Another Woman's Son (Harlequin Romance) (15 page)

“What relationship?”

Ray’s shock made her realize what she’d admitted. If she and Ben worked out their problems, everyone they knew would be stunned to find them together.

“Ben and I have been seeing each other.” Did that sound insensitive? Ray ducked behind his usual expression of lawyerly indifference. “We didn’t mean for anything to change between us after Will and Faith died.”

Ray stared. She floundered in silence.

“What changed?” he asked.

“Everything.”

“My God. Your parents will never understand. I wouldn’t.”

Isabel rubbed her chest. Her sweater seemed to be choking her. Even Ray, who knew everything, thought she and Ben were wrong together.

The door opened. “Mr. Jordan,” Pam said. She broke off to stare at Ray’s disturbed expression. Fortunately, she was too professional to ask what was going on.

Isabel stood as Ben walked in. His eyes searched her face. He took the chair next to hers.

“Hello, Ray.”

“Ben.” Ray looked a bit like a father who’d forgotten exactly where he’d left his shotgun. He began to restack the legal documents in front of him. “Shall we start?”

“I’d be grateful. I have to pick up Tony from day care in two hours, and I’d like to beat the traffic.” Ben shrugged. “I know Isabel told you the truth.”

“That’s right.” And Ray started going over the trust fund. Ben stiffened when the other man turned the first page toward him. Isabel saw the amounts through his eyes and braced herself in case he threw the stack of documents at her.

He took a deep breath that pushed him back in the chair. He spun the page toward Ray. “I can’t take this.” He turned to Isabel. “Not even from you.”

“You have no choice, and I need to finish with
this.” She begged with her eyes and her hand on his arm.

Ray continued with the trust fund. “You’re in charge, Ben. Once we sign these papers, I’ll set up the appropriate accounts. I’d like to suggest an investment counselor for you. With these funds as a start, Tony will never have to worry about money.”

“Why isn’t Isabel in charge?”

“I don’t want to be.” She hoped they weren’t about to start this argument again. “You’re Tony’s dad. You know what he needs. This money belongs to him.”

“I’ve described everything as a gift from his uncle. You’ll decide what to tell him as he matures.”

“How can this be right?” Ben stood. “I didn’t earn it.”

“Will would want Tony to have it.” Ray leaned forward. “I knew Will all his life. I wouldn’t have believed he could hurt Isabel or you.” He shook his head and turned back to the papers. “The Will I knew took responsibility for his employees and his wife and I believe he’d have wanted this for your son.”

“I see the point in everything you and Isabel are saying, but Will was my best friend and he all but ruined my life. How can I take money from him that I never could have made for my boy?”

“Because it belongs to Tony,” Ray said. “It will make his life easier.”

“And a real man wouldn’t let his pride get in the
way of doing what’s best for his son.” Ben reached for the pen Ray was holding out to him. “I’d like the name of the investment counselor. I’ll feel best if I don’t have to touch this fund.”

“I understand.”

Ben tried to smile but ended up looking bleak. “Thank you, Isabel. Are you sure you trust me with a sum like this?”

She wished she could put her arms around him. Ray’s presence stopped her. “I’m pretty sure Tony can trust you.”

Ray pushed a sheet across the desk. “Sign where I’ve marked, Ben. I’ll put together a package for you, including the investment firm’s name. But call if you have any questions.”

Ben signed and then set down the pen. “Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate your help.”

Embarrassment lowered his voice as he adjusted to compromise. Not caring what Ray thought, Isabel ran her hand down Ben’s back. His muscles tightened beneath her palm.

He’d accepted the gift to Tony with better grace than she might have managed in his place.

T
HE NEXT DAY
, Ben left work early and headed to The Children’s Cottage. He wanted to get Tony back home to the sitter before Leah arrived at Isabel’s place.

As he drove, he noticed the sheaf of papers he’d left on the passenger seat the night before. The astounding total in Tony’s trust fund swam before Ben’s eyes. How he’d managed to speak to Isabel and Ray at all, he’d never be able to say.

Urged on by the tatters of dignity Faith and Will’s affair had left him, he’d wanted to walk out of Ray’s office.

