A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 648

After ending the call, Rowan turned and walked back into the study. As he closed the sliding glass door to the balcony behind him, his gaze caught Elissa, who had slipped into the room completely unnoticed.

He wasn't overly surprised to see her.

Having been treated like a fragile piece of glass by the entire family, Elissa had finally managed to wrestle the job of bringing Rowan his coffee away from Ian Murphy. Setting the mug down on the desk, she looked at him with clear confusion. "What happened? What were you talking about with all that 'feeling like failures' stuff?"

She had only caught the tail end of the conversation and had no idea what it was about.

But it didn't take a genius to hear how incredibly angry Rowan was.

He was practically seething.

Looking at her innocent expression, the furious storm raging in his chest subsided marginally, only to be entirely replaced by a profound, suffocating heartache.

He quickly crossed the room and gently ruffled her hair. "What could possibly have happened? Nothing is wrong."

He swore to himself he would never let anything bad happen to her ever again.

As for the Wilkinsons and whatever the hell they were thinking, they were utterly irrelevant now.

If they treated her right and could prove themselves worthy of her, he would gladly step back and let her have the family she deserved.

If they let her down, he wouldn't say a single word to sway her decision to walk away from them permanently.

No matter what happened, he would always be her ultimate safety net.

For some reason, Elissa caught the subtle, coaxing undertone in his voice. She locked eyes with him, profoundly suspicious. "Are you absolutely sure nothing happened?"

She could practically feel the tension rolling off him.

And she strongly suspected it had everything to do with her.

Rowan didn't look away. He hesitated for a brief second before asking, "What is the absolute most important thing to you right now?"

Elissa blinked in surprise, thrown off by the sudden question.

Before discovering her pregnancy, her ultimate goal had been to uncover the truth behind her adoptive parents' deaths and tear the perpetrators apart. Then, another priority had emerged: figuring out her true identity and tracking down her biological parents.

But last night, when the agonizing cramps had started tearing through her abdomen, only one terrifying thought had consumed her mind: keeping her baby safe and bringing it into this world unharmed.

She wanted to be a good mother.

She wanted a real family, a child that belonged entirely to her and Rowan.

Maybe it was selfish, but until this baby was born, she flatly refused to take any more risks that could jeopardize its safety.

Right now, she only wanted to protect her baby.

With that in mind, she met Rowan's gaze steadily. "Our baby, obviously."

"Then nothing else matters."

Rowan offered a gentle, reassuring smile. "Nothing else is worth getting upset over."

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