”

  “Okay!” Little Jamie, three years old this month, waved back with one hand as he grabbed the seat with the other. He’d ridden the zip line a few times on his own, and Amelia was confident that he could do it, but a hint of nerves flared anyway as he jumped onto the seat and shot down the zip line. It seemed faster than should be allowed in a playground.

  “Aba?” Amelia’s attention turned to little Jade, Jamie’s little sister. At twelve months old, she had just mastered the art of standing while holding onto something, and she was now positioned next to Amelia’s bench in a squat, a clump of dirt in one hand.

  “Oh, honey.” Amelia gently removed the dirt from her niece’s hand, then lifted the little girl onto her lap. “I’m sure we can find you something better to play with.” She dug in the enormous diaper bag her sister had packed for her and found a tiny toy duck. Jade squealed with joy, grabbed the toy, and immediately popped it into her mouth.

  With Jade satisfied and Jamie safely back in line for the zip line, Amelia took the opportunity to scan the park for the other kids. Molly and Maisy, Amelia’s brother’s six-year-old twins, were sitting at the top of the play structure, playing an elaborate clapping game of their own invention. Ben, the oldest at ten years old and the only child of Amelia’s oldest sister, was playing Uno with a group of similarly aged boys. Everyone seemed happy and safe. Amelia let out a relieved sigh and snuggled Jade closer.

  It was a sunny Monday in May. The kids were off school for a teachers’ conference, and Amelia had happily volunteered to watch all five of her nieces and nephews while their parents went to work. A few months ago, on a Monday afternoon, Amelia would have been elbows-deep in a meeting or scanning potential new hires for the start-up where she used to work. Yet now she was here, holding a toddler and watching kids run and play.

  Amelia sighed. She loved her nieces and nephews more than anything and cherished the hours she got to spend with them while they were still little. The time she had to really get to know these amazing kids was a silver lining in the dark cloud of her having been let go several months ago.

  Amelia sighed again. It wasn’t her fault that she’d been let go, and she knew it — the start-up, Shondyn, had been bought out, and everyone had moved on. Yet Amelia couldn’t really move on. She’d poured her heart and soul into Shondyn. Her job there, in HR, had been her first work out of college and had lasted through her twenties. Amelia had sacrificed everything to see the company grow, giving up on a social life when most of her friends were out at parties and thriving in the dating scene. And then, suddenly, it had all been over.

  “Aunt Amelia!” Maisy came tearing across the playground and came to a stop by Amelia’s legs. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement. “Molly and I made up a new trick on the monkey bars. Will you come see?”

  “Of course!” Amelia got to her feet, shifting Jade onto her hip as she stood. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  As Amelia followed her niece across the playground, she vowed to put all thoughts of work out of her mind for the afternoon. Yes, she was still bitter about how her tenure with Shondyn had ended. And yes, she needed to get a new job, soon, whether she wanted to or not. But for today, none of that mattered. Today, she was just a doting aunt enjoying a sunny May day at a playground.

  Amelia leaned against the metal play structure and watching as Molly and Maisy grabbed the monkey bars, twined their legs together, and swung back and forth. The routine continued into a knee-hang, during which the girls linked hands, and ended with a trick Molly told her was called “skin the cat,” in which the girls hung upside down, threaded their legs through their arms, and dropped onto the ground.

  Amelia applauded appreciatively. “That was great! You two should join the circus.”

  “No way.” Maisy brushed her blond hair out of her eyes. “We’re going to be Olympic gymnasts. Right, Molly?”

  “Right! Or maybe princesses. Or astronauts.” The girls high-fived, and Amelia smiled. These two were so excited about their future and so full of faith that everything was going to work out. Amelia wished she could be a little more like them.

  The twins ran off towards a giant metal slide. Amelia checked on Jamie, who was now playing in the sandbox, then put Jade down. The little girl held on to a low wooden balance beam and bounced on her small legs.

  Amelia felt another sting of sadness at the sight of her young niece. Amelia’s focus on work throughout her twenties meant that she was far from any chance of having her own child. Amelia had always known that she wanted a family — a big family. Growing up in a happy, noisy house with her three siblings, there had always been someone to play with, someone to help if she was in trouble, and someone to laugh with. Amelia’s siblings were all married now, with kids of their own, but Amelia had never even had a serious relationship.

  That was a problem for another day, too.

  Just then, Jamie came running towards Amelia. His little face was bright red with anger.

  “He stealed my truck!” Jamie shouted. He pointed back at the sandbox, where a toddler was driving a plastic truck back and forth across the sand.

  “Honey.” Amelia bent down. “I know that must have been frustrating. Were you playing with the truck?”

  Jamie nodded and sniffled.

