Million Dollar Marriage

by Maggie Shayne

  “And when you came back to town toting a child? What then?”

  She gave her head a quick shake. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Claim I’d adopted it, maybe. I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t think you’d care, anyway.”

  “You didn’t think I’d care?” Holden paced the floor, sighed deeply, and then brought himself to a stop. “Okay. Okay, so you had this plan. Hell, Lucy, you probably felt justified. You knew me as the guy who got drunk and took your virginity one night, and then forgot it ever happened before morning.” He sighed again, bit his lip. “I guess the main point is, you changed your mind.”

  “No, Holden. The main point is, I am not this perfect, pure-of-heart Snow White you’ve come to think I am.”

  “If you weren’t,” he said, moving closer to her again, taking her shoulders in his hands and squeezing gently, “you would have gone through with it. But you didn’t. That’s why you didn’t want to make love to me when we got back, isn’t it?”

  Eyes wet, she looked up into his and nodded. “By then I’d begun to see the man you truly are. I decided to wait, to get some birth control, and talk to you about children later. Once we figured out where…where this thing between us was going.”

  He smiled very slowly. “And we will. We will, Lucy. Much, much later.”

  She blinked up at him, wide-eyed.

  “So, you’re not perfect. Lucy, nobody’s perfect. I never expected you to be flawless. I’m not perfect, either. You know that.”

  She sighed deeply.

  Holden tipped his head back and shook it slowly. “Thank God, your little plan didn’t succeed,” he said. “God knows, a baby is the last thing we need in our lives right now.”

  She didn’t reply. Didn’t say a word, and when Holden looked down at her, her face seemed frozen. A mask he could not see through.

  “I mean, there’s so much going on. Sophia fighting for half of everything, including the company. Little Bryan’s kidnapping.” Her expression didn’t change. “We need time to figure out what there is between us…time to nurture it, see if it grows. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

  Unflinchingly, she nodded. “Yes. I think I do.”

  “So, you agree. I mean, babies…that’s something for much later. Way down the road. I’m still adjusting to the idea of being someone’s husband, you know? Being someone’s father, well…”

  “No, I understand perfectly. I’m—I’m glad we talked this through, Holden. I am.”

  “Good.” He sighed with relief. “So we can start over, then?”

  She lifted her head, looked him square in the eye. “No. I’m afraid we can’t.”

  Holden felt as if she’d just nailed him between the eyes with a two-by-four. “What?”

  She turned away from him. “I just… I’m not ready for this. It’s like you said, being someone’s wife, it’s a big adjustment. I, um…”

  “Lucy?”

  “I need some time, Holden.”

  “Some time?”

  She nodded hard. “I think I’ll just move back into my apartment for a while, and…mull all of this over.”

  “My God, Lucy, what the hell just happened here?”

  She kept her back to him, her head lowered. “I didn’t realize you were thinking of making this marriage anything other than the arrangement we agreed to. Now that I know you are, I’m just not sure it’s wise of me to stay here.”

  “But…but I thought you…I thought you wanted that, too?”

  “We just established that you don’t know me as well as you thought you did.”

  Desperation clawed at him. Something had happened, something had changed here, and for the life of him he didn’t know what. “You can’t go back to your apartment. Miguel and Gina are still there, and—”

  “Look, if it’s the money you’re worried about, don’t. We can keep this thing legal until you inherit. This won’t effect that.”

  “Dammit, Lucy, you think I’m worried about the inheritance?” He turned her around, made her face him. “To hell with the inheritance!”

  She said nothing, wouldn’t even look him in the eye.

  “Fine. I’ll go. I’ll stay in my apartment, okay? You won’t even have to see me if you don’t want to. I’ll give you some time, if that’s what you want, but, Lucy—”

  “I…guess that would be okay. Just until Miguel and Gina can take the baby home from the hospital.”

  He searched her face, and finally sighed, feeling utterly deflated, confused, and pretty well heartbroken. “What happened, Lucy? I thought you felt something, too.”