He’d been so busy resenting Will he hadn’t realized he’d hated the fact that Isabel could do more for his son than he could.

At The Children’s Cottage, he picked up Tony, who refused to be carried to the car. His efforts at skipping left him swinging on Ben’s arm.

“’Kip, Dad!”

“Excellent skipping, Son.”

“Uh-uh.” Tony pulled back on Ben’s hand. “You ’kip.”

“In front of…” He didn’t finish. What better way to learn humility? Without looking at the windows behind them, he and Tony skipped beneath a cloudy sky, along the sidewalk to their car. It took a while, but they made it and his son patted his shoulder in approval as he fastened the car seat.

“Thanks, buddy.” Ben ducked his head for a quick kiss. Tony smelled of sweat from playing hard, milk from lunch and a faint hint of plastic from his SpongeBob mat. All comfortingly familiar.

“Less go!” Tony pointed with his index finger, and Ben’s smile grew tight. Faith had taught Tony that gesture. He hadn’t done it since she’d died.

“Let’s go,” Ben agreed. He took his spot behind the steering wheel, smiling at Tony in the rearview mirror. His son would be better off if Ben learned to live in peace with Faith’s memory.

The sitter was already waiting. George and Amelia had left a message with her that they’d meet him at Isabel’s. Leah had also arrived by the time Ben joined them.

Isabel looked harried when she opened the door. “Hey,” she said, and then stood close. “Thank God. I was afraid you wouldn’t make it.”

“Is she in a bad mood?”

Isabel pulled him inside, clinging to his hand. “She’s tense so she’s offered decorating tips and she cleaned my kitchen counter, all the while noting her son was accustomed to a tidier housekeeper.”

Ben checked that the coast was clear and kissed her swiftly. “Maybe that was what he saw in Faith.”

Isabel’s color rose. “My counter was clean.”

“I was trying to make a joke.”

“Oh.” She turned toward the kitchen but then stopped. “You joked about Faith.”

“I know.” He kissed her again for noticing. “It must be growth.”

Leah came around the counter in question as he entered the kitchen. “You’re here at last. Can we go, Isabel?”

Nodding, Isabel plucked two cellophane-wrapped bouquets from the fridge.

“I’d be glad to drive.” Ben would prefer Isabel didn’t have to fend off her mother-in-law’s nasty remarks, drive and face Will’s grave again all at once.

“Will your vehicle fit all of us?” Leah asked.

Faith had insisted on the largest SUV available at the time Tony had been born. “Easily,” he said.

They piled in, Leah taking the front seat as her due. Maybe she suffered from motion sickness. One more jab at Isabel, and he’d welcome the opportunity to suggest she ride in the back with her head out the window for fresh air.

“Leah, you weren’t well enough to attend Will’s funeral?” George asked from the second seat.

“That, and Isabel didn’t leave me enough time to prepare. She insisted he be buried right away.”

In the third seat, Isabel leaned her head back and
closed her eyes. Ben happened to know she’d offered to send a car for Leah when she couldn’t get to Philadelphia in time to pick up her mother-in-law and drive back herself.

He entered the cemetery through black arching iron gates and rolled down the narrow roads to Will’s grave. His annoyance faded a little when he noticed Leah twisting her hands so hard she must be hurting herself. As soon as he parked, Isabel climbed out and came around to assist her former mother-in-law.

“This won’t be easy,” she said.

“Which is why we’ve all come.” Amelia joined them on Leah’s other side. “On a day like today, you all need moral support. And we loved Will, too.”

Isabel climbed the small hill first. She laid her bouquet on the mound of raw earth. Ben hardly recognized her drawn, sad yet angry expression. She handed the other bouquet to Leah, who laid it beside Isabel’s and then patted the flowers, taking unconscious comfort in stroking the clear wrap.

Tears streaked the older woman’s makeup, but she wasn’t through with Isabel. “Look at all these dead arrangements. Why haven’t you come by to clean these out?”

The vitriol in her tone was unexpected. “I didn’t think,” Isabel said with a desperate look, but Ben’s protective instincts had already brought him to her side. She’d said Leah reacted to grief with anger, but Leah had chosen the wrong target.

