Secrets Gone South (Crimson Romance) (6 page)

“It was too late, too late for you
and
me. By then, he was Sheridan and David’s child.”

“But you got a second chance, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” She at least had the grace to look ashamed.

“And you’ve had him since September.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then?”

“I don’t know. Everything was hard. I wasn’t thinking about you. Sheridan was dead. I had long hospital hours. I was worried about how Avery would adapt, if I was doing things right. Then I decided to move here. I needed a slower life. I needed to be near family but I didn’t want to go to the state capital where my parents are. Old Dr. Vines retired, so we came to Merritt.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at the ceiling when she said it.

“You’re lying. You were not. You were going to let him grow up right here under my nose and hope I never found out. You were going to eventually marry some stranger and let him be Avery’s father.”

Suddenly, he was beyond furious with the phantom man of the future who Avery would call Daddy—the man who would teach him to ride a bike and take him to ball practice. The man who might lose interest completely when Arabelle had his baby, the man who might drink and neglect the child who was not of his blood.

After all, if a man could do that to his biological son, one could certainly do it to a stepchild. That was not happening. Before, he had not had any say but, starting now, he was running this show.

He sat quietly for a minute. The fire crackled and a log shifted. Outside, the wind picked up. Arabelle shivered.

“We are going to do things your way, Arabelle,” he said. “We are going to see to it that Avery has a home with both parents. You are going to marry me.”

Arabelle laughed, though not because she was amused. “You must be joking.”

Will folded his arms over his chest. “I am not. I don’t joke. If I did, I wouldn’t joke about what’s going to happen to my son.”

Had his voice almost broken on that last word?

“You might as well be joking. That’s not going to happen.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’ll just go with plan B,” he said evenly.

Dread set in. Who was this man? Maybe he had reason to be angry—good reason—but she would never have believed that the sweet boy from her teens or the man who had so tenderly cared for her when she needed caring for so badly could morph into this cold, angry person.

She was almost afraid to ask. “Plan B?”

“We’ll go to court. I’ll sue for full custody. We’ll see how that works out for everybody.”

Up until now she’d felt shame, guilt, fear. Now, fury set in. No one was taking her baby, not ever again.

“You do that,” she said. “We
will
see how it works out for everybody. My daddy is a state senator. My brother is a circuit judge.
I
am a doctor. The governor of this state is my father’s friend and my brother’s godfather. My mother’s college roommate and sorority sister is a State Supreme Court justice. Don’t screw with me, Will. You would never win.”

He didn’t look defeated but he didn’t look like he had any interest in backing down either. “Probably, you’re right. I didn’t even go to college. But there’s always that chance. For sure, there would be DNA tests and a big old mess on the front page of every paper in the southeast. And everyone would know this secret that you are so intent on keeping. For the life of me, I can’t understand why you care so much but you do. And I’ll use that.”

“You’d do that to him? To Avery?”

“What would I be doing to him? He’s twenty-two months old. He wouldn’t know what was going on.”

“But later … ” And that was the thing she feared the most—that Avery would one day know she had given him away like a used book. How could Will not see why Avery could never know she had given birth to him? Wasn’t it apparent that what she had done was the ultimate rejection and the kind of thing that could ruin a child’s life? But she wouldn’t try to explain. He had enough ammunition. “Later, he would know. People would talk.”

“Yes, I guess they would, wouldn’t they? You being who you are. I guess he would know all about it, how he had a father who wanted him so much that he was willing to take on the whole damned state of Alabama for him. Yeah, that would be a terrible thing for him to know.”

Her indignation was beginning to give way to fear. She was dealing with a man who had nothing to lose.

“Look, Will,” she said. “I’m sorry. I made a lot of mistakes.”

“Starting with giving him away. You could have given him to me.”

That again. Nothing would ever cut deeper and she got the feeling Will was enjoying that.

“Do you think I wanted to give him up?” she asked. “That I couldn’t be bothered to take care him?”

“What else am I supposed to think? I might have some more information if you had consulted with me.”

“I tried!”

“Not hard enough!”

