“I won’t interfere with your parenting, Harper. But I’ll need you to consider a way to work me into her life.”
“Bruce is the only father she’s known. I can’t just take him away from her.”
“I wouldn’t want that.”
Okay. Good. And yet…he should want it. If the paternity test was positive, he would already have lost four years of his daughter’s life.
“What would you want, then?”
“As I said earlier, I’ll insist on financial responsibility—past and future.”
“I don’t need your money for the four years you missed.”
“I have it to spare, and it’s something I’d need to do. Put it in a college fund, if nothing else.”
He’d mentioned that once before. “Okay.”
They’d agreed on two things already. If he wasn’t Brie’s dad, she’d tell Bruce. And if he was, he’d be financially involved in their lives.
Feeling a bit better, she said, “Obviously, you’ll spend time with her.” Retrieving the wine bottle from the kitchen, with the blanket still wrapped around herself, she poured herself another half glass.
“I’d need that, yes.”
Thoughts started to sort themselves out. “If the test comes back positive, we need to have a meeting with Sara,” she said. “She’ll help us figure out how to handle things with Brie.” Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of that before now?
Because all she’d seen was Bruce.
She wanted to know what Mason was hoping for—if he welcomed the idea of being the father of her child. If their night together meant something special to him, after all…
Would they become some kind of family? The idea of Mason being in regular contact was…
Forbidden territory.
He might regret the night and everything that could have resulted from it. Might be hoping to find out he was off the hook.
It would be easier that way—if he hoped Brianna was Bruce’s child.
Calm settled over her as excitement dissipated. And fear dwindled, too.
Her feelings for Mason didn’t. Even now, thinking about her child being his, she got those hidden, secret feelings again. The ones she’d had from the first time they’d met. The ones that had driven her that night she’d spent with him.
She’d been vulnerable, unable to deny what she’d felt deep inside.
She hadn’t been herself.
“I had a meeting with Bruce today,” he said.
Tension took hold again. Just that quickly. Was Bruce angry with her?
“I think it’s inappropriate to divulge specifics of the investigation, since charges could be filed, but I thought you should know there’s a potential suspect who’s not him.”
She almost dropped the phone. So Bruce wasn’t the bad guy she’d been trying to find in her memories? He was the man she knew him to be?
A huge breath escaped her and she lay back. “Did Bruce bring him to your attention?”
Because if he had…couldn’t it be more of what Mason had been telling her about him—that he concocted half-truths to make himself the victimized one? To gain a sympathetic response?
“No.”
“Wow.” What a relief. “Does this mean Miriam can go home soon?”
“Possibly. We have to either get her to press charges, or prove what we suspect, or else she’ll be right back where she was.”
“So…he lives close by?”
“Possibly.”
She could hardly believe it.
“Why wouldn’t she have told you about him?”
“That’s part of what we have yet to find out.”
“’Cause it’s hard to imagine her putting up with someone hurting her and just staying quiet about it.” Hard to believe anyone would dare lift a hand to her, knowing he’d have to answer to Bruce.
And to Mason. Unless…
“He’s not another cop, is he? Retired, maybe?”
“No.”
“You think Grace knows about him?”
“Possibly.”
Just…wow. Such good news.
Bruce hadn’t done it.
She’d known that.
She’d allowed Mason to plant doubts in her mind anyway. To the point of not leaving Bruce alone with Brianna.