An Act of Persuasion

by Stephanie Doyle

  “I didn’t do it. I mean, I’m really careful when I do those things because they are super important.”

  Mark decided this particular interview would be a struggle. “Yes, of course. I know you weren’t involved. I should have been clearer, this certificate was filed more than twenty years ago. Do you have a supervisor or someone who is in charge down here?”

  “Yeah. She’s getting coffee. I’ll let her help you because I wouldn’t know about anything more than a week ago. I’m new.”

  “Go figure.”

  Mark found a chair in the corner of the office and sat to wait. Not two minutes later a middle-aged woman with a square frame and a matching square face entered the room.

  “Natalie, how many times have I told you, I don’t want to see you doing your nails behind the desk? It’s not professional.”

  The file was quickly shoved in a drawer. “But there is, like, nothing to do down here.”

  “Then you find something to do. Go through the filing system. Develop a better system of organization. Clean your desk of the seven different coffee cups you have half filled with cold coffee. That’s something.”

  The girl said nothing but dutifully got out of her chair and started to fuss about her desk. As far as Mark could tell she was simply moving the half-filled coffee cups from one side of the desk to the other.

  “Oh, and this guy is here.”

  The woman turned and immediately Mark knew he was working with a veteran. The woman had the serious expression of someone who knew this basement was her fiefdom and knew how to run it well.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Yes, I’m here about a birth certificate.” Mark gave a brief description of his job and why he was interested in the information.

  “I know the names are fake, and I know the hospital typically files the information so I’m interested in discovering how something like that could happen.”

  The older woman, who had introduced herself as Marge Berry, took the copy of the certificate Mark had brought with him.

  “Yes, normally we will handle the filing of the birth certificate. The information for the parents’ names comes from their admission paperwork most of the time.”

  “There is no confirmation with the parents first? An ID check, that sort of thing?”

  If Anna’s parents had official-looking fake IDs, it would suggest that they had been living underground for some time. Whereas if they decided only at the last minute to change their names, he might be able to find out their real identities here. And that might lead him to locating them now and possibly discovering why they’d lied.

  Perhaps they’d been considering leaving Anna at the hospital at birth. They could have left her and disappeared into the city. The fake names would have made it difficult to trace them. Of course, a simpler option would have been to decide to let her be formally adopted, but that required rational thought. And, based on their actions, the couple weren’t very rational.

  He wondered how young they might have been. Anna didn’t have any recollection of how old her mother was. At the age of six all adults probably looked the same. But if the parents had been two scared kids, who also happened to be addicts, it might explain their strange behavior when Anna was born.

  Obviously Anna’s mother—and possibly her father, too—wanted to keep her and thought they could handle raising her. So why lie about who they were?

  Mark considered how different Anna’s life might have been had she been adopted by a stable couple who wanted her. Then he considered how different things might be for Ben if that were the case. They might already be married, her abandonment issues nonexistent. Then again, if her life had been altered so radically, maybe she wouldn’t have been the person Ben wanted in his life.

  It was crazy to think about it.

  “I have to say we don’t check ID. It’s not really needed. After all, we have their insurance cards as ID.”

  Interesting. “So if someone was admitted without insurance, you wouldn’t have any way of validating whatever information they gave for the certificate.”

  Marge seemed to bristle at that. “Well, I can’t say we did, but we should have. If anything, we would require more information from the admitting patient since without insurance we would have to determine alternative methods of payment. Unless it was an emergency—a life-or-death delivery. In those cases the paperwork doesn’t get completed until the dust settles.”

  Mark was grateful to know that if there had been a life-or-death issue, the mother, and more importantly child, would be attended to before the paperwork.

  “You know what is odd about this…” She took out a pair of bifocals she kept in the front pocket of her button-down shirt and perched them on the edge of her nose.

  “What?”

  “These names. They ring a bell. It’s funny, too, because the questions you’re asking…I feel like I’ve been down this road before.”

  Mark silently groaned. Of course she had. Ben had, no doubt, followed the same path and had gotten here first. Typical.

  But why hadn’t he told Anna what he’d learned?

  As far as Mark could see the path was pretty clear. Anna’s parents hadn’t had insurance. If they’d had legitimate cards, then those names would have been used. All Mark had to do was find the admittance of a non-insured pregnant woman on the particular day and year of Anna’s birth. How many could there be?

  “Can I ask how recently this was?”

  “Recently? No, this didn’t happen recently. I would have recalled immediately. Trust me when I tell you we don’t get investigators down here every day asking about falsified birth certificates. No, this would have been maybe…a few years ago. But I want to say the circumstances were the same. He was an investigator of sorts and was trying to find some girl’s parents.”

  Mark nodded. Of course he was. He was Ben.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “RIGHT THERE. OH, YEAH. A little harder. No, no, too hard. Oh, yes. Oh, that’s good.”