“We’ve come full circle, Will.”

“We have not. We haven’t hit the first arc.”

“What do you want me to do?” she asked. “I cannot unring this bell. I’m willing to do what’s right. I’m willing to let you see him. Informally, of course. We don’t need to make this a legal issue.”

“Oh, really? Well, that’s just great. You’re going to
let
me see him.
Let
me see my son.”

“I would not expect any monetary help.” She knew right away that had been the wrong thing to say—way wrong. His face flared up like a Saturday night bonfire. She expected his next words to be loud enough to raise the roof. Instead he bent forward and spoke very quietly.

“I am not from Mill Town anymore. I have money. If I didn’t have money, I would get it for him. I’d get it, no matter what I had to do. Have you got that, Arabelle? Are we clear on this point?”

She nodded. She was clear, all too clear.

“All right. Okay. We’ll work something out,” she said.

“I am not negotiating with you. You’ve had your way for far too long. You have two choices. Marry me and do right by Avery or lawyer up.”

“That’s blackmail!”

“I call it a choice. Go ahead and say it, Arabelle. I can see it working in your face.”

“What?”

“Threaten to call your daddy. Threaten to call Luke.”

“I wasn’t thinking that.” That was exactly what she’d been thinking.

“Sure you were. Call the National Guard, Santa Claus, and your mama’s whole damn sorority. When you get off the phone that boy will still be mine and I am going to have him. Frankly, I think Santa Claus and most of the National Guard would be on my side.”

She lost it.

“You don’t even want him! He’s nothing but a possession to you, like one of your”—she floundered around for an example—“saws or something. You don’t even know him!”

He went stiller than still and met her eyes head on. “I know enough.” It was the old, soft, sweet Will voice, the one that had made her stomach turn over once upon a time. “I do want him. I want only what is best for him. That’s all. Like you. What I think is best is to give him a set of married parents. If you won’t participate, I’ll do what I have to.”

She believed him but would have died before she would have said so.

Then Will went to a place where she did not exist. He spoke but not to her. He seemed to be making promises, maybe to Avery, maybe to himself. One thing for certain, she was beside the point.

“My son is going to play ball if he wants to, no matter how much the equipment costs. And I am going to take him to practice and every game. Or it doesn’t have to be ball. Plays, school choir. Whatever. He’s going to have a place in this community and not have to worry about anything. He will be secure. I don’t want him to ever have to wonder what’s going to happen, who’s going to pick him up, what will happen if he leaves his gym clothes at home. I will never let him down.”

Arabelle’s anger ebbed. How could it not? He meant what he said. She opened her mouth and searched for something kind to say that showed they could find common ground.

But then he slammed his eyes back to hers and spoke in that previous autocratic voice. “Just so we’re clear, I have some demands.”

Never mind soft words and common ground. That didn’t go with demands.

“First,” Will went on. “He will have my name. We will all have the same name. What’s his name now, anyway? His whole name?”

“Avery Sewell Cooper. Avery was Sheridan’s maiden name, of course. Sewell was our grandmother’s maiden name.” She’d been worried about that name business, had assumed she’d just let him go on being Avery Cooper since he couldn’t be Avery Avery. Wait. She was thinking like this was going to happen. But wasn’t it? Didn’t it have to if she was going to stay out of a custody battle? As little as she knew about Will, she knew for certain he was not a man to make idle threats. Still, she said nothing.

He sneered with clear disgust. “Last names for first—your kind does that. Demand two. Starting tomorrow, he’s going to be taught to call me Daddy. That’s who I am.”

What? “Starting tomorrow? Will, you cannot mean that. Even if we do this thing, we have to go into it gradually. We’d have to date for at least a year.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no. No one has said that to you very many times, have they, princess? We are getting married within the week. Until then, I’m going to see Avery every single day.”

“Impossible. How would I explain that to my family and friends?”

