Watch Me Love Your Stepbrother: Rejected, Pregnant , And Claimed

"Mommy!"

I looked up from the kitchen table, where I was counting our remaining Euros to see if I could afford both groceries and rent this month. My long black hair was tied back in its usual messy bun just to keep it out of my face while I worked.

My daughter, Anastelle, was sitting on the worn-out rug, holding up a small plush bear. One of its button eyes was completely missing, and the cotton stuffing was leaking out of a tear in its arm.

"Look." She held it up with a pout. "Mr. Buttons lost his ear again."

She was four years old, a tiny, stubborn burst of sunshine in my otherwise gray world. Right now, her thick black curls were completely wild, sticking out in every direction despite the twenty minutes I had spent fighting them with a comb this morning. She had my delicate nose and my high cheekbones, but as she looked up at me, my breath caught.

Those eyes.

They were a striking, piercing forest green. An exact, flawless copy of Helix’s eyes.

"Mommy, can I please have new toys? The girls at the park have big, shiny dolls. They don’t have holes in them."

I got up from the table, and knelt beside her on the rug. I cupped her face, my warm hazel eyes meeting her green ones.

"I’ll sew him up tonight, Annie. I promise."

"Mommy?"

"Yes, baby?"

"Where is my daddy?"

I froze. She had never asked me that before. Not so directly.

"All my friends at school have daddies," she continued talkatively, completely unaware of the knife she was twisting in my chest. "Sophia’s daddy picks her up and buys her gelato. Leo’s daddy plays football with him. Where is mine? Why doesn’t he live in our house?"

I didn’t want to tell her that her father was a useless, arrogant billionaire who thought her existence was a thirty-second mistake. I didn’t want her to know she had been rejected before she was even born.

"You don’t need a daddy, Annie," I whispered, pulling her small body into my arms and holding her tight against my chest. "You are a very special child. Some babies come from a mommy and a daddy, but you? You came straight from my heart. I wanted you so much that the universe just gave you to me."

"Okay. But I still want new toys."

"I know, baby. I know."

I kissed her cheek, but over her shoulder, my eyes locked onto the stack of unpaid bills on the table. Waiting tables in a cheap apron wasn’t enough anymore. Anastelle was growing, her questions were getting harder.

I needed a miracle. Or better yet, a high-paying corporate job that would ensure my daughter never had to look at another child’s toy with envy.

.....

My phone rang before I could finish folding the last of the laundry.

I wiped my hands on my apron and glanced at the screen.

Giulia.

She was a former coworker from my brief stint at a high-end hotel downtown, before I settled for the predictable, exhausting routine of waiting tables at a small neighborhood cafe.

"Mireya, tell me you are looking for a job right now."

"I’m always looking for a way to keep a roof over our heads.....What’s wrong?"

"The executive assistant at a huge firm resigned this morning. My cousin works there. She told me."

I exhaled slowly. "That sounds like a management problem, not mine."

"Mireya, listen to me. The pay is insane . It’s triple what you are making at that cafe. Plus full health coverage for you and Anastelle."

"What’s the catch? If the pay is that high, why did the last assistant quit?"

She went silent. Then.... "Because no one lasts more than two weeks under him."

That stopped me.

"Is he abusive?"

Giulia lowered her voice. "He’s... not normal. Cold. Strict. He doesn’t repeat himself twice. People either quit or get fired in days. He is an absolute tyrant, Mireya."

A tyrant.

I almost laughed out loud.

I had spent the last five years surviving. A difficult man couldn’t do anything to me that hadn’t already been done.

"Send me the application link," I said, "I don’t care how impossible he is. I’ll take the interview."