“He tried to rape her?” The horrified look on her face gave her away.
Lyndon’s anxiety quickly turned to anger. “You . . . you don’t know anything, do you? You were just playing me.”
Janet sneered. “I know everything now.”
Lyndon stood up and rushed across the table. “Look, lady. I don’t know what you’re—”
Janet slapped him in the face so hard that he fell back at least a foot. “I knew you were no good when I laid eyes on you. You are going to be so sorry for what you allowed to happen.”
“Nothing happened,” Lyndon said. “That’s what I’m trying to say.”
“Tell that to my daughter.” Janet moved toward him, pointing her finger in his face. “You thought you could protect your flimsy image at my daughter’s expense?”
“My image is not flimsy.” Lyndon’s body tensed up. “There are millions of dollars at risk and it wasn’t fair to me if—”
“To you?” Janet laughed. “Oh, Mr. Prior. You have no idea what unfair is, but you will. You think you’re special, but you’re nothing. You can be made into nothing.”
As Janet began walking away, Lyndon said, “I’m not afraid of you, Mrs. Chase.”
Janet turned back to him. “You should be.”
“Why are you still here?”
Carter looked up from his BlackBerry to see Sean standing in the doorway with Taylor right behind him. They had both been at the hospital for hours, but kept an eerie distance from him. Carter felt as if they were afraid to be near him and he wasn’t sure why. Yes, he had made himself an eternal enemy for the way he’d been acting since Avery left, but they’d beat him. They won. So why would they be afraid of him?
“So the Boy Scout does speak.” Carter leaned back in the uncomfortable chair he had spent the last five hours in. “I was beginning to think I was invisible.”
“We could only wish,” Sean said. “You’ve been on that damn BlackBerry or your phone the whole time. If you want to work, why not just go to your office? You’re not needed here.”
Carter eyed Taylor as she walked by her brother. He got the sense that she was doing everything she could to avoid looking at him, and Carter was getting a little suspicious.
“That’s the joy of being the boss,” Carter said. “You can work anywhere you want to.”
“That should be on your tombstone when you die.” Sean laughed. “Harvard lawyer Carter Chase. He did whatever he wanted.”
Carter wanted to put Sean in his place, but he restrained himself. He had made a promise to his father last night. Somehow, he would get on the good side of this family. It was necessary if his strategy was going to work.
“No matter what you think of me, Sean, I care about Avery.”
“Her husband is coming,” Taylor warned.
Carter looked at Taylor, sitting on the sofa near the vending machine. He could see Avery in her face, but not in any way he could define. She would be the easiest of them all to win over. “I know. I’m not here because of any of that stuff.”
Sean huffed and Carter had to bite his tongue to avoid making this worse.
Everyone turned to the archway when Nikki appeared. She was in tears and Carter felt a panic like he had never known before. “What is it? Is Avery okay?”
“She’s fine.” Nikki forced a smile for her children, who looked worried. “They’re both fine. It’s a girl.”
Carter watched as the three of them celebrated, acting as if he wasn’t even there. This was going to be a hard egg to crack, he thought. Especially when Nikki turned to him with an expression that seemed as if she was in pain just from looking at him.
“Can we go and see her?” Taylor asked.
“No,” Nikki answered. “Not yet. She wants to see you first.”
Carter blinked, completely shocked. He looked at Sean and Taylor, who seemed less so. “What is going on here?”
“She wants to talk to you,” Nikki said. “I suggest you hurry up. Her husband is on his way here.”
Carter’s instinct wanted to say that he didn’t care where Anthony was, but he was too eager to see Avery to bother. He raced to her room, still confused as to why she wanted to see him but not interested in questioning anything. He would be there and he would be there before Anthony.
He felt an ache in his stomach at the sight of Avery lying on the bed with the baby in her arms. She looked like she’d been through the ringer, but she would never be anything but beautiful to him.
“Avery?”
Avery looked up and smiled when she saw Carter. “It’s a girl, Carter. Look.”
Carter came to the edge of the bed looking down at the wrinkled little baby. “I’m glad you’re both okay.”
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Avery gently moved the blanket away so he could see her whole face. She was the most beautiful thing Avery had ever seen, and the love she felt in her heart was more overwhelming than she could ever have imagined.
Carter thought she looked like any other baby he’d ever seen. “She’s very tiny.”
Avery laughed. “This is exactly what I expected from you. Don’t be afraid of her.”
“I’m not afraid,” he lied. “What’s her name?”
Avery looked down at her angel. “Connor.”
Carter’s eyes widened in surprise. “That’s—”
“The name you wanted,” Avery said. “I know. When we were engaged, you said whether we had a boy or a girl, you wanted to name it Connor.”
Carter looked at Avery, unable to hide his pain. “Why would you—”
“No, Carter.” Avery could see how upset she’d made him. She reached out and touched his arm. “You have it wrong.”
“What do I have wrong?” Carter asked in a terse tone.
“I named her Connor because she’s yours.” Avery withdrew her hand, scared and hopeful at the same time. She watched as Carter stared at her in disbelief.