Amelia quickly took a spot across from them. “I don’t think you understand everything my daughter’s had to face, Leah.”

And she didn’t know the half of it. He slid his arm around Isabel’s waist and she leaned into him. Leah noticed.

“You’re still friends, then.”

Neither he nor Isabel answered. He didn’t trust himself. It was as if everything, Faith and Will’s betrayal, his fear of losing Tony, his imperative to keep Isabel safe from any more harm, all coalesced into rage that was focused on Leah and her irrational attacks.

Their silence just appeared to egg her on. “What did you do to him, Isabel? Why did you force my son to throw you out of his home?”

“He didn’t.” Pain made her sharp. “What’s the matter with you?”

“If you’d been home, he wouldn’t have been driving your sister cross-country in a snowstorm. He always said it was easier to travel than face that house and you.”

“Cut it out, Leah,” Ben broke in to her accusations. “Isabel’s not your punching bag.”

But Isabel gasped. “Is that true?”

“Hell, no,” Ben said, trying to turn Isabel to face him, but she obviously thought Leah might know Will’s secrets.

“I’d lie? Now, when I’m seeing the truth of my son’s sad life? He was lonely because you weren’t a
good wife to him. He died, helping a friend. Why couldn’t you drive your own wife, Ben?”

Isabel wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Don’t,” she said, as he moved forward. “She’s realizing how long forever is. She’ll never see him again.”

“Don’t patronize me, young woman. I should have spoken to you about making my son happy, because he told me you’d said you didn’t want to be his wife. You didn’t want to be any man’s wife.”

Both George and Amelia turned considering looks on Isabel. She’d explained nothing about the breakup, trying to protect Faith’s reputation—trying to protect Ben, too.

“Why didn’t you give my son his freedom earlier? Why did you have to waste the last years of his life?”

“Enough,”
Ben said. “Your son was preparing you for the story he gave me—that Isabel had cheated on him. But he was lying to cover his own adultery. He had a mistress for at least three years. He took those trips so he could travel with her.
He
abandoned Isabel. He’s the one who turned his back on their marriage. He even had a son with her.”

Ben stopped breathing. What had he done?

Amelia suddenly gasped. “He traveled with…that’s why they had the bags.”

“No, Mom.” Isabel tried to stop her.

“It was Faith.” She turned to Isabel. “This wasn’t the first trip they took together. I remember—about
six months ago, you called and asked to speak to Faith, but she wasn’t with us. You said you must have misunderstood her plans, and I thought she must have lied to you for a good reason, so I covered for her. I didn’t know where she was, but I told you she’d gone out to dinner with a friend.”

“My God,” Isabel said, stark fear in her eyes.

Ben couldn’t speak at all, but he was grateful for her arms, suddenly tight around his waist.

“My son had a bastard child?” Unaware she’d finally lit the fuse of his rage, Leah sounded as if she’d discovered Will was a serial killer. Ben was already halfway to her when Isabel yanked him back.

“Leah, he’s your grandson,” she said. “Don’t ever call him that again.”

“I can’t have that. Do you know how old my family name is?”

Ben’s only thought was to shut her mouth. He’d caused this.

“Or how many socially correct bastards you’ve paraded around Philadelphia?” Isabel clung to Ben’s coat. She turned to him. “Don’t worry. She can’t hurt us.”

“Tony isn’t yours?” Amelia finally caught on, but her eyes shone. Her smile, wide and trembling, betrayed terrible happiness. He wanted to be sick.

Fear, as cold as the ice in his collar, urged him to run to his car and drive to his son.

“Why did you—?” Isabel asked, but her fear be
came compassion. She stood in front of him. “Mother, stop before you ruin what’s left of our family.”

Stop before I take my son to parts unknown.
How had his temper spiraled so out of control? He’d begged Isabel not to tell, and he’d managed to spew most of the truth, his only thought to defend her.

“Tony belongs with us.”

“No, Mother.”

“No,” Ben said, moving Isabel out of his way. “Stop and think.”

Amelia scowled at Leah. “That woman won’t want the embarrassment of him. Ben’s not his biological father. We have the right to keep him.”

“My son would never do such a thing. Sleep with his wife’s sister?” Leah hadn’t yet caught up.

