Protecting Her Child

by Debby Giusti

  For all she knew, he could be working with the thugs. Right now, she couldn’t trust her instincts, and the last thing she needed was another problem to weigh her down.

  Meredith took another step back.

  “Wait. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he insisted.

  She turned, needing space and time to process everything he’d just thrown her way.

  “I’m staying at the Lodge. Think it over and we can meet later.”

  Meredith dashed around the corner and stumbled into the alleyway on the far side of the bank.

  She wasn’t ready to trust anyone. Certainly not the police, who hadn’t believed her when she was a child and had questioned her more than she felt necessary after her husband’s death. Had they thought she was somehow involved?

  Her hand brushed over the rough brick wall. She needed support. Her world was in chaos and shifting far too quickly out of control.

  Two months before delivery wasn’t the time to be thrown off track because of a woman who had a deathbed wish to right a mistake she’d made twenty-four years ago.

  Pete had mentioned Atlanta, so Meredith wouldn’t head west. Charleston and Hilton Head were up the coast. Maybe the Carolinas would offer a safe haven.

  She found her car and fell into the front seat. For a moment, she stared at the business card.

  Who was she kidding? She had no place to go and no one to help her. If things didn’t change soon, her child would be born into a life on the run.

  She needed to know more about the disease that could affect her baby.

  The way she looked at it, she had two options. Hit the road to nowhere or find out what Pete Worth had to say.

  Pete sat on the deck and watched the boat dock at the neighboring marina. Gulls cawed overhead as waves lapped against the side of the fishing vessel. The day’s catch must have been good the way the birds swooped low over the deck, begging for scraps of fish.

  The setting sun cast the sky in shades of pink and blue like a patchwork quilt. Something Eve might create with her tiny stitches and pieced fabric.

  Or Meredith.

  The brown pigment on her left eye was identical to Eve’s. Seems Dixie Collins—whoever she was—had led him to Eve’s long-lost daughter.

  He doubted that Meredith knew about the vast wealth that would fall into her lap if she and Eve reconnected. Unless Dixie or the boyfriend had told her.

  Although that seemed unlikely, since Dixie was trying to pass herself off as the legitimate heir.

  Nice gal, huh? She needed a lesson in honesty and integrity and the worth of a person’s word.

  The shopkeeper had mentioned a Latino who was looking for Meredith. Could he be in cahoots with Dixie and her boyfriend?

  Pete needed more information to take back to Eve. Surely, she wouldn’t fall into the trap of believing the blond impostor was her child?

  Not if Pete could set her straight.

  He glanced at his BlackBerry on the glass tabletop. All afternoon, he’d waited for its insistent chirp, hoping Meredith would call.

  After she’d scurried off earlier, he’d driven back to her bungalow in hopes that she might return home. He’d go there again tomorrow, just in case. Hopefully, she wasn’t on I-95 heading north…or south.

  His last recourse was to talk to the police. Not that he wanted to stir up trouble for Meredith, but Eve needed to know the truth.

  The ocean scene soothed his unease. Far out at sea, a trawler moved along the horizon.

  His BlackBerry rang, breaking the serenity.

  Raising it to his ear, he heard Meredith’s voice. “Go south out of Refuge Bay for eight miles and take the left fork in the road. At the third stoplight, turn left again and then right at the water’s edge. You’ll see the Dock House Restaurant straight ahead. I’ll meet you there.”

  “Meredith—”

  The phone disconnected.

  Relieved that she’d called, Pete hustled to his car and followed her directions.

  He found the modest wooden building, weather-worn and in need of repair. Inside, the place seemed clean and the waitress welcoming. He asked for a booth in the corner with a view of the water and the door.

  Pete ordered a cola, which the waitress refilled twice and downed a fish sandwich and fries fast enough to leave his stomach burning with indigestion. An hour later, he paid his bill, left the waitress a sizable tip and headed back to his car, annoyed at being stood up.

