Another Woman's Son (Harlequin Romance) (4 page)

“I’ll give Tony his bath and dress him for you, Ben,” Amelia said. “And maybe later we could take him to the park.”

“I’ve already dressed him. We painted the kitchen with cereal, and we’re headed to the park.” Aware he owed Isabel a random act of kindness here and there, he prepared the path for her to go her own way. “Except Isabel has some work to do at her house.”

“How is she this morning?” Amelia pushed past him. “Isabel?”

“In the kitchen, Mom.”

Her happy voice startled him.

“There she is.” Amelia rewrapped a striped scarf around her throat. “We’ll all visit the park. We’ll get a bite to eat and then work it off on the baby swings. I’d love some fresh air.”

“Are you nuts?” George took his wife’s arm. “In that skimpy overcoat, you’d freeze in minutes.”

“It gets colder than this in Philadelphia.”

“And you huddle by the fireplace every time it snows.” He nodded toward Ben. “You go. Amelia and I will say good morning to Isabel and then find ourselves some breakfast and a paper. We’ll bring something back. Maybe those doughnuts Tony likes.”

“You don’t have to leave because Tony and I are going out. Come on into the kitchen. I have coffee and a paper, George.”

“Don’t want to make a mess of your kitchen.” George prowled like a caged animal under his daughter’s roof. “We’ll see Isabel and then go our own way. Besides, Amelia likes her own copy of the crossword puzzle.”

“I never—” Amelia began, but George’s strange expression stopped her from finishing.

Ben closed his own eyes, swearing a blue streak in his head. Faith might have followed Will’s lead and told her father some god-awful story. Always a daddy’s girl, she wouldn’t have been able to run out on her marriage without trying to swing her father onto her side.

George often told his girls they were the best things that had ever happened to the world. According to Faith, he’d never been able to live with flaws, so she’d always tried to hide hers. George would
have
to con
vince himself Faith was blameless. Her affair, and then passing Tony off as Ben’s child. Her actions would have forced George to take sides between his two girls.

For Isabel’s sake as well as his own, Ben prayed he was wrong and Faith hadn’t found the guts to confess. “Isabel, your mom and dad are here.”

They found her with the top of Tony’s high chair up, wrestling him into his coat.

“I’ll do that. He hates it.”

“I used to know the tricks.” Isabel gave up and hugged both her parents. “Did you sleep well, Mom? You look tired.”

Ben concentrated on Tony, pulling up his hood and tying the laces in a bow. Tony pushed at his hands with his usual resistance.

“We slept fine.” Amelia backed away from her to study the room. “Isn’t this kitchen lovely? It could be a show home, Ben.”

Isabel leaned against the sink and he tried not to notice her white-knuckled grip on the granite counter. “It’s lovely,” she said with magnificent blandness.

“Amelia.” George pulled her close and kissed her temple. “You’re being tactless.”

“I’m not comparing you to your sister, Isabel.” Amelia breathed deep. “I’m looking for signs of Faith. I miss her so much.”

Isabel forgave immediately and hugged her mom
again. “It’s all right. I do understand.” But her bleak expression told a different story.

Ben wished he could pull her away from her mom, but that would draw attention to the two of them being in some bad situation together. He couldn’t afford to make the Deavers look more closely for the reasons their other daughter had been in that car with their son-in-law.

Isabel moved away from her mother with the excuse of returning Tony’s mitten. “Mom, are you and Dad going to the park with Ben and the baby?” She held the glove for Tony and he slid in his hand.

Ben watched, bemused. Her way was much better than his usual method, all but pinning his boy to the floor. And he still rarely maneuvered Tony’s thumb into the right spot.

“We haven’t eaten breakfast,” George said again.

“Too bad. You could both use the exercise after being cramped in cars and hotel rooms.”

Ben lifted Tony, absently kissing his forehead for the sake of keeping close contact. “You know you’re both welcome to stay here.” The last thing he wanted was the two of them in constant watch mode, but now that Amelia had said she couldn’t sleep surrounded by Faith’s memories, he offered without fear she’d accept.

“Thanks, but we tend to talk at night when we can’t sleep, and George wanders. He’d only annoy you.”

Amelia kissed Tony’s forehead, too. Appreciative of all the attention, Tony wrapped his arms around his father’s head.

“If you’re sure.” Aware of Isabel’s heavy suspicions, he was ashamed of playing both her and her parents. Last night, his plan had seemed like a good idea. When she decided to tell her parents everything about Faith and Will he’d know. The change in her would be as obvious as the twirl of a weather vane.

