Pregnant With His Heir, He Married The Actress Instead Chapter 06

Pregnant With His Heir, He Married The Actress Instead Chapter 06

The storm slammed against the floor-to-ceiling windows in sharp, violent bursts.

Shivering, I curled deeper beneath the blankets.

Out of nowhere, I remembered something Zayne’s mother, Evelyn Hale, once said to me.

“Raina, Zayne is the next one to run the Hale family. The only reason he treats you well now is because you’re still useful to him. The day you touch his interests, he could dispose of you with his own hands.”

“Don’t try to be clever. That whole idea that a woman could secure her place through a child doesn’t work in the Hale family.”

Back then, I had been naive enough to believe love could survive anything.

But clearly, a kept woman in a gilded cage was not the same as the love of his life from the right kind of family.

When Zayne weighed the costs and benefits, he would never choose me.

Never.

At seven-thirty, my phone suddenly lit up with a video call from Julian.

I paused, then answered.

On the screen, Julian stood beneath the mast in a black sailing jacket, the head sail thrashing wildly in the wind behind him.

He arched a brow with a faint smile.

“Miss Lane, I’m sorry. There’s a storm out here today, and my boat can’t make it into port. I probably won’t get in until tomorrow.”

“Can we move the date to tomorrow night?”

Julian and I had been in the same year at school.

He was never one for elite social circles.

While other rich boys gambled and chased women, he sailed alone out on the open water, wild and free.

Knowing I liked sailboats, he had given me a model sailboat he made by hand for my birthday last year.

But I had no intention of showing up tomorrow.

“Julian, I…”

Before I could finish, he cut in. “The signal’s bad out here. I’ll hang up for now.”

Once the call ended, I opened my travel app and booked a ten a.m. flight to San Diego for the next morning.

At daybreak, a video of Zayne showing up at Cassidy’s place started trending.

The curtains were still open, and the paparazzi had caught them making out on the couch.

The tiny bit of hope still left in me burned out instantly.

While I was packing, someone posted in the station Slack channel:

[Just got an update from the weather service. Seattle might actually get snow this year.]

I froze.

Even now, I still remember it.

On my nineteenth birthday, I asked Zayne half-jokingly, “Do you think we’ll ever get married?”

He didn’t answer.

After that, I stopped fixating on the answer whenever my birthday came around.

Instead, I only asked, “Zayne, do you think it’ll snow in Seattle this year?”

“When it snows in Seattle, we’ll get married. Okay?”

That was when he finally nodded.

Some promises, made when you’re far too young, stay with you for life.

Even in my dreams, I was still waiting for snow.