She had no choice but this. The joy she’d felt the second she held Connor in her arms told her there was no worse crime than to withhold this love from someone. It would be the worst thing she could do, not just to Carter, but to her baby.
“Avery?” Carter’s voice caught in his throat. “Are you saying . . .”
“Whatever price I have to pay for deceiving you,” she said, “I’m willing to pay. I’m so sorry, Carter. I was so scared.”
Carter’s hands went to his head as he stepped back. He stood blank, amazed and shaken.
“I never intended to do it this way.” Avery wiped the tears from her cheeks. She could see the anger mixed in with his astonishment. “Things just got so out of hand. The way you searched for me. I just felt like . . .”
“She’s mine,” Carter whispered. “The medical report said—”
“We expected you to search for the records. Anthony knew a gynecologist who owed him a favor. He agreed to—”
“He did this,” Carter pronounced. “I knew he—”
“Carter, please.” Avery slowly held Connor up. “Do you want to hold her?”
Carter took a step forward, wiping his hands on his pants. The baby was holding her little arms in the air and making a sweet little sound. “She’s really small.”
“Put your arms out,” Avery instructed. “It’s going to be okay.”
Avery helped tenderly place Connor in Carter’s arms and positioned them to hold her properly. “Keep your hand behind her head.”
Carter felt a bottomless well of emotion looking down at this tiny little creature. Everything inside him softened as he held her close. He took in every inch of her face and gloried in the connection he had once thought he’d never feel.
“She has your little button nose.”
Avery basked briefly in the moment before her. Watching the gleam in Carter’s eyes as he looked at their daughter was a dream she’d had since even before he’d asked her to marry him.
Carter was in love and had never been filled with such determination and fear at the same tim
e. Everything was different now. Everything.
“She’s our chance,” he said to Avery. “She’s our miracle and we can—”
“Carter.” Avery paused, praying to avoid the worst. “I’m married to Anthony because I love him, not because I was pregnant. That hasn’t changed.”
Carter didn’t want to hear this, but nothing could deter his resoluteness. “He took advantage of you.”
“Let’s not go back to that,” Avery pleaded. “All I can ask is that we start over from this moment on. If you can learn to forgive me, I think we can be great parents to our baby.”
“I should be angry with you.” He looked down at Connor as she uttered tiny cooing sounds. “And I am, but . . . I’m just so fuckin’ happy.”
Seeing him laugh, filled with pure and complete joy, made Avery so happy it frightened her. She didn’t deserve his forgiveness so easily, but maybe he did understand. Maybe looking at Connor had the same effect on him it had on her. He could see why she would do anything for her baby.
“But parents are all we can be, Carter. I hope you know that.”
He shrugged, keeping his eyes on his baby. “I thought we already resolved that.”
“Well, yes.” Avery wasn’t sure what to make of his careless demeanor. “I just thought you were suggesting something else.”
“It’s all good, Avery.” He looked at her and smiled. “When I said she’s our chance, I meant to make peace with each other. If you want to stay married to Anthony, that’s your choice. All I care about is this little miracle and being her daddy.”
Avery wasn’t sure if it was just because she wanted to, but she decided to believe him for now. Connor made her only want to believe good things.
When Anthony entered the room the look of amazement on his face was understandable considering Carter was holding the baby, his face only inches away from kissing her.
“What’s going on?” Anthony asked. “Avery?”
“Anthony.” Avery felt relief more than anything as she recognized the love she felt for him upon seeing him again. She was afraid she’d forgotten why she loved him, but she hadn’t. None of that had changed. “It’s a girl.”
“What is he doing here?” Anthony took a step toward Carter, who hadn’t looked away from Connor.
“I told him,” Avery said, confused as to why Carter was ignoring Anthony.
Anthony’s eyes widened in fear and she understood why. She was the one who told him how dangerous the Chase family was. “It’s okay, honey. Everything is going to be okay.”
Anthony came around the other side of the bed just as a nurse entered the room with Nikki right behind her.
Avery felt compassion for Anthony’s situation. He had been willing to love this baby, raise it as his own. It had to hurt that she had decided to tell Carter after all.
She reached up to take his face in her hands and brought it down to hers. When she kissed him tenderly on the lips, she hoped he could understand the words she couldn’t say in front of Carter.
Stealing a quick glance at Carter, Nikki noticed he looked up for just a second. He seemed to only have eyes for the baby, but Nikki didn’t believe that. “The nurse needs to take the baby again.”
Avery and Anthony separated and she looked deeply into his eyes, so steady and reliably there for her. “I love you.”
As his uncertain frown slowly turned into an uncertain smile, Avery knew it would have to be enough for now. When they were alone, she would explain everything. He would understand. Anthony always understood.
“Please, sir.” The nurse held her arms out to Carter, but he didn’t budge.
“She needs the baby,” Nikki said.
“It’s all right,” Avery said. “She’s fine, Carter.”
Reluctantly, Carter handed the baby to the nurse, who put him in the moveable glass bassinet. As he watched her roll Connor away, Carter and Nikki exchanged a glance. He wanted to show her up for thinking she could get away with this, but he wouldn’t. He had more important concerns now.
