For the Children

It took the woman a long minute of deep breaths and failed attempts, but finally she managed to get out an entire sentence.

“I’ve been ordered to take Colton in for a paternity test.”

Oh. God. Kirk was getting nowhere with his pursuit and some cold controlling bastard was awarded a test.

“Have you told Alexander about any of this yet?” she asked. When she’d last spoken to Susan, advising her on what to have her lawyer do, she’d practically begged the woman to tell her new husband what was going on.

“No.” A couple of ragged breaths followed. And then, “I just couldn’t. He’s been so good to me. I couldn’t tell him I slept with the bastard.”

Susan’s inability to say her ex-husband’s name spoke volumes to Valerie. It was months after Thomas’s death before she could allow his name back into her vocabulary. Before that, just thinking his name made her break down.

Detachment was one hell of a coping mechanism.

“Read me the order,” she said, letting the subject of Alexander go for now.

She had to wait another five minutes for Susan to get through the whole thing. Or at least enough of it so Valerie could fill in the blanks.

It sounded pretty tightly sealed.

But she couldn’t tell Susan that. At least not until she’d taken a look at the order herself. “I’d like to send a courier over for the order and copies of all the other paperwork your lawyer has given you,” she said. “Would that be okay with you?”

“O-kayyyyy.” The word slurred into another sob.

“I’ll send him right now, Susan,” Valerie said firmly, sensing how important it was to give the woman something to do. And to get those papers out of her house. “That means you need to have the papers ready. Understand?”

“I do. I-I-I’ll have them.”

The second she was off the phone, Valerie had Leah arrange for a courier to run by Susan Douglas’s house. And left instructions to let her know the second the paperwork arrived.

HER FIRST DAY BACK at work after the Christmas break was extremely busy, and she wasn’t back in her office until four o’clock that afternoon.

“It came.” Leah met her at the door of their suite and followed Valerie into her office. Nodding, Valerie unzipped her robe and hung it up. Before she sat down, she checked her caller ID. This was the boys’ first day back at school, and while Blake had been fine during their quiet vacation at home, just the three of them—plus a few dinners with Kirk, Valerie was still worried about her son.

Releasing a sigh of relief when she saw the blank display, she sank down into her chair, taking the file that Leah handed her.

Opened it.

And felt the blood drain from her face.

“Judge?” Leah’s made-up face and twisted light brown hair came into view. Valerie wondered why people thought those ends sticking up like that were attractive. Of course, on Leah, they were. They were part of her elfin charm.

“You okay?” her assistant asked, sitting in the chair across from Valerie. Leah’s black slacks had a leopardskin waistband. Which matched the collar on her white silk blouse.

“Have I ever told you how much I like your wardrobe?” she asked.

Leah’s eyes narrowed. “No.”

Pulling at the collar of her gray flannel dress, Valerie nodded. “Well, I do.”

“Thanks.”

She glanced at the papers again, and then back up, still nodding. She didn’t know what else to do.

“What’s wrong?”

What was wrong? Was anything wrong? Valerie wasn’t sure. She just felt that nothing was ever going to be right again.

There was no basis for that thought. She wasn’t involved, wasn’t committed. She’d had sex. Once. She hadn’t even told the man she loved him.