Читать книгу Another Man's Baby - Judith McWilliams - Страница 7

Prologue

“What happened? Why aren’t you at work? It’s two o’clock.”

Reluctantly, Ginny Alton turned as the whiny sound of her next-door neighbor’s voice accosted her.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Rolle,” Ginny said, shifting her heavy bag of groceries from one slim hip to the other.

“Not so far it hasn’t been.” Mrs. Rolle’s voice took on a peevish note that Ginny very much feared was a prelude to a recital of her problems, real and imaginary. Normally, Ginny listened patiently to the elderly woman’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of complaints because she felt sorry for her, but today she simply didn’t have the time.

“That’s too bad,” Ginny murmured as she inched closer to her apartment door. “But I really can’t stop to talk. My cousin is waiting for the baby’s formula.” She knocked softly on the door, not wanting to wake up Damon if he were sleeping.

“Has Beth given you cancer, too? Is that why you’re not at work?” Mrs. Rolle’s face took on an avid expression that chilled Ginny.

“Leukemia is not contagious.” Ginny knocked again, a little harder this time, mentally urging Beth to hurry before she said something very rude.

“Ha! What do doctors know? Why, when they took out my gall bladder—”

Ginny ignored the oft-repeated story as she fished her key out of the pocket of her well-worn jeans. Why hadn’t Beth answered? she wondered uneasily. She wasn’t strong enough to leave the apartment by herself. Could she have had a delayed reaction to yesterday’s chemotherapy treatment? Could she have fainted?

An escalating sense of urgency filled Ginny as she unlocked the door and shoved it open. Dropping the groceries just inside, she closed the door behind her, not even hearing Mrs. Rolle’s outraged gasp.

Fearfully, Ginny glanced around her spacious living room, but it was empty. As was the small kitchen with its minuscule dining area. Ginny was about to check the bedroom Beth shared with her son when the muffled sound of sobbing raised the hair on the back of her neck.

Ginny hurried down the hall toward the heartbroken sound. It was coming from her own bedroom. Ginny silently pushed the door open and found Beth sitting in the middle of her bed crying in a hopeless fashion that tore at Ginny’s heart.

“Hey, it’s not that bad, kiddo.” Ginny made a determined effort to sound positive. “You know the doctor says that by this time next year you’ll be back in the classroom with your kindergartners. Although why he would want to threaten you with that...”

Beth didn’t smile as Ginny had hoped. She merely sobbed all the harder. As if... A cold slither of fear trickled through Ginny. Could the hospital have called with bad news while she had been out doing their grocery shopping?

“Beth, tell me what happened.” Ginny fought to keep her panic out of her voice. Beth was hard-pressed to deal with her own fears. She certainly couldn’t deal with Ginny’s, too.

Beth looked up, and her bleak, lost expression made Ginny want to sit down and cry with her.

“He...he said I was lying. He said...” Her voice dissolved into tears.

“He who?”

Beth fumbled behind her and picked up a crumpled sheet of paper that she waved at Ginny. “Creon’s father. He said that I’m lying. That Damon couldn’t be Creon’s son. That Creon would never have had an affair with me. That I’m only saying it now because Creon’s dead and can’t defend himself. He said...that Creon would never have been capable of loving someone like me,” Beth finished on a rush.

Ginny clenched her teeth to keep from blurting out just what she thought that jerk Creon had been capable of. It would only upset Beth further because she was totally blind where Creon was concerned. Even after he had deserted her to return to his native Greece, Beth had believed that he really loved her and would eventually return and marry her and that they and their child would live happily ever after. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she had continued to believe it right up until Creon had managed to get himself killed in a speedboat accident six months ago.

“Let me see that.” Ginny took the letter out of Beth’s hot fingers and quickly scanned it. Her sense of anger grew with every word she read.

“Damon is his grandson. Why won’t Mr. Papas admit it?” Beth’s lower lip quivered piteously. “All I’m asking him to do is to provide for his education.

“Normally, I wouldn’t even care about his school fees, but if I die...” Beth’s voice faltered.