  As he climbed into his Jeep, he hit the RECEIVED file on his BlackBerry, highlighted the most recent incoming number and punched the green CALL button.

  A gravelly male voice answered after the fourth ring. “Lloyd’s Laundry.”

  Meredith hadn’t used her own phone to call him with directions to this waterfront eatery. Instead, she’d stopped at a Laundromat and placed the call from there, on a landline, like a woman used to covering her tracks.

  “Someone phoned me earlier from this number,” Pete explained. “Have you seen a woman with black hair, about five-five?”

  “I’m just washing my clothes, buddy. Haven’t seen anyone tonight except a pregnant gal when I first arrived. She left about an hour ago.”

  Of course, she’d moved on. If he were lucky, she’d call again.

  And if not?

  He’d be back to square one.

  Frustrated with his luck—or lack of it—Pete started the ignition and turned onto the road leading back to Refuge Bay.

  Meredith’s phone call had sent him out of town. For what reason? To give her time to break into his room and rummage through his belongings?

  Not that she looked like a con artist, but still…

  She was carrying Eve’s grandchild. Was that skewing his common sense?

  Meredith watched Pete pull his Jeep into the motel parking lot, turn off the ignition and step onto the pavement. Hopefully, he wouldn’t see her hiding in the shadows.

  He studied the surrounding area of tall pines, then locked his car and headed for his room.

  Meredith waited ten minutes. The quiet fishing town folded up by nine o’clock this early in spring. The hum of a car engine would announce someone’s arrival along the two-lane road that led to the Lodge. All she heard were waves slapping against the beach.

  Cautiously, she edged around the side of the building and picked her way down a path through the sea oats that led to the beach. Once her shoes sank into the soft sand, she stopped and looked back at the motel. A long common deck area and pool stretched in front of the row of rooms. Most sat empty.

  A light glowed in Pete’s window. She’d left the lamp on, as she’d found it earlier when she’d searched the room, being careful to put everything back in its place. Not that he had brought much with him to Refuge Bay, only a change of clothes and some toilet articles stuck in a zippered case marked with the Magnolia Medical logo.

  A phone call to the lab confirmed that he worked there, although the receptionist had declined to provide any additional information, and Meredith hadn’t left a message when she’d been connected to his voice mail.

  At least she knew that part of his story was true. He worked at Magnolia Medical.

  She glanced once again at the weathered facade of the old Lodge. The sliding-glass door that led to the deck was open, and Pete stood in the doorway. Peering at him from the shadows, Meredith wondered why this man had stumbled into her life, especially so close on the heels of her recent middle-of-the-night encounter with the two guys in the pickup.

  Was Pete just a nice guy trying to right her birth mother’s past wrong? Or was his lab persona a ruse to trick her into letting down her guard?

  Her first priority was her baby. She needed the information Pete promised to provide about a disease that could threaten the fragile life growing within her.

  With a heavy sigh, Meredith pulled her cell from her purse, tapped in the number from Pete’s business card and pushed the green button.

  “Meet me on the beach,” she said when he answered her call.
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  God willing, in the next few minutes, she’d find out about the mother she’d never known and the disease they both might carry.

  Most important, she would learn if that legacy had been passed on to her child.

  FOUR

  Pete’s heart lurched as Meredith emerged from the darkness. Light from the Lodge spilled over the sand and caught her in its path. The wind tugged at her hair. She raised her hand to pull the wayward strands into some type of order, exposing the heavy ring of sadness that surrounded her like a shroud.

  No woman, especially one just a few months short of delivery, should have to carry such a heavy burden, let alone something as palpable as what he saw staring back at him.

  He hopped down from the deck, but continued to keep his distance. Hopefully, she wouldn’t run. He pointed to a row of wooden beach chairs lined up on the sand. “We’ll be able to talk there.”

  She nodded and followed him. He brushed off one of the seats and motioned for her to sit as he hunkered down on the bench directly opposite.

