Erin looked up from the casserole she’d obviously retrieved from the freezer.
“Some day, huh?” She put the dish in the microwave, closing the door and punching the necessary buttons.
“Indeed. Is Riley all settled?”
The words felt like cotton wool in his mouth—bulky, difficult to talk around, yet totally lacking in substance.
“Yeah, I slipped his dose of antibiotics into his mouth while nursing him. With that and the painkiller they gave him at the clinic I think he should be much better by morning. At least I hope so.”
“Good.”
He felt awkward, not an emotion he was used to experiencing. He took a deep breath and searched for the way he wanted to lead the next few minutes. He was forestalled, however, by Erin coming across the kitchen and sliding her hands around his waist to nuzzle against his chest. He raised one hand uncomfortably to her back. Despite all they’d shared earlier today, right now she felt completely foreign to him.
“Thank you for everything today. Especially for driving to the clinic and home again. I know how much that must have cost you, how difficult it must have been for you to drive.”
He must have made some sound of assent because she hugged him tight before continuing.
“I hope it wasn’t illegal for you to do what you did at the clinic, though. You really shouldn’t have signed those papers.”
Icy cold water trickled through his veins and Sam slowly and deliberately pulled her arms away from holding him. He took a step back. This was it. This was where he told her the truth. The truth they could have all known sooner if she hadn’t been so busy dodging her responsibilities by hedging around the requests for Riley’s DNA. The anger that flooded him now was chilling, rather than hot. It seeped through him, penetrating his heart and hardening him against the look of confusion in her eyes as he dropped her arms and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“I broke no laws.”
“Are you sure? You’re not Riley’s parent or guardian.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said determinedly. “I am Riley’s father. I am Party A.”
* * *
Erin felt the air rush out of her lungs as his words slowly penetrated. Sam was Party A? She reached for the back of a kitchen chair, desperate to steady herself and to fight back the swimming black spots that suddenly clouded her vision.
“N-no, that can’t be true,” she cried, slowly sinking to her knees.
Sam watched her with eyes totally devoid of expression. Devoid of every ounce of the care or compassion or, she’d dared to hope, love, that she’d seen in them earlier today.
“Believe it. I found out this morning. I was going to tell you when we were out on the boat today. I—” His voice broke off and he made a sound of disgust deep in his throat. “I was stupid enough to think we could possibly work toward a future together. The three of us. But that was before I found out that you’ve known for weeks that James Connell wasn’t Riley’s father. Why didn’t you tell the truth? You had no right to withhold that information.”
He was furious, she could see it now in every line of his body, in the tight way he held his mouth, in the lines that had reappeared on his face. She dragged herself back up to her feet.
“I don’t believe you! You’re lying to me. Where’s your proof?” she protested. “Riley is my son. Mine! I have a duty to protect him, to protect what’s his.”
“But this,” Sam spread his arms out wide, “isn’t his, is it? If James Connell wasn’t Riley’s father, which we both know he wasn’t, then you’re also defrauding the trustees of the Connell Estate by continuing to let them think he was.”
“How did you—” She stopped herself and took in a shuddering breath. “That’s none of your business. I want you to get out of here. I don’t want you here anymore!”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks now. Hot angry tears born out of a terror that threatened to grip her tight and never let her go.
“You know you’re living here illegally, living here on borrowed time. How could you not want to give him a chance to know his real father?” Sam pressed on, each word a blow to her fragile stability.
She bit down on her lip. She wouldn’t answer him. She couldn’t. He would never understand that this was her home, her sanctuary. It was the one place in her life she’d known stability and safety—where she’d belonged. But she’d been found out—she didn’t belong here, and neither did Riley. She knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on. She’d been futilely grabbing at straws, hoping that the truth wouldn’t come out.