Close to Her Heart (6 page)

“Thanks, I’d love that. Not sure about Austin. He has a big paper due on Monday.”

“Well, if he finishes early, let me know. I’d be happy to see him, too. Sunday around six o’clock?”

“Thanks!” Portia gave her a farewell hug and Dani wondered if she’d noticed her aunt’s thickening waistline. She—and the rest of the family—would soon have to be told soon.

But first, Dani had to put in a few hours at the lab. Then go to her doctor’s appointment.

Normally, Dani loved the hours she spent with Dr. Jenna Dayton at the Early Childhood Cognition Lab. She and Jenna had met at a conference three years ago. Jenna was about eight years older, a freckled, golden-haired woman with an incredible ability to focus intently on whatever subject was at hand.

She and Jenna had several long conversations at the conference, and about a week later Jenna had expressed interest in having Dani move to Seattle and join her research team. It had taken a while to organize the new job, but eventually it all came together. Dani was thrilled at the chance to live again in the city she’d enjoyed so much in her undergrad years. More importantly Jenna’s offer gave her the chance to focus on research she found fascinating: studying fairness and how the concept developed in preschool children and then played out in academic success later in life.

Dani and Jenna were looking for answers to questions like: At what age did a child develop a concept of fairness? Was a sense of fair play innate to humans? Or did children have to be socialized to perceive it? And did the ability to perceive and care about fairness have any impact on later academic success?

Their biggest challenge at this early stage of research was designing tests for children who were too young to communicate by means of language.

But this challenge was also what made the work so interesting.

The hours after lunch flew by for Dani, and she might have missed her doctor’s appointment if she hadn’t set her phone to give her a thirty minute reminder. She closed down her laptop and put away her papers. “I have an appointment,” she told Jenna, working across the hall in her neat-as-a-pin office.

Jenna gave a distracted nod. “See you tomorrow,” she mumbled.

Outside the day was moody, hinting at rain but not quite delivering it. Dani hurried to the clinic where she’d had her ultrasound last Friday and where her obstetrician, Gwen Fong, had her office.

This would be her third appointment with the doctor, and compared to this one the first two had been a breeze. She’d been lucky to have a relatively easy first trimester, with only fatigue and occasional nausea to deal with. From her conversations in the waiting room, she knew other women were not so fortunate.

But it seemed fate had caught up to her at last.

What would Dr. Fong have to say about that ultrasound? Now that she was about to find out, Dani wondered if she had the courage to deal with what lay ahead.

The first part of her appointment went fine. She was measured and weighed. Her blood pressure looked good, all was progressing as normal. Then Dr. Fong came into the room and took a seat in the chair next to the examining table upon which Dani was sitting.

Dr. Fong was barely five feet tall, with an apple-shaped body, round face, tiny pointed chin, and kind brown eyes. Those eyes met Dani’s directly as she lowered her voice and said, “About your ultrasound…”

Dani realized she was holding her breath. She let out the air wishing she had a hand to cling to other than her own.

She missed the first couple of sentences the doctor said. “Pardon me?”

Patiently the doctor went over the facts again. “Your screen test results suggest you’re at risk of having a baby with Down Syndrome. What happens next is up to you.”

“M-my choices?”

“You can choose to undergo diagnostic testing, to find out for sure. There are three options here.” The doctor opened a file and pulled out a brochure. “Here. You might want to follow along with this while I explain.”

She pointed to a heading
Amniocentesis
.

“This is a procedure that tests the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus.”

Dani had read about this in her pregnancy books. Another purpose of the amniocentesis was to predict the sex of the baby. She wished that was her primary concern right now. But the test, as she recalled, carried risks. “What’s the chance that an amniocentesis could result in miscarriage?”

“It isn’t trivial,” Dr. Wong admitted. “About one in every two hundred.”

“So if I take the test, I could lose a perfectly healthy baby?”

“That is possible, unfortunately.” Dr. Fong flipped the page of the brochure and pointed to a new heading. “However the other two screening tests carry even higher risks. Chorionic villus sampling—where we take cells from your placenta to analyze the fetal chromosomes—has about a doubled risk of miscarriage compared to the amniocentesis. While percutaneous umbilical blood sampling—where blood from a vein in the umbilical cord is examined for chromosomal defects—is even riskier. I wouldn’t recommend we do that unless the test from the amniocentesis was unclear.”

The information washed over Dani like words spoken in a foreign language. She stared at the headings in the brochure and tried to focus. “How much time do I have to decide?”

“The sooner the better. In case you decide not to carry the baby to term.”

The word “abortion,” though unspoken, hung in the air between them. Dani wished she had someone who loved her sitting in that empty chair, someone to help her weigh the pros and the cons.

“What would you do if you were in my position?”

Dr. Fong leaned back on her stool. “I don’t have to speculate. I was in your situation, three years ago when I was pregnant with my second child.”

Suddenly the barrier between doctor and patient slipped away and in that instant Dani felt they were two women talking heart to heart. “So you had an abnormal ultrasound, too?”

Dr. Fong nodded.

“And you—?”

“Opted to have an amniocentesis. In our case the results were negative. We had a perfectly healthy little boy. I wish I could guarantee you the same outcome. But I can’t.”

“No. I understand.” She hesitated. “What would you have done if the result was positive for Downs?”

“I can’t tell you. My husband thought we should terminate for the sake of our first child. But I—I really can’t say what we would have decided if we had been faced with that scenario.”

Dr. Fong got up from the stool and made some entries on the computer at the corner of the examining room. As she typed, she still managed to speak. “Go home and discuss this with your family. You can call the office with your decision about whether to take the tests. Don’t rush your decision, but if you could get back to us within a few days, that would be good.”