“I’d better get this little guy out of here.” Ben tried to pull Tony to a less tipsy position, but Tony liked perching above the world. He thumped Ben’s head, a small, mischievous snowman playing a convenient drum. “We may drop by the house later, Isabel, to see if you need any help.”

“Would you like a hand, Isabel?” Her mother’s anxious question softened Isabel’s glance.

“I have to do it all myself. Even if you could help, I’d have to look over everything first, because some items go back to Leah.”

“How is she?” George didn’t sound as if he really cared. As easy to read as his daughter’s, his tone asked how any woman could take to her bed rather than saying a last goodbye to her son. “On her feet again?”

“Dad.” Isabel said no more. They’d obviously discussed—even argued—about George’s attitude toward Leah.

To his shame, Ben felt a little satisfaction that Isabel and her parents weren’t entirely in sync.

“R
AY
?” E
LBOWS DEEP
in a wardrobe full of sweaters, Isabel almost dropped her cell phone. She grabbed it as it slid off her shoulder. “This is Isabel Barker.”

“Isabel.” Ray’s welcome-back-to-town was unconditional and uncomplicated. “I tried to speak to you at the funerals, but you were so upset I’m not sure you saw me.”

She hadn’t. “I’m still troubled.” That was no lie. “I need to see you about legal matters between Will and me.”

“I’m glad you called. We do need to talk. Can I send you back to my receptionist to make an appointment?”

“I wish you’d meet with me today, Ray, if you can.”

He hesitated only a second. A long-ago friend of Will’s dad, he’d been more a father figure to both Will and her than an attorney. “Come now if you don’t mind talking over my lunch.”

“Thanks. I’m grateful.”

About twenty-five minutes later, she turned into the parking garage at Ray Paine’s marble-and-glass building off Dupont Circle. Hardly anyone noticed
her as she padded across the polished entrance in sneakers. Designer sneakers that would fall apart at the first hint of a run, but still…

In the elevator, she punched the number for Ray’s floor. Determined to be strong from now on, being here reminded her how she used to fade into her husband’s background. She dreaded the receptionist’s greeting.

The woman had always had a soft spot for Will. The way she reacted to Isabel would show immediately whether Will had talked to Ray about a divorce. Isabel braced herself for open antagonism.

Her angst came to nothing. The doors opened on Ray’s private floor, and the receptionist’s desk stood empty in front of his open office. Isabel checked the hall. Up here, she’d be underdressed in jeans and a sweater.

Who gave a damn how she looked? She should have asked for this meeting before she’d scuttled off to Middleburg—hiding as if she’d done something wrong.

“Isabel? Is that you?”

Ray came out. Tall and spare and silver haired, he opened his arms. “I knew I heard the elevator. How are you?”

Relief swept her. Nothing had changed. Ray still loved her without resentment, which meant Will had kept his mouth shut. She’d have to explain. Telling him about her sister and her husband wouldn’t be
easy, but at least Will hadn’t treated their friend to his cover story about her straying first.

“I’m okay, considering.” She hugged the older man, who offered a second squeeze for comfort. “Thanks again for seeing me.”

“Why haven’t you called? I can’t remember how long it’s been.” He looked closer. “Are you sleeping well?”

She stepped away. “I’ll be better after you and I talk. Have you finished eating?”

“Don’t worry about that.” Curiosity lifted his plush eyebrows. “You know me—work through lunch every day. Come in and we’ll talk. I’d absolutely
love
to share my salad.”

Despite their mutual sadness, Isabel found a smile for his sour tone. “You offer it as if you’re suggesting cyanide.”

“I hate the stuff, but Pam tells me I’m thickening at the middle.” He patted his stomach, but his grin turned sheepish as if humor might be improper. After all, she was a widow.

She just didn’t know how to grieve. “Pam?”

He glanced toward the receptionist’s desk. “My—uh—”

“Oh.” Pam must have a general weakness for powerful men. “You don’t look thick to me.”

“Ah, you’re a good friend. Your company will help the greens go down easier.”

Isabel followed him inside and sat carefully on a
black leather armchair across from his perch on the edge of a matching sofa. With a plastic fork, he picked through a mound of salad in a take-out box. “We should discuss the will first.”

“I’m still in it?”

He looked up, eyebrows twitching. Spinach dropped off his fork. “Why?”

She touched her temples, fighting dizziness. “You didn’t know we were separated?” His welcome-back-to-town hadn’t been that at all. He hadn’t realized she’d left.

Ray worked out the changes in his head. She’d like to hear his thoughts out loud. What did this alter?

