What would she do then?
Clearly she’d been wrong, thinking she’d be able to take Ethan and fade into the crowd.
She decided she had to confront him.
At the end of a long day—Ethan’s first tooth had come in, and he was cutting another—Rachel showered, put on a nightgown, tucked the baby into his crib and settled into the wing chair, pen and notepad in hand.
Time to get organized, she told herself, and began writing.
Contact Legal Aid. Or look up names of attorneys?
Qualifications? General law? Family law?
How to know if a lawyer is a good one?
Would a lawyer work on a payment plan?
Rachel yawned. She was exhausted. A nap. A brief one. And then—and then—
The pad and pen fell to the floor and she dropped into sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
HOURS later, Karim stepped from his private elevator.
The penthouse was silent; lamps glowed discreetly, just enough to chase away the gloom.
Rachel was always in her rooms by now.
And they hadn’t run into each other in the morning again.
They couldn’t; he’d taken to skipping his workouts. He left even earlier than before.
It was safer that way.
Otherwise, he thought grimly as he loosened his tie and went quietly up the stairs, otherwise he’d—
What?
Take Rachel in his arms? No way. That could only lead to disaster. He was going to take custody of the child. The last thing he needed was to sleep with that child’s mother.
Right.
Then, why hadn’t he started the ball rolling? Why had he not yet called his lawyer or the DNA lab?
A better question was, why did he walk quietly down the corridor each night, pause outside Rachel’s always-closed door, feel his pulse quicken as he imagined himself opening that door, going to her, waking her by taking her in his arms …?
Dammit.