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Plan C

"Logan." Aurora pleaded

Logan looked at Adam. "I'm sorry, Adam. If any other man was your father, I could accept you. But you know what Nicholas did to your mother."

Adam knew. He knew his mother feared his father. He had come to loathe the man from their encounters. A new feeling seeped into Adam. He didn't know what it was, but it made him ill.

Logan turned to his wife. "Were you hoping that I'd raise him as my son in ignorance?"

"He can still be your son. My love, I know you've bonded with him."

Logan stroked Aurora's cheek with the back of his fingers. "Aurora, we don't have children. As much as we've tried, we don't. I know how much you crave motherhood. You're my wife and his mother. I can't promise I won't be hostile to him. We've lost too much."

Adam watched his mother and her husband. He still felt angry at Aurora. If she hadn't left him with Sarah, his life wouldn't have been miserable. If only she had kept him, they could have been happy. His wish had come true, but why did she abandon him in the first place? To protect him. From what?

"What would Nicholas and your father do if they knew you were my mother?"

"Father would take you from me and raise you as his son. With Nicholas as your father, I'd be forced to marry him.

Would that have been bad? He would be with a family that wanted him. "What's so bad about that? You don't have to marry Nicholas. You could tell your father what he did to you."

"I..." Aurora froze, staring at Adam. "My father wouldn't listen to me. He's a mean man who always gets what he wants." She said softly.

"Not always. He can't set up shop in Scandinavia, and you didn't marry Nicholas." Logan pointed out.

"He didn't want me to marry Nicholas. He wanted control of shipping."

"He has that now, doesn't he? Why would he force you to marry Nicholas?"

"...To avoid a scandal." Aurora shifted uncomfortably in the seat.

Logan watched his wife hard. "...He has tapes?"

Aurora nodded.

"That son of a bitch!" Logan slammed his fist on the table.

The family sat in silence. Logan thought hard about getting out of their predicament. While Aurora struggled to find a way to keep Adam safe, Adam remained conflicted by the new information he had gathered and sat quietly, pondering.

"What are you going to do with me?" The boy asked.

Aurora looked at her son; his face was solemn, and his stare was unyielding. She felt like a stranger under his watch. "I don't know. Legally, Sarah has a right to you. I can...probably help you run away where she can't find you."

"Why not just send me to your father?"

"Sweetheart, if he gets his hands on you—"

"It'll be better than living on the streets!"

"But Nicholas—"

"Hold on, Aurora. Adam's right. Your father thinks he is my son. We're the only ones who know that Nicholas is his father. And none of us are going to tell him. He'd be safer with your father."

"But he's my son. If my father takes him, I'll never be his mother."

"In the years of trying to keep him safe, were you ever his mother?"

"I..."

"Your son lived like a street rat! To keep him from your father, you wanted to raise him in secret, but to keep him from his father, you abandoned him."