Olivia studied her brother, trying to determine whether he was telling the truth or not. She wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t.
“Show me proof, Derek. Call up the file of this donor and show me what type of blood she has.”
He scratched his nose. “I can’t. I destroyed the original file.”
“You destroyed the file? You expect me to believe that?”
He blinked rapidly. “I couldn’t just transfer her eggs to you and leave the file empty. That’s called a paper trail. Someone could’ve followed it.”
She wasn’t buying it.
“You’d go to great pains to destroy a file to make the scheme, as you called it, seamless. Yet you’d forget all about the red flag of blood type. Doesn’t make sense. This is your business. It seems like blood types would be right up there in standard info right next to dark hair and dark eyes.”
His mouth flattened into a hard, straight line. “My background is in business, Livie, not medicine. I had no idea what to look for beyond skin, hair and eye color. I was trying to make sure the baby looked like you. It didn’t occur to me to match the donor’s blood type with yours until was deleting the original file and saw it.”
He scratched his nose again. She’d read that was often a signal that someone was lying. But who knew for sure? Especially with Derek.
“I guess I’ll really never know the truth, will I?”
Derek shrugged.
“I many not have solid proof that it really was the blood I was concerned with, but I do have proof that I wasn’t the one who told your husband about the donor eggs. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.”
She left the institute more confused than when she arrived. Strange how her heart wanted to believe that he might be telling the truth, but her head still wasn’t buying his story.
She got home and the place seemed so empty. The Valentine’s Day dinner, the girl’s getaway with Helen and all those nights that she and Jamison had made love until the sun came up seemed like a distant memory.
She sat in her bedroom window seat, gazing out over the Gardens, which were just starting to show the first signs of spring, and held the phone for a long time before she could bring herself to make the call.
When she finally did, she was surprised when he answered on the first ring.
“Hi, it’s me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never intended to lie to you. It just seemed like my last chance. Our last chance. And I so desperately wanted to give you a child. Can you ever forgive me?”
As much as Jamison disliked Derek, he had to give the guy credit. Derek might possibly have saved his and Olivia’s marriage.
Despite how rough around the edges and unpalatable the guy could be, he was right. Jamison and his family were partially to blame for Olivia’s desperation to have a child.
A desperation that drove her to go so far she’d do something that forced her to lie to him.
Maybe it was because she’d never lied before. Or maybe it was because Jamison felt partially responsible. It was definitely because he still loved her, despite what had happened and maybe even because of the lengths she’d gone to for him. But two days after they’d talked, he’d hopped on a Boston-bound plane and found himself wandering through the Public Garden at noon.
Pam had told him he’d find her there. Olivia had taken the Kelso boys on a picnic.
As he rounded a copse of trees that shaded a statue, there she sat on a red plaid picnic blanket with Danny in her lap. The boy held his truck, spinning the wheels, seeming perfectly content sitting there.
She was saying something to Kevin, who was running around the grass in front of the blanket throwing a football up in the air.
But her mouth froze mid-sentence when she saw Jamison. For a moment, he couldn’t speak, either. Seeing her sitting there with the boys was a picture.
They looked like a family. The small, dark-haired boys could’ve easily passed for her children. Not much of him and his Celtic coloring, but then again, anyone knew that dark hair and eyes were usually the dominant gene.
He stood there savoring the picture for a moment as everything important snapped into perfect focus. Suddenly the world seemed to make sense, or at least it seemed as if it could if the four of them became a family.
Then Olivia finally found her voice and said, “I’m so glad you’re here. I thought I’d lost you forever.”
He shook his head and lowered himself onto the blanket. “What kind of fool would I be if I let you walk out of my life? I’m not saying it was okay to keep those things from me—there is nothing you can’t come to me with. But I love you and I’m glad you’re my wife.”
He leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“Truck!”
When he looked up, Danny was offering him the toy truck and Kevin was asking him to toss the football.
As he was throwing the ball with the older boy, he glanced at the love of his life sitting on the blanket like the Madonna with her child. He knew exactly what she was thinking because he was thinking the same thing.
There had been snags in Danny’s adoption. He had to believe that had happened because the boys were meant to be their children. Part of their family.
The family they chose.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4812-4
THE FAMILY THEY CHOSE
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
*The Baby Chase
The Family They Chose Page 14