“You aren’t going to die!” Ginny said emphatically, as if the very force of her denial could make it so. “The doctor says you have every chance of making a complete recovery.”

“But there’s still a chance that I won’t get better,” Beth persisted. “And if I don’t, I won’t be here to tell Damon about his father and how much he loved me and how glad he was when he found out I was pregnant and how he wanted to marry me, but he couldn’t until his father got over his heart attack.” Beth gulped back more tears.

Ginny shoved her fingers through her shoulder-length blond hair in frustration. It seemed as if the sicker Beth got, the more important it became to her to force Jason Papas to acknowledge his grandson. It preyed on Beth’s mind, using up precious emotional energy that she needed to fight the cancer threatening her life.

Ginny looked back down at the letter, frowning when she realized that this was only the first page.

“Where’s the rest of this?” she asked Beth.

Beth peered around and found the second sheet on the floor beside the bed. Picking it up, she handed it to Ginny.

Ginny’s deep blue eyes darkened incredulously as she read it. “After calling you an opportunistic liar, he wants you and Damon to fly to Greece and discuss the matter with him!”

Beth nodded. “There was a pair of plane tickets included. Funny, isn’t it? I can’t even walk to the corner store, and I’m supposed to fly to Greece with a four-month-old baby. I guess I should have told him about my being sick, but I didn’t want it to seem as if... And now I can’t...” Beth paused and her eyes suddenly focused on Ginny. “But you can,” she said slowly.

“Me! Why would I want to see this—” Ginny gestured impotently with the letter “—this parody of a human being?”

“Ginny, listen.” Beth grabbed hold of Ginny’s long slender fingers and held on to them as if they were a lifeline. “You could go, pretending to be me. Damon would be perfectly happy with you, and you’re very good with him. And I never used my first name when I wrote to Creon’s father.” Beth rushed on when Ginny opened her mouth. “All Jason Papas knows me by is Miss Alton. And you’re Miss Alton, too. I wouldn’t ask you, but I’m so worried about Damon’s future if I should...”

“Beth, I swear to you. I’ll take care of Damon, no matter what happens,” Ginny vowed.

“Yes, but what about when you marry? Will your husband want to spend money on your dead cousin’s orphan?”

“You always did have an overactive imagination,” Ginny said dryly. “I’m not even dating anyone, let alone considering marriage to a miser.”

“Wait till you fall in love,” Beth said sadly. “You won’t even notice that he’s cheap.”

Like you never noticed that Creon Papas was an immature jerk, Ginny thought on a wave of guilt. If she hadn’t brought him to the apartment, Beth would never have met him and never had an affair with him and never had been left holding a baby. Literally.

Ginny absently chewed on her lower lip as she tried to rationally consider Beth’s idea. She didn’t like it, but she had to admit that Beth was right about one thing. It was feasible. Since the investment firm where Ginny worked was allowing her to work at home while Beth was undergoing chemotherapy, she was free to go to Greece.

Not only that, but mentally she was far better equipped to deal with a tyrant like Jason Papas than the shy, retiring Beth was. Jason Papas wouldn’t be able to browbeat her. One thing her career as an financial analyst had taught her was how to stand up to male chauvinists and petty bullies. And much as she disliked lying about who and what she was, she liked the alternative of Beth brooding about the situation even less.

And it wasn’t as if she were going to personally gain anything by impersonating Beth, Ginny rationalized. All Beth wanted from the very wealthy Jason Papas was for him to provide for his grandson’s education.

That and to acknowledge that Damon had a right to the Papas family’s support. An acknowledgment that Ginny suspected was far more important to Beth than the money.

Ginny let her breath out on a long, shuddering sigh. Despite her doubts about the wisdom of the impersonation, she couldn’t see any way to refuse Beth’s request. Beth needed to forge some kind of relationship with Creon’s family. Needed it to relieve her mind so that she could concentrate on getting better.

“All right, I’ll do it,” Ginny said, and then shivered as her words seemed to hang ominously in the air like a portent of disaster to come.