He turned back to Avery and swallowed the pain of seeing her so intimate with Anthony. They were acting as if no one else was in the room but the two of them. He almost felt sorry for Anthony. The poor guy didn’t know what was coming.
When Dr. Channing entered the room the look on her face was not at all happy. “There are too many people in this room. She gave birth a half hour ago. Please, one person at a time.”
“I’ll leave,” Carter offered. He saw the look of surprise on everyone’s face. Yes, this was unlike him, but things were changing and he would have them all eating out of his hand soon.
As soon as he stepped outside the hospital room, Carter came face-to-face with Sean and Taylor. He couldn’t ignore how pissed he was that they all knew this; all this time they knew it was his baby and they were all willing to lie to keep him from his God-given right. His nature urged him to seek revenge, but he had no choice. At least not right now.
He was grateful that his phone rang because it gave him an excuse to ignore them. Besides, when he saw his father’s number on the I.D., all he could think of was sharing the good news. His mother had wished it would be a girl.
“Dad, you’re not going to believe—”
“Where are you?” Steven asked abruptly.
“No, listen to me. I have great news.”
“Get over to the house now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Now!”
“I knew it,” Janet asserted. “I knew it!”
“Don’t start with me, Mom.” Michael had just been ushered into his father’s office after Steven had time alone with Janet to tell her everything.
She’d started in on her son the second he showed up and was led into his father’s office.
“I don’t need this right now, Mom.”
“This is a nightmare.” Janet was fanning herself, trying to control her breathing. “Steven, I told you we would regret that girl coming into our family.”
“Janet.” Steven thought she was acting surprisingly calm for how much she hated Kimberly and how serious this was. “No looking backward. There’s too much to do.”
“That little whore is going to destroy our family!” Janet had known Kimberly was from the gutter even before meeting her, but she could never have imagined any of this. And now everything she had spent more than half of her life working to build was about to be torn to pieces.
“I warned you all.” Janet’s hand went to her uneasy stomach. She looked at the glass of whiskey sitting on Steven’s desk. Her sobriety had never been tested and now it was being tested beyond belief. “If you’d gotten rid of her last September when she tried to kill me, we wouldn’t be here.”
“How do you figure that?” Michael asked. “This was set in motion ten years ago. I’m glad that motherfucker is dead. I only wish I’d done it.”
“Great.” Janet saw the fabric of her entire family unraveling with every second. “We’ve raised wannabe murderers, Steven.”
Steven watched as Janet, who had been circling the chaise Michael was sitting on, moved closer to the desk he was sitting behind. He saw her glance at the glass once again.
“Janet.” He placed his hand over the glass. “No. You don’t need this.”
“Don’t tell me what I need,” she snapped. “I’m the only one who knows what I need. I need a family that isn’t completely insane. If you can’t give me that, Steven, at least you can give me a drink.”
Thinking he was going to send his mother back to her addiction did nothing to worsen Michael’s situation. He knew that even on the slight chance they could fix this, he had ruined everything. There would be no coming back from this. And he would make Kimberly pay for putting him in this position.
“I won’t let you,” Steven said. “I need you, Janet. Our family needs you now. You have to be stronger.”
“I’m as strong as I can be right now.” Janet paused, feeling on the verge of a breakdown. “My God, Steven.”
Steven got up and went over to her, wrapping his arms around her. “Sweetheart, this is not beyond our control. If we all work together, we can fix this.”
“There’s something else.” She held on to her husband for support. “It’s Leigh.”
“What about her?” Steven asked.
“It’s bad.”
Steven nodded. “Okay, but right now we have to deal with this. Then we’ll deal with Leigh’s problem.”
“But we have to deal with it.” Janet’s tone was as definitive as she could muster under the circumstances. “And as soon as possible.”
Steven was too afraid to ask after hearing that. “Just tell me she’s safe and sound right now.”
“She’s safe,” Janet answered, “but not sound.”
The second Carter stepped inside the house, he saw his baby sister rushing out from the family’s library.
She moved swiftly to meet him. “What are you so happy about?”
Carter couldn’t conceal his joy. “Come here and give me a kiss, princess.”
Haley pushed against him as he grabbed her and tried to kiss her on the cheek. “Stop it, Carter.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, letting her go. “Has someone upset the baby?”
“Don’t call me that.” Haley glanced down the hallway. “What’s going on down there?”
Carter shrugged. “It’s an empty hallway, so I’m assuming nothing’s going on.”
Haley socked him in the arm. “Are you high or something?”
“Something.” He laughed.
“Well, you better wipe that grin off your face. Mom, Dad, and Michael are in Dad’s office and shit is going down.”
“What shit?” He started down the hallway.
“You tell me.” Haley stayed right where she was.
Carter looked back at her. “Let’s go and see.”
“I can’t. Dad threatened me if I came any step beyond this damn library. I’ve been trying to listen into the walls, but I can’t hear anything.”
“He used the old trust fund trick again, huh?”
“Yeah, right,” Haley said. “Try something more violent. Whatever they’re talking about, Mom has been screaming for the last ten minutes.”
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