A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 539

Elissa's question was blunt and unyielding, but instead of anger, a dark, predatory amusement flashed across Rowan's eyes.

His hostility wasn't directed at her.

He was thrilled that she was directly confronting him instead of bottling it up and silently pulling away.

And the fact that she was clearly jealous sent a surge of pure satisfaction through his veins.

He let his irritation fade, a low chuckle vibrating in his throat. "Who's been whispering poison in your ear?"

"Don't deflect," Elissa demanded, leaning her weight against the cold balcony railing. The sudden flare of insecurity caused by another woman answering his phone was already melting away. "Did you, or did you not, take another woman to her OB/GYN appointment?"

He had absolutely no intention of hiding anything from her. His answer was immediate. "I did."

Elissa's breath hitched, a sharp ache expanding in her chest.

She had to admit, she cared. Deeply.

Especially because she had absolutely no idea who this woman was.

She knew in her bones that Rowan wasn't a cheater.

So who was she? Someone he had met during the nine years they were apart? Was she such a crucial part of his life that he would drop everything and fly across the globe just to hold her hand during a doctor's visit?

A chaotic mess of unnamed emotions clashed violently inside her.

Elissa couldn't even articulate what she was feeling.

Having female friends was completely normal.

He was probably just doing a huge favor for someone in a desperate situation.

She tried desperately to rationalize it, but between the inherently intimate nature of a 'prenatal checkup' and her own surging pregnancy hormones, she felt a suffocating wave of despair.

As a dozen catastrophic scenarios played out in her mind, the silence on the line barely lasted a second before Rowan continued.

"She's my cousin. She got into some serious trouble out here, and my aunt Valerie was making herself sick with worry. I had to step in and handle it."

"What?" Elissa froze, her mind entirely blanking for a second. "Your cousin?"

The Murphy matriarch notoriously despised Rowan's maternal relatives and had spent years aggressively blocking any contact.

Over time, his mother's side of the family assumed the Murphys—Rowan included—looked down on them, and the relationships had naturally withered away.

Elissa had genuinely forgotten Rowan even had cousins.

Catching her complete shock, Rowan let out a raspy laugh, casually exposing her internal spiral. "What did you think? That I was keeping a secret mistress? Or flying across the world to play playing doting father for a forbidden lover?"

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