  Ben closed his eyes and tried not to listen to the torture that was the sounds Anna made as he rubbed her back. After her thirty-fourth week of pregnancy they had officially crossed the sex-is-no-longer-fun threshold. Her breasts were too tight and achy, her feet were too swollen and he hadn’t been able to find a right angle to make her come during intercourse.

  He had resorted to using his fingers or his mouth to pleasure her. And while he enjoyed it, he’d learned it didn’t give her as intense an orgasm as when he was fully inside of her.

  Eventually even those tactics had stopped working and he knew she’d been trying to enjoy the sex for his sake.

  The motivation was sweet in a way. But a part of him wondered why she simply hadn’t told him to stop. Anna wasn’t demure about stating her demands. Hell, in the beginning of their relationship she’d been very clear about saying no to sex until she was ready. So to merely lay back and let him have his way, even though she wasn’t getting as much from the experience as he was, really bothered him. She might have continued the ruse, but he’d put an end to it and announced that they were done until after the baby was born.

  This was just one of a host of things he didn’t understand about her lately. For the life of him he couldn’t get her to agree to let him move in with her permanently. He’d managed to sneak in much of his closet, his bathroom stuff, his favorite pillow and several of his books that he’d mingled with hers.

  He wondered if she was waiting until they had reached this point where sex could no longer be the glue that held them together. Maybe she thought without the sex he’d grow bored and wouldn’t be as interested in staying over every night. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. In the past two weeks since they had called a halt to their sexual activity, Ben was entirely content to lie down with her at night and rub her back or her shoulders. Anything to bring her a little comfort in a body that was no longer comfortable.

  In fact, he loved doing that for her. He just hated the erec
tion he got thanks to the sounds she made—relief was a long way off. Another four weeks or so of pregnancy then another six weeks of healing time—he had already asked the doctor—then the decision to resume sexual activity would be left up to her.

  Of course they would have the baby to consider then. They would be up doing feedings. Ben certainly didn’t plan for her to take on all the work. The breast pump he’d purchased would allow her to store her milk so they could divide the night feedings.

  Still, he’d heard about the perils of sex after the baby from some of the fathers in the Lamaze class they attended. Fathers who were on their second and third child. Some stories he’d heard referenced months…and months before being invited anywhere near their wives. Those men had appeared very stressed-out to Ben.

  “Okay, that’s enough.”

  Easing off her side, she rolled toward him. He made room for what they had recently nicknamed The Great Beast—her stomach and their child.

  She smiled serenely. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. You want me to do your feet?”

  “Nah, I’m good. I’m tired. Even sleep is getting hard for me. I can’t seem to get comfortable in any position and then as soon as I do The Great Beast goes ballistic on me.”

  “You know we’re going to have to stop calling it that. What if it can hear us and develops a complex? Because it can hear. It says so in all the books. It hears us calling it it, too. Yeah, we’re probably well on our way to screwing the kid up.”

  “It will be fine. After all, there was Cousin It in the Addams family and he always seemed very chipper.”

  “Excellent. Gertrude if it’s a girl and Cousin It if it’s a boy. Settled.”

  “Hardeehar. Hey, here’s shocking news. I need to pee.”

  Ben chuckled and watched as Anna rolled off the bed and onto her feet. She reminded him of the girl in the Willy Wonka movie that the Umpa Lumpas had to roll away. He heard her puttering about in the bathroom and he thought this was it. Domestic bliss.

  They had really settled into coupledom. He rubbed her back. She made jokes about how often she needed to pee. Their baby was only a few weeks away.

  “Anna,” he called out to her.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why won’t you let me move in with you?”

  There was no response and he knew it had been stupid to ask her while she was in the bathroom and he couldn’t see her face. At this very moment she was thinking and retrenching. He should tell her what an amazing operative she would have been—Anna was never without a plan.

  She returned and he thought how sweet she looked in the white nightgown that covered her from her neck to her toes. Sweet, but conniving.

  And her face looked a little pale. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” she said too quickly. “I noticed there was a little spotting…you know…down there. Is there supposed to be spotting? Now?”

  “Should we call the doctor?” Ben instantly reached for his cell phone on the nightstand.

  “No, it wasn’t like, ah, there’s a lot of blood. It was just a little. I’m sure it’s related to my cervix stretching or whatever. My appointment is tomorrow. I’ll check with her then.”

  “I can’t be with you tomorrow. I have that meeting in D.C. We talked about that.”

  “I know. It’s fine. Geez, Ben, you’ve been to almost every single doctor’s appointment. You see what they are. I hand over my sample, I get poked and prodded then we’re done. When they start doing the internal stuff I’m not even letting you in the room.”

  “Anna, I know what’s down there. I spent the past three months becoming quite familiar with it.”

  She had become quite familiar with what he did, too. Was, in fact, eager to have him there. He believed he made her happy in bed. Happy in bed. Happy in life. So what was her problem? It didn’t escape him she still hadn’t answered his question about him moving in.

  “It’s not the same,” she said. “Keep your appointment tomorrow. I’ll call if the doctor says there is anything to worry about.”