  “But remember, the toys at the park are for everybody. How about we find something else fun to do? Do you want me to push you on the swings?”

  Jamie teetered for a moment between the fun of the swings and his anger over the stolen truck. Then he tipped into anger.

  “Nooooo! I want the truck!”

  A full meltdown was coming. Luckily, Amelia had a few tricks up her sleeve for just this situation.

  “Hey, Jamie. How about some ice cream?”

  The little boy perked up, his howl cutting off in the middle.

  “Really?”

  “Really. Your mom said you could have an ice cream today, if you were very well-behaved. Are you very well-behaved?”

  Jamie nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Yeah!”

  “Okay, then. Can you go find Ben?”

  Amelia settled Jade into her stroller, rounded up Molly and Maisy from the top of the slide, and rejoined Ben and Jamie by the edge of the park.

  “Everybody ready?”

  They nodded, so Amelia took Jamie’s hand and led them towards the ice cream shop a few blocks away.

  “What flavors are you all going to get?” she asked when she noticed that Molly was starting to drag her feet.

  “Strawberry!”

  “Vanilla!”

  “Chocolate!”

  “Pistachio!”

  The kids chattered excitedly about ice cream all the way to the shop. When they arrived, Amelia helped the kids make their orders, then paid and handed them their ice cream. Molly, Maisy, and Ben were ice cream pros, but Jamie looked at the scoop atop his cone with a kind of fearful reverence.

  “Ice cream!”

  Maybe Amelia should have gotten it for him in a cup, she mused, as Jamie zoomed around the shop with the ice cream precariously balanced in one hand.

  “Slow down!” she reminded him. “Watch where you’re going.”

  As they were leaving the shop, Amelia fell back to help Maisy wipe a drip of ice cream off one of her shoes. When she looked up, she came face-to-face with a tall, handsome man in a suit. At the same moment, Jamie started to wail.

  Amelia looked around and saw in an instant what had happened. Jamie’s strawberry ice cream was smeared in a bright pink line across the businessman’s suit jacket and pants. The rest of the ice cream was in a heap on the sidewalk, with only an empty cone left in Jamie’s hand.

  Oh, no.

  In an instant, Amelia swept Jamie into her arms.

  “I’m sorry that happened, honey.” She resisted the urge to add that this was exactly why it was important not to run with ice cream. She and Jamie could have a
talk about it later, when he was calmer. “I’ll buy you another ice cream, okay? And we’ll eat it together so it doesn’t spill.”

  Meltdown averted, Jamie slumped against Amelia’s shoulder and looked mournfully down at the scoop of ice cream on the sidewalk, which was already starting to melt. Amelia turned to the businessman.

  “I am so sorry about this.” She dug in the diaper bag for a paper and a pen. “Let me give you my contact information. I’ll handle the dry-cleaning bill.”

  “That doesn’t exactly help me now,” the man said dryly. “I’m on my way to an important meeting, and now I’m pink.” He gestured at the smear of ice cream, and Amelia blushed.

  “I really am sorry.”

  There was a pause. As Amelia waited to see what the man would say, she took a better look at him. He was heartbreakingly handsome, the kind of guy who’d play an international spy or a brave soldier in a movie. His dark brown hair was neatly cut, and his blue eyes, though cold, were the color of the ocean. Perhaps, if Jamie hadn’t smeared ice cream all over the man, she’d be thinking of flirting with him now.

  The moment stretched as Amelia shifted Jamie higher on her hip and looked up at the businessman.

  CHAPTER 2

  LIAM

  Liam tried to control his frustration. It wasn’t this woman’s fault that everything had gone wrong today. His morning run had been underwhelming, he’d arrived at work to find that an important new product was being delayed, and one of his paper suppliers was raising the prices beyond what was logical to pay. Now, during his very late lunch break, when he had just enough time to buy a sandwich and run back to work, he was covered in strawberry ice cream.

  That one was the woman’s fault.

  Liam sighed. “It’ll be okay. I’m sure it’s nothing that can’t be cleaned up. You might want to think about controlling your children a little better, though.”

  “Oh.” The woman flushed, and Liam regretted his comment — if only a little. It didn’t seem like too much to ask to keep children in line in a public place, but he hadn’t meant to make her feel bad. “Actually, these are my nieces and nephews. They’re very well-behaved, but they are still children.”

  “I see that.” Liam glanced down at the paper in his hand. “Amelia?”

  “That’s me. And the little ice cream-based fashion designer here is Jamie.”

  Liam glanced at the little boy in her arms, who looked to be somewhere between one and five years old (Liam didn’t spend a lot of time with children and wasn’t good at estimating their ages). His hands were covered with pink ice cream and his eyes were still slightly teary from the loss of his scoop.