  “I called your lab,” she said. “The receptionist confirmed that you work at Magnolia Medical.”

  “Looks like you rummaged around in my motel room as well. Do you believe me now?”

  “I’m willing to listen to what you have to say.”

  “Fair enough.” Pete hoped what he said wouldn’t alter the rather tenuous truce they’d just reached. “Your mother’s name is Eve Townsend. She’s a good woman with a big heart. Evidently, she was rather obstinate as a teen and balked against her restrictive parents. There was a boy, a little older than she was. They were in love.” Pete shrugged. “Things happened.”

  “So I’m the love child she gave away.” Meredith’s tone of voice hovered between anger and regret.

  “At her parents’ insistence.” Pete thought of the Townsends’ strict rules and harsh censure of anything but the most proper behavior. “Eve wanted to keep you, but her parents were unrelenting. They said adoption into a loving family would be better for the baby.”

  Meredith groaned. Her shoulders slumped ever so slightly. “Loving family? What was the criterion they used?”

  Evidently, Sam and Hazel Collins hadn’t been the best of parents.

  “The Townsends went through a trusted lawyer,” Pete continued, hoping to convince Meredith of the wealthy family’s good intentions. “He assured them you would be well cared for.”

  She swallowed hard. “Does she have other children?”

  He shook his head. “Eve never married. Shortly after you were born, she started having medical problems. Tumors developed, and she was diagnosed with a disease called Von Hippel-Lindau.”

  “Tumors? Are they cancerous?”

  “Not at the onset, although they do cause problems. They can attack various organs. Sometimes the retina. Or the spinal cord. Often the adrenal gland.”

  She listened attentively.

  “When the disease zeros in on the kidneys, the tumors turn malignant. Researchers are now trying to determine which forms of kidney cancer are related to VHL.”

  “You’re saying some people don’t know they have the disease?”

  “That’s right. VHL can go undetected until a major organ is affected. It’s a genetic disease that can be inherited from either parent. Or it can appear sporadically for no known reason.”

  “And Eve’s kidneys are involved?”

  “She had one removed two years ago. Renal cell carcinoma was diagnosed a few months back.”

  With her arms wrapped protectively over the child within her belly, Meredith looked vulnerable, and Pete’s heart went out to her. She deserved more than the bad news he’d come bearing.

  “Eve wants you to know about VHL so you can be tested. You might not carry the disease.”

  “But if I do, I could pass VHL on to my baby.”

  “It’s a possibility. Eve can explain everything.”

  Meredith narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want to see her.”

  Pete hadn’t expected the depth of emotion he heard in her response. “Please, Meredith—”

  “Do you know what a child thinks when her mother abandons her?” She dropped her gaze and picked at the edge of her sweater. “A child thinks she’s unlovable. That she’s done something wrong. That she deserves the scolding and lectures. That she deserves to be—”

  Her voice hitched, and he saw the angry tears that glistened in her eyes.

  She swiped her hand over her face and sniffed. “I’ve cried enough in my life. I don’t want to cry anymore. Tell her thanks for the invitation to reconnect, but I’ll pass.”

  She stood and started to race away.

  Pete hurried after her. “At least be tested. I can draw your blood at my laboratory. You don’t have to meet your mother.”

  “I’ve got your number. I’ll think it over.”

  He grabbed her arm, causing her to turn. Once again, the light from the Lodge played over her face.

  “What are you involved in, Meredith?”

  “Meaning?”

  “Were Dixie Collins and her boyfriend working with you and your husband?”

  Her eyes widened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Dixie and her boyfriend broke into your house last night.”

  She flinched. “But how—?”

  “I wanted information to take to Eve so I followed them.”

  Meredith took a step back. “I don’t know anything about you, Pete Worth, and you know even less about me. Why don’t you climb into your Jeep and head back to Atlanta? You can tell Eve that Dixie’s her daughter for all I care. I’ll have my baby tested when my life gets a little more stable. But right now, I need some space.”