  Ben had already canceled the appointment mentally. It was a communications company looking to use Greg as their human lie detector for an upcoming hostile takeover. Given the antagonism between the two companies Ben had wanted to be in attendance. But, in truth, Greg could handle any squabble that might occur.

  “Are you going to answer my question?”

  “Huh?”

  “Anna.” He felt like growling. “Do not attempt to play dumb with me. Why won’t you let me move in here?”

  She smiled and climbed into bed, this time plumping the pillows behind her back. “You know I’ve been thinking about this…”

  “Excellent. Although, honestly, I don’t see why it required a lot of thought.”

  “I told you, this is a big decision for me. For us.”

  Irritation bubbled immediately. “What’s to decide? I’ve been living in this house and sleeping in this bed now for months. We’re talking about moving the rest of my things and putting my house up for sale.”

  “Your house up for sale? No, I don’t think you should do that. You might—”

  “What?” His temper was slipping away in a manner it never had before. He didn’t lose his temper. Ever. He controlled it. But she was making him crazier every day with her need to keep any sort of distance between them. He shot out of bed and paced in front of her.

  “What are you thinking? That when this doesn’t work out, I’ll need some place to go back to?”

  She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

  “What haven’t I done, Anna?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, what are you waiting for to prove that this is actually happening? We are becoming a family. Don’t I make you happy?”

  If it was possible for a woman of her size to curl in on herself, it’s what she did. “You make me very happy.”

  “Haven’t I been attentive? Haven’t we connected? We come home to this place together and you put your feet on my lap and I watch you eat more food than I ever thought a human could consume and we laugh and talk. Then we came to this bed and I made love to you and you came. Didn’t you?”

  “Of course. Ben, you know I love that…with you. It’s just now—”

  “I’m not talking about now—I know that it’s not comfortable, although I’m mad that you didn’t tell me sooner.” He knew he was sounding ridiculous but suddenly the distance she insisted on, his irritations were all there. She was with him. But not all the way. He was holding on to her, but she was still wiggling to get free.

  “Okay, let me get this straight. You’re mad at me because I had sex with you.”

  “I’m mad at you because you wouldn’t tell me what you wanted when you wanted it. Or in this case when you wanted it to stop. Since when did you decide to be polite…with me?”

  “Ben, you’re crazy. Maybe the stress of everything is getting to you.”

  He clenched his jaw and made his hands into fists. He felt like there was this dark monster sitting between her and him and he wanted to fight it. He wanted to take it apart with his bare hands. But stubbornness…or whatever her stubbornness was shielding wasn’t an enemy he could take on with his fists.

  “It’s not the stress. It’s you. You’re holding back. You think I can’t feel it? You think I wouldn’t know?”

  Her face grew even whiter then. “You—you said you didn’t know what love was so how would you know if I’m holding it back. Maybe I’m trying.”

  Maybe she was. Maybe this was the most she could give him. Then why suddenly did he need more? It was nonsensical. She was right, maybe he was crazy. He couldn’t seem to shake this feeling that, as close as they’d grown, he was still losing her.

  He couldn’t lose her. She had to love him.

  “Maybe I don’t know what love is supposed to be but I think this is damn close. Isn’t it close, Anna? I mean, here we are living our lives together, enjoying each other an
d making plans for this new beautiful life that’s about to join us. Isn’t this what it’s supposed to be about?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” she said quietly. “I’ve never had anything like this before. At least nothing that couldn’t be taken away.”

  “Is that it? Is that what you’re afraid of? That I’m going to leave you? That I’m going to die? I can’t control that, Anna. That’s the chance you have to take. I had cancer. Right now it’s gone but I don’t know what the hell will happen in five years, or ten. You can’t live your life being afraid.”

  “I’m not afraid!”

  Her screech was so loud it made her denial ridiculous. He moved toward her then, trying to calm her with his tone. “Listen to me, Anna. We can do this. We can make this work. I’m an open book. Whatever I need to do for you to trust me I’ll do.”

  He was close to her now. So close he could reach for her hand, but she yanked it away.

  “An open book? Really?”

  Her low tone confused him. He felt like a witness who had said the wrong thing on the stand and was about to be cross-examined. Then it occurred to him. The one thing he hadn’t told her. He knew he should have come clean earlier. Knew it was a risk to keep it from her.

  Mark. The man was, unfortunately, too good at his job.

  “What do you want to know Anna?”

  “Why won’t you tell me about my parents?”

  Then she didn’t know. Not everything. This was a very careful line he had to walk. Especially given how upset she was.

  “What do you think I know and aren’t telling you?”

  A harsh laugh escaped her throat. “And doesn’t that answer my question? I gave you that certificate almost four months ago. I’ve seen you take less time to divert an international crisis. You haven’t said a word about it and any time I ask you about it you change the subject.”

  “Why is it so important for you to find them? Why are you looking to the past when the future is right in front of you?”

  “I told you.” She looked away from him. “Having a family medical history only makes sense.”