  “Well, hello to you both.” Liam should have just walked on right then. He had a lot of work to do and no time for small talk. But something about the harassed-looking woman held him in place. She was slight and willowy, with light-blond hair in a wispy braid, and deep-brown eyes that were somehow warm. There was just something about Amelia that Liam found intriguing. “I’m Liam. I work at Lilypad Learning Solutions, just down the block.”

  He left out the fact that he was the CEO of the company. People tended to become obsequious and fawning when they found out that he was a billionaire, so he preferred not to lead with that.

  “Lilypad Learning!” Amelia smiled. “Wow. My sister is an elementary school teacher and she swears by your phonics program. It’s so fun, the kids don’t even realize they’re learning.”

  “That’s the goal.” Just then, Liam’s phone buzzed. It was the office. “I’d better be going.”

  “Let me know about the dry-cleaning bill!” Amelia called after him. Liam nodded, although he had no intention of making Amelia pay for anything. She clearly had her hands full enough as it was with her herd of nieces and nephews.

  Liam answered the phone as he hurried away. It was the paper supplier. As he made his way back to the office, he argued over prices, already slipping back into his CEO mentality. He had a lot on his plate today.

  He needed to put the sight of the beautiful blonde with a baby in her arms out of his mind.

  Back in the building, he hurried into his office, where he changed into one of the spare suits he always kept there. Liam worked long hours, sometimes even spending the night at work, and he appreciated always having something clean and ironed to change into. He put the strawberry-scented suit over the back of a chair and made a note to ask his assistant to bring it to the dry cleaner’s.

  As Liam hurried back out towards his next meeting, which he was already running late for, he was stopped by his assistant, Ryan. Ryan was fresh out of college and relatively inexperienced, but he worked hard and was quickly becoming one of Liam’s trusted advisors.

  “Liam.” Ryan looked slightly uncomfortable. “I’ve canceled your next meeting.”

  “What?” Liam stopped short, confused and a little annoyed. His next meeting, with the head of the advertising department, had been an important one. “Why?”

  “You have another meeting. I don’t know the details, but your lawyer said that it was personal and urgent.”

  Uncharacteristic worry flooded Liam. As the CEO of a major edtech company, he knew that lawsuits happened, but the fact that this was something personal made him worry. He had no idea what this could be about.

  “Okay. Where?”

  “Conference room B.”

  “Thank you. Please hold my calls and any other meetings until I’m back.”

  Liam made his way to the conference room, his heart racing. He usually handled the ups and downs of business with poise, but he was already a little rattled from his disastrous morning and the ice cream incident.

  Liam’s lawyer, Nick, was already waiting in the conference room. He was an older man, with salt-and-pepper hair and the straightest posture Liam had ever seen.

  “Please, have a seat.” Nick gestured to a free chair.

  “May I ask what this is about?” Liam slid into the seat across from the lawyer.

  “This is a rather… delicate… matter.” Nick tilted his head to the side. “Do you remember a woman by the name of Cora Matthews?”

  “I do.”

  Liam had never been the type for serious relationships. His business was his baby, and he didn’t have the time to dedicate to a steady relationship. In previous years, he’d had the occasional fling, never more than a few nights. Recently, though, it had happened less and less, and Cora had been one of the last of those flings. Liam remembered her as a pretty blonde he’d met at a bar, but the details about her failed him.

  Liam felt a stab of guilt. He’d never implied to any of the women he had flings with that he was looking for something serious. But he still wished he remembered a little more.

  “Well…” Nick slid a sheaf of papers across the table to Liam. “Cora Matthews passed away last week.”

  Liam let out a low whistle and sat back in his seat. His guilt intensified. He hadn’t expected to hear about Cora ever again. They didn’t run in the same circles, and they’d both moved on years ago. But the fact that she was dead still hit him hard.

  At the same time, Liam’s confusion grew. A woman he’d known for a brief time some three years ago had passed away. He couldn’t fathom why his lawyer had called him into this emergency meeting just to notify him of that fact. Perhaps Nick thought that the two of them had been closer.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Liam opened the sheaf of papers. On the top was an obituary. Cora’s face, slightly older than Liam remembered, smiled up at him.

  “Yes. Well, Cora’s death also involves you. She was young and never had time to create a will, so the care of her young daughter will pass on to the nearest living relative. In this case, the girl’s father.” Nick gave Liam a meaningful look. “Perhaps you understand where I’m going with this.”

  Liam shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”

  “I feared as much, since the two of you don’t seem to have been in contact.” Nick ran a hand through his hair. “Cora’s daughter, Grace? You’re her biological father.”

  Liam was already shaking his head. “No, that can’t be right. I took every precaution against pregnancy. And Cora never said anything. Surely she would have told me if she were pregnant.”