“Near as I can tell, you don’t have any friends. Brantley says you won’t have anything to do with those book club women, though they keep inviting you. You can tell your family anything you want to. Tell them we’ve been in contact since Lanie and Luke’s wedding and we’ve kept it quiet because we didn’t know where it was going. Tell them your fortune cookie directed you to marry the first man you laid eyes on next and it was me. Tell them the truth. I do not care.”

“How can you not care?”

He didn’t bother to answer her question but plowed on through his agenda. “Third, no matter how we feel, in public we’re going to act like the happiest pair to ever hit the matrimonial trail. That’s what’s best for Avery.”

“Do you really think it’s best for him to live with two people who despise each other?”

“We don’t despise each other. You feel guilty and I’m mad. We’ll get over that. We always liked each other pretty well. I expect we’ll deal with each other well enough. And I am willful. It will be fine because I say it will be.”

“So you’re willing to go into a loveless marriage?”

“Not my first choice but I should have thought of that before I climbed into bed with you. We both should have. Anyway, who says there’s any such thing? Even if it starts out that way. What’s important is Avery.”

She really couldn’t argue with any of that. “Are those all of your demands?”

He thought for a bit. “Yes. I guess that about covers it.”

“Then I’ve got a demand of my own.”

“You are in no position to make demands.”

“Am I not? Well, hear me out. I will do this thing. But it’s not because you’re blackmailing me. It’s because what I wanted for my son from the start was two loving parents. I wanted that so much, I gave him up. And I believe you are a decent man. But no one is ever to know. I mean that, Will. He can have your name. He can call you Daddy. You can be the only father he ever knows, but to the world and—most importantly—later to him, we are not his biological parents. That’s how it will be.”

“I don’t see why—”

“You don’t have to. You think you’re playing hardball? You don’t know hardball. If you don’t agree, I’ll let you take me to court. You’ll lose, but we’ll do it. Then I’ll take him and leave. I’ll go to the West Coast, or maybe even out of the country.”

“You can’t stop me from seeing him.”

“I wouldn’t dream of trying. But it will be hard. The most you could manage would be a few weekends here and there, a week or two in the summer. At his age, he wouldn’t even know you.”

“What’s to stop me from picking up and following you?”

“These woods.” She gestured to the window. “You won’t leave them. You waxed eloquent about them that night we came here. You aren’t going anywhere.”

“I wouldn’t want to but I can make furniture anywhere. You underestimate what I would be willing to do for my child.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But the point is, you don’t have to leave. You just have to keep a secret. If you don’t want to do that, I’ll go with my own plan B. Don’t think I can’t and don’t think I won’t.”

His head dropped like all the muscles had given up. She had won the point—but precious little else.

“I don’t like it,” Will said, meeting her eyes again. “But you aren’t giving me any choice. Just like I’m not giving you any.”

She nodded but she knew what he said wasn’t exactly true. She had a choice. He might think she had only agreed to marry him out of fear but there was much more to it than that. She was doing it because he’d fallen in love with Avery in a split second and she had cheated Will and Avery out of two years with each other. Will wanted some kind of 1950s
Father Knows Best
family and she owed him.

And, truthfully, was it such a high price to pay? She’d paid worse.

“You are going to do
what?
”

Arabelle had been waiting in Luke’s chambers when he got out of court. She thought she’d try the story out on him first. She’d decided to go with an augmented version of what Will had suggested—that they had been in touch for quite some time. If she could get Luke onboard first, maybe he’d help her with the parents.

Luke pulled at his tie and ran his hand over his hair. “You think you’re just going to up and marry Will Garrett? You don’t even know him.”

“That’s not true,” she said evenly. “Will used to work summers at the country club when we were teenagers. You were in college by then and weren’t coming to Merritt much. I knew him then.”

Luke leaned forward “Did you date him back then?”

“No,” she said slowly. She was making this up as she went. “I would have. I wanted to. I think he liked me too but he never asked.” She took a breath and continued on. “Daddy bought the land the hunting lodge is on from him. Then, the weekend I was here for your wedding, I ran into him. Something sparked between us and we stayed in contact the whole time I was in Africa. When I got back to the states we began quietly seeing each other—when I was here and he would visit me in Atlanta.”