The Rose He Showed Off Is Putting Down Roots in a Garden of Her Own novel Chapter 229

Vanessa's features hardened into a mask of pure defiance. "Watch me. This baby is in my body. Try forcing me into a clinic and see if I don't miscarry on purpose."

A suffocating tension slammed down on the room. They stared at each other in a lethal, silent standoff.

Julian's brain was working frantically.

He knew damn well that a gold-digger like her wouldn't undergo the physical ruin of pregnancy without a massive endgame in mind.

"I'll pay you," Julian finally stated flatly.

He threw out a staggering dollar amount. "Twenty percent up front right now. The rest transferred into an offshore account the absolute second the baby is born."

Vanessa crossed her arms, unimpressed by the millions. "I don't want your money. I want a wedding ring."

"I am not marrying you," Julian reiterated, his tone dripping with venom. "You aren't even remotely fit to join the Sterling family."

"Then we're done talking. I fell in love with you, Julian. That's why I'm carrying your child. I couldn't care less about your trust fund."

Julian's expression turned murderous. "Don't play innocent. We both know exactly how you managed to get knocked up."

It wasn't exactly a mystery.

He had always used protection, but he had carelessly left the discarded condoms in her trash. She had clearly resorted to the cheapest, most desperate trick in the gold-digger playbook to inseminate herself.

If it weren't for his disastrous fertility workup, he would have dragged her to an abortion clinic by her hair weeks ago.

"Does it really matter how it happened?"

Vanessa fired back. She was gambling with everything she had. She was banking on the fact that the Sterling dynasty was desperate for an heir, and that he wouldn't dare risk losing the only child he might ever produce.

She was playing for the ultimate prize.

If she held her ground, she could secure her place as the official Sterling matriarch.

"Name a price I can actually pay. A marriage certificate is off the table."

"Until you agree to marry me, I am refusing all medical testing. I know exactly whose blood is running through this baby's veins. So figure it out, Julian. Are you going to act like a man, or just keep being your mother's pathetic puppet?"

The confrontation ended in a toxic stalemate. Neither of them yielded an inch.

As he walked out, she delivered her final threat.

"If you or your mother drag me in for a forced amniocentesis, you're going to lose us both. I swear to God I'll make sure neither of us survives it."

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