  Before he could say anything else, she ran from the beach, kicking the sand with her feet.

  If only Pete could convince her to return with him to Atlanta.

  He had two more days before he needed to be back at Magnolia Medical. He’d make sure Meredith didn’t stray too far in case she changed her mind.

  The headlights cut through the darkness. Meredith blinked back hot tears that stung her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry.

  Driving down this winding coastal road demanded her full attention. She couldn’t afford to let down her guard.

  VHL. Her baby could be at risk. Why should a tiny unborn infant be saddled with something life-threatening? Not the legacy any child wanted to inherit from its mother.

  Anger welled up within her, and she wanted to scream against the injustice. Not her baby.

  Didn’t she have enough to worry about right now?

  What about Dixie Collins? Why would she pretend to be Eve’s daughter?

  Meredith’s only possessions were a small overnight bag, a quilt she’d made for her baby and enough cash in her pocket for a week of food and hopefully as many nights in a low-rent motel. Until she could find another job and earn more money.

  Her hand instinctively patted her protruding stomach. Two months and her baby would be born. How could she work then? Perhaps she could do sewing alterations or take on consignments. But piece-work wouldn’t provide enough income to survive.

  Meredith pulled in a leveling breath and touched her pocket, where she’d tucked her husband’s pocketknife. The knife he’d forgotten to take the day he’d been killed.

  Right now, the weight of the weapon provided reassurance. She needed to be careful, yes. But not paranoid.

  No one had followed her out of Refuge Bay. She hadn’t seen another car along the coastal road for miles. No steel-gray pickup truck. No ruffians who thought they could push her around. No one who knew she was on the run.

  She rested her shoulders against the back of the seat, feeling her taut muscles relax ever so slightly. The baby kicked and she almost laughed.

  “Hey there, little one. I know I’m not alone. You and I are in this together. And with the help of God, we’ll make it.”

  The roadway straightened into a long stretch of two-lane road. She checke
d her speed. Fatigue weighed heavily on her. She needed sleep. And not in the front seat of the car.

  She longed to stretch out her legs and prop her head on a feathery pillow. Eight hours of uninterrupted slumber would brighten her outlook and ease the dull ache that twisted up her spine.

  She cracked open the window, allowing the cool night air to circulate through the car. Readjusting the backrest, she shook her head, hoping to be free of the lethargy that had her in its grip, and reached for the radio knob. Before her fingers pushed the button, she caught a flash of light in the rearview mirror.

  Meredith pulled her hand back to the steering wheel. She straightened in the seat as her heart thumped a warning. The fatigue fled, replaced by a frisson of fear.

  She flicked another gaze in the mirror. Headlights charged along the road, coming closer.

  Her eyes dropped to the speedometer as her foot pushed down on the gas. Fifty-five miles per hour. Sixty.

  The lights drew closer.

  From their intense glare and raised elevation, the vehicle appeared to be larger than her four-door.

  An SUV perhaps?

  The muscles in her neck tensed. The road curved and she struggled to keep the wheels on the pavement. A gust of wind swooped through a break in the trees.

  She gripped the wheel more tightly, made the turn and felt pinpricks of anxiety dance along her neck. Once again lights flashed in the mirror.

  The vehicle loomed directly behind her.

  Would it pass? She raised her foot off the gas to let the pickup race around her.

  Instead, the truck swerved toward the edge of the road, cutting her off.

  Meredith turned the wheel to the right. Her front tire left the asphalt. She fought to keep the vehicle from slipping off the shoulder, but lost control.

  The car plunged into the drainage ditch, slamming against the far side of the embankment.

  With a whoosh, the air bag exploded against her.

  Instinctively, she reached for the baby.

  Oh, Lord, protect this child.

  The world shifted. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the seat rest, trying to stave off vertigo.