“Will never told me—and I might add, neither did you.” He dropped the fork and sat back, sliding his hands along the leather cushion. “I’m dumbfounded. When did this happen?”

“Three months ago. Will told me he’d fallen in love with—someone else, and I left our house. I’ve been in Middleburg since then.”

“You’re kidding.” He plucked steel-rimmed glasses off the coffee table and pushed them onto his nose. “Will never mentioned it. He made several appointments with me. Never said one word.” He waited for her to fill in the gaps.

“I’ll never be able to explain anything he did.” Her confusion only mortified her. “Why did he see you?”

“Business. Contracts he wanted me to check. A complaint against your home-owner’s association.
He wanted to build a pool, but the architectural review board turned him down. I thought it was supposed to be a surprise for you.”

Faith’s voice whispered childishly in Isabel’s head. She remembered a night in their tent in the backyard. “When I grow up, I want a pool I can swim in every day,” Faith had said. Isabel had wanted a horse.

Naturally, Faith’s lover, who’d thought horses a waste of money and time, since he wasn’t going to play polo or learn to jump, had tried to put in a pool for her. They must have planned to share Isabel’s house. She resisted a sharp surge of pain. “You’re still my lawyer, too?”

“Do you want someone else to represent you?” Ray looked unhappy, which Isabel took as a good sign from a successful attorney.

“Not at all. I plan to cling to all the friends I can salvage.”

“I am your friend, Isabel. Maybe that’s why Will didn’t tell me. I was never likely to side with him.”

She frowned and tried to talk over a catch in her heartbeat. “Never? Are you saying he had other women before—this one?” He didn’t know yet that Will had loved her sister.

Ray shoved the salad farther onto the black marble table and stood. “I can’t believe Will had an affair.”

“I’m more surprised he didn’t tell you. I’ve been expecting divorce papers in the mail.”

“I’m not a divorce attorney, Isabel. And Ben had the good sense not to mention marriage or divorce.” He looked disgusted. “Don’t tell me the woman’s name. I’ve had enough of human nature, and I don’t want to be disappointed in anyone else I’ve cared for. Let’s get back to the estate.”

“Are you sure you can be fair now that you know the truth? I don’t want anything of Will’s, just what belongs to me.”

“You’re his prime beneficiary, and you’re in charge of his estate, Isabel. Everything he owned comes to you.”

“No.” She rubbed her chin against one shoulder. “Will was never that careless, and I’m not comfortable, considering we’d separated when he—at the time of the accident.” But this was an opportune moment to bring up Tony. “I have to tell you something I don’t want you to pass on to anyone else. Including Pam.”

“She’s not a paralegal.”

“I have to tell you about the other woman.”

“Are you sure?” He resettled his glasses, steeling himself for the worst. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. What are you going to tell me that I haven’t seen in my career?”

“It was my sister, Faith.”

“My God.”

Because none of her emotions were working as they should, she smiled, stunned to be the calm one.
“I can’t thank you enough for being on my side, but brace yourself for more.”

“More? What else could they do?”

Ben wouldn’t want her draping his dirty laundry all over Ray’s thriving office. It brought her no pleasure, either.

“Faith’s son, Tony, is actually Will’s natural son.”

“Will’s natural…” Ray linked his fingers as if he were praying. “That boy’s got to be a year and a half old.”

Meaning they’d been seeing each other for-damn-ever. “Exactly. I’d like you to separate everything as if we had divorced.”

“Because you want to give it to your husband’s illegitimate child? I can’t.” He spun away from her and ended up at his desk. He picked up a crystal globe on a plinth and then replaced it. Likewise, an ornate marble-colored pen and pencil set on his desk. “I won’t give your future away.”

“Tony is Will’s child, Ray. None of this is his fault, and I love him, too. He’s my nephew. I can’t cheat him out of his inheritance.”

“How do you know all this? When did Will tell you?”

“Three months ago. That’s why I left. And then Faith left Ben a note.”

“A note?” He scoffed with a lawyer’s disdain. “I’ll need DNA results before I consider doing what you’re suggesting.”

“No test.” She had to follow Ben’s wishes. No trace of the truth for anyone to find. “I believe what Will told me. And Faith wouldn’t have lied to Ben when she was leaving him.”

“She might have, to keep him from sharing custody of her child. I know you loved her, but you never saw—the two of you had different kinds of hearts. Yours is soft. Hers was selfish.”

“Not completely. She loved her son. She apparently loved my husband, too. Who knows what made her the kind of woman she became? I wasn’t happy in my marriage, either.”

