The Army Doc's Baby Secret

‘Why not?’ He laughed. A hollow, empty sound. ‘It can’t be any worse than anything I imagined.’

She swallowed. Sucked in a deep breath. Swallowed again.

‘A part of me was relieved,’ she managed eventually. So quietly that she wasn’t initially sure he’d heard her. But the tense silence in the room told her otherwise. ‘A part of me knew that this was the end of your military career—I knew you’d never stay in just to fly a desk—and I was so thankful that I wouldn’t have to be scared for you any more.’

‘You were glad I was injured,’ he echoed. Dark, sharp, lethal.

‘No,’ she cried, then shrugged helplessly. ‘Not exactly. But at least you weren’t dead. At least you were still...with me. I thought...maybe...at last...we could finally give our marriage a proper try. But instead, you hated me, you made that abundantly clear. I was the

one who had taken your leg and you couldn’t forgive me for it.’

He wanted to argue, that much was obvious. He opened his mouth to. But suddenly he couldn’t.

It was little comfort.

She had been right. He’d hated her. Not as much as he’d no doubt hated himself, of course.

‘You still kept Seth from me,’ he choked out at last, but at least he was directing his pain and rage towards her, rather than inward as he might have done during their marriage. Or at least, proper marriage.

He might be mad at her, but he wasn’t shutting her out. Surely that had to be a start?

‘You had to have known you were pregnant. You would have had every opportunity to tell me. You didn’t. You deliberately concealed it. I might have pushed you away, but you were still the one who left. Taking my unborn baby with you.’

‘It wasn’t like that. I left for both our sakes, Zeke,’ she repeated, her voice softer now that she could see he wasn’t going to argue with her. ‘And for Seth’s sake. But please believe me, I never intended to stay away this long.’

He didn’t answer, but the expression on his face warned her that he didn’t believe her.

‘I promise you that I always imagined I’d find you and tell you.’

‘When?’ Zeke cut in. ‘When our son turned eighteen? Got married? Had a family of his own?’

The challenge was clear, but if she hadn’t known better, she might have thought she’d heard the briefest of hesitations. As if he might have been on the edge of believing her. As if he had just softened, ever so fractionally, before her eyes.

Not so much that a stranger might notice it, of course. This was Zeke, after all. But she noticed. And it caught her off guard.

But then he shut down on her again, and she knew she must have imagined it.

‘You know what, Tia? Forget I asked. I think there have been enough revelations for one night, don’t you?’

‘I...’ She faltered.

‘I need time to think. Feel free to leave.’

He stood up, and Tia found herself scrambling to her feet in echo.

‘We will discuss this further.’ Whether he was issuing a threat or a promise, she couldn’t be sure. ‘I’ll come to Delburn Bay when I have a solution.’

Why was he being so cold? What had changed? A chill crept over her skin.

‘A solution?’

‘Don’t disappear,’ he continued as if she hadn’t even spoken. ‘And if you do find your own place, make sure your father knows to tell me exactly where that is. I don’t intend to have to come searching for you. Or my son.’

He had her halfway out of the door and into her car before she could protest. The darkness of night and whipping wind catching her unawares.

How long had they been in his house? The storm that had been raging way out at sea was clearly beginning to move closer.

‘Your motorbike...?’ she yelled above the roar.