  She refused to answer him, refused to hold his gaze. “I think you should go now. I need to get back to the hospital.”

  He was so frustrated he could have screamed. “Fine. You want me to go, that’s just fine.”

  He released her, wounded to the core, and stormed out of the house.

  It seemed to Lucy very fortunate that Holden had revealed his feelings about having a child before she’d had the chance to tell him she was pregnant. It made things a lot easier. If she’d told him first, he may have tried to cover those feelings. But this way she knew where he stood from the start. And it seemed very clear to her that she had to choose—between the child she carried, and the husband who thought there might be some chance of a true love developing between them. Maybe. Someday.

  She hadn’t told him that she already loved him. There was no reason for him to know that. She picked up the phone and dialed the number of her old apartment. She wouldn’t rush Gina and Miguel, but now that Miguel was employed by Fortune TX, Ltd., they would be finding a place of their own closer to town. Better they know that, as far as she was concerned, the sooner the better.

  Holden went back to the office, but not happily. Lucy had all but told him it was over. Given him the old heave-ho before he even had a chance to get started. He wished he knew what was wrong with her.

  It was noon when his secretary buzzed him to say he had a visitor. Until he heard the name, he’d forgotten all about the surprise he had planned to spring on his wife. Now, he barely knew what the hell to do about it.

  “Send him in,” he said with a sigh. He got up from behind his desk just as the office door opened and the man stepped through it.

  He was thin, a bit too thin. His jaw and cheekbones sharply etched beneath his skin. But handsome, too. Dark skin, the large, proud nose so characteristic of Native American heritage. His hair was mostly silver, with a few streaks of raven still showing here and there. He had huge dark eyes…Lucy had those eyes.

  “I’m John Brightwater,” he said slowly, looking Holden up and down.

  “Holden Fortune, sir.” Holden extended a hand, and Lucy’s father shook it, his grip firm.

  The man nodded. Holden waved toward a chair. “It was good of you to come,” Holden said. “Can I get you anything? A cold drink? Coffee?”

  John Brightwater held up a hand, even as he took his seat. “I only want to know if it’s true, what you told me on the telephone. My daughter…she married you?”

  Holden blinked. “You sound surprised.”

  “After what you did to her? I’m surprised she would even speak to you, much less consent to be your wife.”

  Holden had been in the act of leaning back against the edge of his desk, but he almost fell down at those words. “You… She told you about that?”

  “She didn’t have to tell me. I was with her, in the hospital, when she nearly died because of what you did.”

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Holden said quickly, holding up both hands. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing here. I never did anything to hurt Lucy. Put her in a hospital? I don’t know what you’re—”

  “Ah.” John waved a dismissive hand. “I know it was you. She didn’t tell me. I never asked, because I had no need to ask. My Lucy was a good girl. She would not have let just anyone take advantage of her. But you…I always knew she was weak where you were concerned, Fortune
. She thought she loved you.” He sniffed. “You didn’t even come to see her in the hospital.”

  “I didn’t know she was ever in the hospital!”

  John Brightwater crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Holden. Then, bit by bit, the frown lines in his face eased. A hint of doubt appeared. “It would be just like her not to tell you.”

  “Then why don’t you tell me? Because I’m totally lost here.”

  Still scowling, eyes narrow, he finally nodded. “I don’t know what happened between you and my daughter, Fortune. Only that you took advantage of her. She was an innocent.”

  Holden lowered his head. “It’s true. I had too much to drink one night and…hell, there’s no excuse. I did it, and I’m ashamed of it. Lucy’s too good to be treated that way.” He managed to look his wife’s father in the eye again. “For what it’s worth, I’ve told her how sorry I am. And I think she’s forgiven me.”

  “Has she forgiven you for the loss of her child, as well, Fortune?”

  “Her…” Holden gulped in a breath.

