A Baby of Convenience

“I think I’ll stay,” Cliff said lightly, then he laughed cruelly. “This is quite the little drama, isn’t it?”

“Please,” Elena said, trying hard to remain calm, “leave.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Neal said from the front door.

Elena spun around to see Neal standing there. Relief flooded through her, somehow. She felt as though Neal would set everything right. Neal walked inside, slamming the door closed behind him.

“Cliff?” he said rudely.

“Just getting to know your little employee here, Neal,” Cliff said cuttingly. “That’s all.”

“Employee?” Neal said, his brow furrowing.

“You are paying her for a service, unconventional though it may be. That makes her your employee.”

“What exactly are you trying to say?” Neal asked bluntly.

“I’m trying to say that you are going to lose this company, boy,” Cliff spat, dropping his smile. “That bastard in her belly is not going to be enough to keep your fortune.”

Neal's hands clenched into fists.

“There is no way for you to prove that,” he said, struggling to remain calm.

Cliff laughed. Then, from inside his jacket pocket, he pulled out a few post card sized photographs. He threw them onto the empty kitchen counter so that both Neal and Elena could see. They were images of the two of them, kissing one another, holding each other, making love on the couch. They were pictures of their morning together. Neal noticed that some pictures were older. There was one from a few days ago when he had kissed Elena near the kitchen. He looked up furiously.

“You know what they say about people in glass houses,” Cliff said with a laugh.

“All this proves is that I am sleeping with my brother’s girlfriend,” Neal said, noticing that Elena flinched slightly at his words, but he went on, “it does not mean she is not carrying George’s child.”

“Ah yes,” Cliff said, seemingly unconcerned, “you could very easily have started sleeping together after his death was announced. Which woul

d still make the baby his.”

He looked from Neal to Elena and gave them a vindictive smile.

“Another paternity test should disprove that little claim,” he said confidently, “and I think you’ll find that the doctor I choose will not be so easily bought.”

Elena watched as Neal’s horror struck face calmed slowly. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but she hoped he had a plan.

“Get the hell out of my house,” Neal said finally, his tone eerily calm.

Cliff chuckled at the vehemence in Neal’s voice.

“With pleasure,” Cliff said patronizingly.

He through a lascivious look in Elena’s direction and then at the pictures on the table.

“I don’t blame you, Neal," he said.

“You are a contemptible bastard,” Elena spat in his direction.

He laughed at her insult; he seemed to be amused by everything she and Neal said.

“If I’m a contemptible bastard,” he sneered at her, “what are you?”

“I’m his friend,” Elena said stoically.

“A friend?” Cliff said with a raised eyebrow. “He’s paying you, and you’re having sex with him. I call that a whore.”