Husband by Choice

He knew her so well.

And not well enough anymore.

A flash of Lynn Bishop’s startled face when Maddie blurted out that she was pregnant sprang to her mind. Meredith would like to have told Steve that he couldn’t impregnate her because she was already pregnant.

But even if she had been, she wouldn’t have told him. He’d just do whatever it took to get rid of Max’s baby inside of her and replace it with his own.

And if she was pregnant, she wouldn’t be there. She’d have had to protect that baby. She’d probably be in another state. Another country. Still on the run.

And God knows, part of her wished she was.

* * *

AS SOON AS Chantel left, Max called the woman he knew at The Lighthouse and arranged to bring Caleb to their day care. All of the staff knew and adored Meri and would keep Caleb safe for as long as it took to get Meri back home.

“We’ll be praying for you, Max,” they told him in triplicate as he dropped off his son and a diaper bag with, he hoped, anything Caleb might need, and raced out the door.

The police thought Meri had gone after Steve Smith. That she’d known he was there and that she’d gone to take him on, all by herself. That woman Meri had befriended at the shelter, Renee, certainly thought so. And Meri had confided in her more than she had in Max. Apparently she’d given Renee details about the day her family had been killed.

He’d always assumed Meri, a twelve-year-old girl at the time, hadn’t remembered much from that day. He was a pediatrician. He knew how doctors took care of traumatized kids. And had imagined the normal kinds of injuries, physical and mental, that she’d probably suffered.

Never once had it occurred to him, or had she let on, that she’d been completely conscious and aware as she’d fought to get into the mangled car and save her family.

Sitting under a tree on the edge of the beach across the street from the little house that Smith owned, Max chomped on a blade of grass and tried to pretend that he was strong.

That he didn’t feel like crying.

How he and Meri were going to get through this, he didn’t know. They had a lot to work through. But first, he needed her safe. Home. In his bed. In his arms. Or even just...safe.

A car he didn’t recognize pulled up and he sat up straighter.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” He identified Chantel’s voice before he saw her get out of the passenger side of the car. Another woman, also dressed in jeans and a black leather vest was behind the wheel. He recognized the holster on her belt as a department issue.

“It’s about time you showed up. Do you have any idea what he could be doing to my wife in there?” There’d been no sign of life. But that didn’t mean anything. The shades were drawn.

“You shouldn’t be here, Max.”

“Did you get the search warrant?”

“Yes.” She held up an envelope. “But Bailey and I go in without you.”

“I didn’t expect to go with you. But when you bring her out, I will be here.”

Or they could arrest him. He stared her down.

“Fine, but you’re staying over here, across the street.”

He nodded, not wanting to waste another second arguing over a moot point. He’d stay put until he didn’t.

Period.

* * *

“WHAT DO YOU want to name our kid?” Steve didn’t seem to be in a hurry as he took side streets and then drove along the ocean, outside of Santa Raquel.

“I...Steve...you...we haven’t seen each other in four years. Don’t you think we should talk?”

“What’s there to talk about? You had your fling to get back at me for having mine and now it’s done. You pledged your life to me forever and I’m holding you to it. I already know your favorite color is purple, that you don’t like squash, but love peas and that your lucky number is eight. What’s there to talk about?”