  “There was a child,” John Brightwater said. “My grandchild. But growing inside Lucy’s fallopian tube, rather than in the safety of her womb. When the child grew too large…”

  “Oh, my God.” Holden came off the desk, dizzy, his knees shaking. “Oh, my God, I didn’t know…”

  “She bled inside. The fetus had to be removed, along with an ovary. Lucy’s chances of conceiving again were cut in two because of that.” He lowered his head, shaking it slowly. “Perhaps less than that, given her mother’s history of ovarian cancer. Perhaps I’ll never know a grandchild.” He looked at Holden, his gaze steady as Holden stood there, one fist clenched in his own hair. “My daughter may have forgiven you, Fortune. But I do not know that I can.”

  Holden sighed, dragging himself away from his thoughts long enough to feel defensive. “I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t,” he said. “But I swear to you, I did not know any of this. And…and besides, she could have had ten kids by now and you wouldn’t have known about it. If you care so much for your daughter, Mr. Brightwater, why have you been out of her life for so long?”

  This time, it was John who looked at the floor. “I failed her. So many times. I just couldn’t face her anymore. I let her mother die, you know.”

  Holden’s attitude softened immediately, along with his voice. “No, I don’t know. I don’t think that’s true.”

  “It is. I knew something was wrong. I should have made her see a doctor sooner than she did. I should have—”

  “No.” Holden shook his head, expelling his breath all at once. “There was nothing you could have done. I’m sure of that.”

  “I failed her as a father, as well. If I had been doing my job, I would have protected her from men like you.”

  Pursing his lips, Holden decided to let that one pass. “It’s history now. You can’t change the past, John. Only the future. And I think your daughter needs you in her life again. That’s why I sent that ticket, and asked you to come here.”

  John’s head came up slowly, his eyes widening. “She’s not sick, is she? The doctors warned us both that this cancer that killed her mother would be a risk for her. Some even suggested she have the remaining ovary removed, to prevent it.”

  “My God. The risk is that high?”

  John looked at him steadily.

  The most horrible thoughts were running through Holden’s mind. What if she was sick? What if that was why she’d been so desperate to have a child that she would resort to tricking him into getting her pregnant? He should have known there was more motivating her than what she’d revealed. He should have known! No woman as good as Lucy would play those kinds of games without a damn good reason.

  “I would like to see my daughter now. Perhaps it is not too late.”

  “It’s not. I promise you, it’s not.” He glanced at his watch. “She’ll be at the hospital, just about to take a lunch break, I think. Come on, I’ll drive you there.”

  “No need,” John began.

  “Yeah, there is,” Holden said. “I have some business there myself.”

  Fourteen

  Lucy sat in her office, munching a tuna salad from the hospital cafeteria, and grimacing at the taste. The lettuce was wilted. Still, she forced it down. It was good for the baby. Her side dishes included lukewarm string beans and a carton of milk.

  There was a tap on the office door. She washed her bite down with a gulp of milk, and called, “Come in.”

  The door opened, and the last person in the world she’d expected to see stood there.

  “Dad?” She got up slowly. “My God, what are you doing here?”

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I…” Then he shrugged. “I came to say that…I’m sorry. And that I love you, daughter.”

  The lump that came into her throat was so large, it nearly choked her. She couldn’t speak. For him to show up now, of all times… She moved around the desk, went to her father, and almost cried in relief when his arms came around her.

  Holden watched from across the hall, as the two embraced in the open doorway of Lucy’s office. Then he nodded, and went to the next office down. He’d already checked at the nurses’ desk, and there was only one other OB-GYN in residence here at Red Rock General. Dr. Karen Flemming. So she had to be Lucy’s doctor, right?

  So she had to have Lucy’s records.

  He tapped on her office door, went in when she opened it, tried to school his face into a look of excited worry and said, “There’s a lady giving birth in the parking lot! You’d better hurry!”

  “Holy mother of…” was all he heard as she raced away, dragging a nurse in her wake.