“Amelia,” George said, “why would you think of taking Tony from Ben?”

“He’s our flesh and blood.” She grabbed his arm. “He’s ours, George. It’s like having a second chance with Faith.”

“Tony’s going nowhere.” Ben reached into his pocket for his keys. “He’s mine and he stays with me.”

“Mom, please,” Isabel said again, and he stared at her. She shouldn’t be begging. She should be as angry as he was.

“There’s no question.” He pulled away from her. “I’m going home to my child.”

“My grandson,” Amelia said.

“You’re out of your mind. I’m the only father he’s known.” He sounded certain, even to himself, except for the tears that made his voice tremble. “No court in the land would take him from me.”

“No court would deny him to his only blood relatives.” Amelia reached for Isabel, who struggled away from her mother but didn’t take his side, either. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I love Tony, and I won’t do anything to hurt him. He’s lost his mother. Have you heard him cry for her in his sleep? Do you want to make him cry for Ben?”

She glanced at Leah, who actually sat, dumbfounded, on a nearby tombstone. “I didn’t know Will at all.”

“Neither did I.” Isabel looked from her mother to Ben. “But I know Tony is going to suffer if you don’t talk this out. Do the right thing for him.”

“Talk?” Disgusted, Ben looked for his car. With his heart breaking, he couldn’t seem to remember where he’d left it. All he could think of was Tony crying, for Faith, for Isabel, even for Will. Thanks to his own foolish temper, his son could be crying for him tonight. He wouldn’t even know why his father had disappeared. Amelia, in her elated mood, could easily drag his boy to Pennsylvania before nightfall.

“Don’t walk away, Ben. You have to talk to my parents.”

Apparently, Isabel thought blood mattered most, too. “There’s nothing to say. Tony stays with me.” He started down the hill. “You’d better call a cab for your family. They aren’t welcome in my house anymore.”

“Ben, wait.”

He turned. She hadn’t moved. She was still standing at her mother’s side, while her father, shell-shocked, stared from one of them to the other.

“Come with me,” he said, his tone still cracking. He’d been so close. Isabel had begun to fall in love with him. They could have made a family for his baby.

God, never to touch Tony’s hair again or hold his hand as he crossed a street. Never to read about trains or sing that music-class song he loved so much.

“Isabel?” He wouldn’t beg. Not again. Had she been the one using him? To make sure he didn’t run away with Tony?

“Don’t ask me to choose,” she said.

“You’ve made your choice,” Ben said. “I don’t have one, and neither does Tony. My son has one parent left, and I won’t give him up while I’m alive.”

And all this had happened because he’d tried to protect the woman he’d thought he could love. Love never had done much for him.

I
SABEL HELPED
Leah into her car while her parents went inside the house.

“You think I’m a monster, don’t you?” Leah asked.

“Right now, yes.”

“I brought all this on myself. I went too far, but I was so hurt. I suddenly realized my son was gone forever.”

“I know.” Isabel blamed her mother-in-law, too, but she was more interested in talking her own mother out of her self-seeking plan.

“I get angry and then I say things I don’t even mean—because I want someone else to hurt.”

That made Isabel focus. “Leah, you’ve hurt me more than you could have wanted to. I know you’re mad I’m alive and Will’s dead, but you’ve destroyed a father and son.”

“It was Ben who said enough to clue your mother in.”

“You did this. You goaded Ben by trying to hurt me.”

“Maybe so, maybe so.” Real tears flowed down Leah’s cheeks, but Isabel hardly cared. “He could have kept quiet.”

“He may have lost his son. Would you have liked watching someone else bring Will up? Knowing you could never claim him again?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Tell me you won’t be back.” Isabel straightened. “If you take one step in Tony’s direction, I’ll call every major newspaper in Pennsylvania, and they’ll
hear exactly what happened today. The Barker family would be human interest. Especially, the matriarch calling her grandson a filthy name.”

Leah finally had the grace to look ashamed. “You do think I’m a monster. I ache for my son, but I’m sixty-two years old. I don’t have the energy to raise a little boy now. I hope you sort this out so that I get to see him occasionally, but I know my limits.”