*

“Your new client is in reception. I’ve put a thermos of coffee in the small conference room, as well as pitcher of ice water.” Paige Blythe unearthed a small notebook from beneath a mound of papers on Eliot’s desk. She was looking very spring-like today in a floral dress accessorized with dangling tangerine-colored earrings. It was the sort of outfit only a woman in her twenties, like Paige, could get away with.

His assistant’s temperament matched the cheery colors she was wearing. She was also well organized, efficient and had the special talent of always knowing where Eliot misplaced things. In the three years they’d worked together, she’d managed to become invaluable to him, and he accepted the notebook gratefully. He’d tried attending meetings with just his i-Pad, but found the electronic tablet created a barrier between him and his clients. Real paper and pens were friendlier.

“Thanks, Paige.” Quickly he flipped to where he’d jotted down information from his initial phone call with this client. Lizbeth Greenway, married in the state of Washington eight years to Nick Greenway. No children. Currently separated from spouse and looking to initiate divorce proceedings. Both spouses worked at Allez—an on-line service designed to be a one-stop destination for working parents, offering everything from diaper services to “build a playground in your backyard” kits. The firm had recently gone public and based on market cap was currently worth about twenty million.

Successful, jointly-owned companies tended to make for messy divorces, Eliot reflected as he made his way to the reception area. But as soon as he saw Lizbeth Greenway get up from the chocolate brown leather chair to shake his hand, he realized the case was going to be even more complicated than he’d thought.

Lizbeth Greenway was pregnant.

Her baby bump was small, but clearly outlined by the stretchy tunic top she was wearing over skinny jeans and fashionable heels.

This reminded him of Dani, and for a second he lost his composure. He hadn’t spoken to her since her lunch date with Adrian on Sunday. He knew that secretly she’d hoped Adrian would be thrilled about the baby. Thrilled enough to ask her to marry him.

But if that had happened, Eliot figured Dani would have called him and Miriam to share the good news.

So it probably hadn’t happened that way. And Eliot felt guilty about being happy that it hadn’t.

“Eliot Gilmore?”

Quickly he recharged his smile and held out a hand. “Nice to meet you, Lizbeth.” They’d already agreed to skip formalities in their initial phone conversation. “My assistant Paige has set things up for us in one of the small meeting rooms.” He gestured to the open door that led out of reception, then waited for her to precede him. “Turn left, and it’s the first door on your right.”

He followed her into the conference room, almost shutting the door, but leaving a one inch gap. Being alone with female clients in closed rooms was something he avoided.

Especially beautiful, young ones. Even if they were pregnant.

He placed Lizbeth in her mid-thirties. She had wavy auburn hair, a wide mouth that probably looked lovely when she smiled and deeply set brown eyes, which were currently shimmering with moisture.

These tears were as yet unshed. But by her blotchy skin and puffy eyes he could tell she’d done a lot of crying lately.

“Beautiful sunny morning, isn’t it?” The window was south-facing and the room was bright as a result. The light caught the colors of the oil painting on the far wall, bringing out the shades of blue, gray and white in the ocean scene. On the small, circular table was the promised thermos of coffee, a tray with sugar and cream, coffee mugs and spoons, as well as the pitcher of water and tall crystal glasses. Tucked in amid all this was a box of tissues.

Initial consults could get very emotional.

“Thanks for fitting me in to your schedule. My friend’s aunt highly recommended you.”

He gave her a warm smile. “I’m happy to get referrals. Not so keen on repeat business.”

Her eyes widened, and then she smiled. He’d been right. She had a great smile.

It didn’t last long, however. Her bottom lip quivered and she lowered her head. “This is so hard. I never thought this could happen to Nick and me.”

He offered her coffee, then felt like an idiot when she explained she was avoiding caffeine because it wasn’t good for the baby.

He thought of Dani again. How could he have missed noticing she was pregnant? Showed how observant he was.

“Would you prefer herbal tea?”

“Water is fine.”

So he poured her some and took a cup of the black brew for himself. He wished Lizbeth Greenway had mentioned she was pregnant during their initial conversation. He had a spiel he always gave his clients when there were children involved. He hadn’t anticipated needing to do that today.

Lizbeth took a sip of water, then set the glass on the table like a gavel. “As I said on the phone, I want to divorce my husband.”

“Right. I take it your husband is in agreement with this decision?”

“Sort of.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Does he have a lawyer?”

“Not yet.” She placed a hand on her belly. “But he will. Nick says the baby isn’t his. He’s accusing me of cheating on him. What else can we do, but get divorced? He obviously doesn’t trust me.”

“Once your baby is born, a simple DNA test is all it would take to set his mind at ease. The baby
is
Nick’s?”

“Of course it is! And a DNA test wouldn’t settle anything. It sure wouldn’t make me feel like my husband trusted me.” She curled her left hand around the glass of water again. The size of the diamond on her ring would have had a greedier attorney salivating.

“Has he trusted you in the past?”

“Yes. Absolutely. You get to know a man when you’ve been married eight years. You know him even better if you’ve been business partners the way we have. I’ve always been sure I could count on Nick in every way. As a partner, a friend and a lover. I’m absolutely shocked that he doesn’t feel the same about me.”

“Did something happen recently that would explain why he suddenly doubts you?”

“Just the fact that I got pregnant.”

“Was it—planned?” Again Eliot had to work not to let thoughts of Dani and her surprise pregnancy distract him.

“We’d been trying to have a baby for years. I was tested and Nick was tested. According to our doctors there was no medical reason it wasn’t happening. We thought maybe it was the stress and long hours we put in at work. So I cut back to four-day weeks and took up yoga. And then, amazingly, it happened. And I thought Nick would be so happy. Instead, he went ballistic. I mean, really crazy.”