  As soon as she was out of sight, Holden looked both ways, and slipped into her office, closing the door behind him.

  Luck was on his side. The file cabinet was unlocked. He slid it open quietly, feeling like a thief in the night as he rummaged through looking for “Brightwater, Lucinda” for a full minute before he thought to look under “Fortune, Lucinda.” He closed the top drawer, and opened the next one, found the Fs, and finally, the file he wanted.

  As he pulled it out, Holden closed his eyes, and whispered a silent prayer. Please, God, don’t let me find the word cancer in here. Please…

  Footsteps came toward the door. He closed the file drawer, stuffed the file into his shirt, and took a seat, trying his best to look innocent.

  The office door opened. “Dr. Flemming?” the nurse said, then scowled. “What are you doing in here?”

  “Uh…waiting for my wife? Isn’t this Dr. Brightwater…uh, I mean, Dr. Fortune’s office?”

  She had the face of a bulldog, especially when she puckered it up like that. “No. And you shouldn’t be in here.” She did a quick scan of the place, her eyes lingering on the file cabinet.

  “Sorry. I just got the wrong door.” Holden got to his feet.

  “The name is on the door.”

  “Well, I, uh, forgot my glasses, as well.”

  “Humph,” she said, and stood there, holding the door wide, waiting for him to leave. He did, and hurried toward Lucy’s actual office, but he ducked around a corner before he got there.

  Lucy would see to it her father was taken care of. Looked like the two of them, at least, were going to be okay. But right now, he had to get someplace where he could read through the file. Uninterrupted.

  So he went back to his apartment in the city. And it was all he could do not to try to read the damned thing as he drove. But then again, he was so dreading what he would find when he pored over those pages, maybe it was better to put it off…just for a little while.

  Lucy spent the entire afternoon with her father, and slowly, it seemed her oldest wounds were mending. She showed him around the hospital, then around Red Rock itself, and later took him to dinner. It helped. Focusing on her relationship with her father gave her an excuse not to think about how badly she’d screwed up her relationship with her husband. And she
knew that was simple avoidance, but she needed that right now.

  Dwelling on the dirty trick she’d pulled didn’t do any good. She couldn’t undo it. And replaying Holden’s words about not wanting a child didn’t do any good, either. She couldn’t change the way he felt.

  No more than she could change the way she felt about him.

  It was hopeless. All of it. So she just wouldn’t think about any of it right now.

  During dinner she excused herself to make a call to Mary Ellen, who still knew nothing about the blowup between her and Holden. She didn’t say anything about it, either. Just mentioned that her father was in town, and got the exact response she’d hoped for. A warm invitation. A promise he would be made to feel welcome.

  As she thanked Mary Ellen and hung up the phone, Lucy thought she could easily come to love that woman. And she wondered, briefly, if Mary Ellen didn’t realize it was time she find some happiness of her own, a man to love her as she deserved to be loved.

  Right. And she was one to give advice in that department.

  When Lucy walked her father through the front door that night, Mary Ellen was there to greet them. Clasping John’s hand in hers, she said, “You must be Lucy’s father. It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. I’m Mary Ellen Fortune, Holden’s mother.”

  “John Brightwater,” he said in his deep voice. “And the pleasure is mine. I told Lucy I’d be perfectly comfortable in a hotel, but—”

  “Nonsense! You’re family. You’ll stay right here. We have so much to talk about, and this will make it much more convenient, don’t you think?”

  He looked slightly embarrassed by her warm welcome. Likely because he hadn’t been expecting it. As Lucy recalled, her father had never had a very high opinion of the Fortune family. Maybe that would change now.

  “How was your day, Lucy?” Mary Ellen asked, switching her focus. “You’re feeling all right, I hope?”

  “Fine. Seeing Dad was just what I needed today.” She smiled up at her father as she said it, and received a loving gaze in return. “You must have a sixth sense, Dad, to show up just when I needed you.”