“How can you be so calm?”

“I’m not. Inside, I’m working hard at not screaming my head off, but that wouldn’t help anyone.”

He went back to the sofa. “You don’t have to prostrate yourself on their graves.”

“I’ve prostrated myself for the last time for Will Barker.” She regretted every decision she’d ever made with her husband’s comfort in mind. “This is for Tony.”

“I can’t believe Ben will accept anything from the man who cuckolded him.”

Rage filled her for a second. She didn’t want anyone saying that about Ben. It made him seem weak, and he was proving his strength with each passing moment. She pushed Ray’s salad back to him, but he only made a face at her.

“He doesn’t want the money, but it belongs to
Tony. He might need it someday. If Will had been thinking like himself, he would have changed his will in his…son’s favor.” She couldn’t love Tony more, but she hated his parents a little when images of them together taunted her.

Ray refused to give in. “Think about what you’re doing. This money may sit in an account untouched forever if Ben doesn’t want Tony to have it.”

“I’m not quite sure how to put this, but if it’s mine, and Tony’s my nephew, it’ll go to him someday, no matter what Ben wants.”

Ray leaned forward and stabbed a piece of romaine so hard his fork skewered the container. “If that idiot Will had been himself, he’d have remembered who he had waiting at home.”

She didn’t want anyone saying nasty things about Faith, but how nice to have a champion. “You’re turning into my hero.” Tears welled again. She was sick of wanting to cry—bound to rust into immobility if she kept this up. “I need to remake my will and leave everything of Will’s to Tony. Do that right away because, apparently, you never know when you might die.”

He didn’t flinch at her black humor. “I won’t mention again that you’re under no legal obligation. You’re obviously determined.”

“I’m thinking on the fly, but I don’t want anyone questioning Tony’s parentage. Make sure you refer to Tony as Will’s and my nephew. Ben’s afraid my
parents or Leah will try to take Tony away from him. We cannot let them find out.”

“My God,” he said again. “But your parents have more legal right to Tony.”

“This isn’t about legal standing. I don’t think it’s good for Tony to be ripped out of his father’s home at eighteen months.” She watched the implications unfold in his mind as his frown deepened. “You’re keeping my secrets now.”

Ray reached for the notepad and pen on the table beside his salad. “I’ll think of a way to do it.”

“Be careful.”

“I didn’t plan to get in touch with the media.” He gave her a wry look. “The world couldn’t care less how Ben raises his son.”

“Thanks, Ray. I know I’m paranoid, but I’m hoping you’ll catch enough of my irrational fear to make sure Ben and Tony don’t get hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me.” He looked around his office. Success shone from every gleaming surface.

Standing, she leaned across the table, and he got up to hug her. “Will you call me when you’re ready to talk?” she asked.

“As soon as I finish the paperwork for your will, I’ll put together a plan for a trust fund. We’ll talk about what comes next. You’ll need to ask Ben to join us.”

“He told me not to do this. I don’t think we can count on him going along with what I want.”

“Just ask him to come in and listen. He doesn’t have to agree.”

“I’ll ask, but he’s a proud man.” She didn’t mind exposing her doubts. “He doesn’t want anything from Will and I guess he figures Will already took plenty from him.”

“We have to make him see Tony’s entitled to everything you’re trying to give him.”

Ray ushered her from his office. She was just as happy to escape before Pam showed up.

By the time she turned into her own neighborhood, she was so antsy her skin seemed to be jumping. English Meadows had suited Will’s idea of what his home should be. Each house in its own brick-fenced island. Each neighbor intent on his privacy. For her it had been like living in a fishbowl.

One of the neighbors, who was a one-woman Neighborhood Watch, had always been friendly, but she’d liked to know what went on behind everyone’s walls.

Isabel opened the gate with a remote she’d forgotten to leave the day she’d moved out. She parked in the curving driveway, in front of the door.

As she climbed the stone steps, a black bird flew off the iron table that was flanked by two chairs on the left side of the brick porch. All for looks. Anyone who sat in those chairs went numb from the waist down within minutes.

She’d bought them to suit Will’s idea of genteel
welcome. What a way to live. She pushed her key into the lock.

As soon as it turned, she pulled her hand back and stood in front of the doorknob, her fingers spread. Going inside was harder than she’d anticipated.

Will had considered this home, but it had been her compromise. Marriage entailed compromise, but trying to win her husband’s love had exhausted her. All the ridiculous arguments she’d backed down from. Why had she tried so hard to be the woman Will wanted?