Another Man's Child

“Hi, am I interrupting?”

Beth jumped guiltily at the sound of Oliver’s voice. “No, of course not. Come on in. How’d the meeting go?”

Oliver shrugged his broad shoulders. “These things take time. But we’re making progress.”

He smiled at her and Beth smiled back, telling herself it was natural to feel that little flutter in her stomach. He was an attractive man, that was all. Any woman would find him so. Besides, she was still in love with John.

“Are you free for dinner?” Oliver asked, coming farther into her office.

“As a matter of fact I am.” Beth collected her purse, glad to have what time she could with him before he found out about Lisa. She was too keyed up to be alone, in any case. And Oliver was safe. He’d never see her as more than his daughter’s plump cheerful friend.

“Has Lisa been to see you again?” Oliver asked. He was looking at his daughter’s folder on the top of Beth’s desk. “I thought all that was done.”

Damn. She’d had the folder by the phone in case Marcus called her. He was bound to have questions once he knew. “Uh, just the usual follow-up,” she said now, grabbing the folder. It wasn’t her place to tell him what was inside. Oliver was as old-fashioned as the tweed jacket he was wearing. She wasn’t sure he’d approve of what his daughter had done or of Beth’s role in it. If she had her way, he’d never have to know—except that, of course he would. Oliver knew Marcus was sterile.

Oliver frowned. “What follow-up? It’s been more than a year and a half. Is something wrong with her? Something she’s not telling me?”

“No! She’s fine,” Beth said, speaking with her hands, as well as her voice. And as she did, a single piece of paper, the only one not yet fast

ened in, today’s lab report, slipped out of the folder in her hand and fluttered to the floor.

She and Oliver both went for the report, their fingers colliding as they reached it at the same time. Startled at the warmth of his touch, at her inappropriate response to it, Beth snatched back her hand. Oliver picked up the report.

He slumped down in the chair in front of her desk, reading. “Oh, my God.”

Beth sat down beside him, looking at the paper still in his hands, wishing she’d been more careful. “It looked like their only hope, Oliver. She seemed convinced it was the right thing to do.”

“You don’t understand,” Oliver said, glancing up at Beth, his brow furrowed. “This makes it all so much worse.” He paused. “Because he’s leaving her.”

“What?” Beth’s stomach knotted with dread. And guilt.

“He came to see me this afternoon. He bought a house in Chicago. He wants a divorce. He said he was freeing her to have a family with someone else.” Oliver glanced again at the paper in his hand. “He never said—”

“When this afternoon?” Beth interrupted.

“Midafternoon. It was before my three-o’clock class.”

“He didn’t know.” Sick at heart, she thought of the child she’d helped to create, a third life that was now going to suffer—unless Lisa’s news would be enough to stop Marcus from leaving. Or would it just send him from her faster?

“He didn’t know?” Oliver frowned down at the report.

Beth was surprised at the tenderness that welled up inside her as he struggled to assimilate the truth. She reached over and squeezed his free hand. “She came to see me. We did it all right here.”

“Ah.” Oliver glanced away, obviously embarrassed, but he didn’t look angry. “And it worked?” Was that hope she heard in his voice?

“It worked the first time. I don’t know which of us was more shocked.”

“I’m going to be a grandpa”

Relief flooded Beth as she heard the boyish wonder in his voice. She sent up a silent prayer that Marcus had been even half as glad to hear the news.

CHAPTER SIX

LISA WAS AFRAID to leave the house. Afraid she’d miss Marcus, afraid he might clear out his things and be gone when she wasn’t there. But by Saturday noon, after phoning both the police and every hospital she knew of in a two-hundred-mile radius of New Haven and reassuring herself that Marcus hadn’t been in an accident, she was just plain afraid. Where was he? Arid worse, was he going to even come back?

She didn’t call Cartwright Enterprises. She didn’t want to hunt him down. She also didn’t want to know if he wasn’t there.

Forcing herself to keep busy, she spent the afternoon baking and decorating sugar cookies, made from her grandmother’s recipe. They were Marcus’s favorite kind, and cookies were one thing Hannah never baked. She took a couple of cuts of beef tenderloin filets out to thaw. Marcus loved her filet mignon.