“Thank you, Your Honor,” she replied as she did so.
“On the surface, this case seems pretty cut and dried,” the judge said. “Miss Chong has been harassing Miss Ross, and there is an order of protection in place barring Miss Chong from approaching Miss Ross. However, Miss Chong’s witnesses have seen Miss Ross punch her in the face on more than one occasion, and that brings up a troubling matter. I understand you’d like to file charges for assault, Miss Chong?”
“It was self-defense both times!” Kady protested hotly.
“Let me handle this, Miss Ross, please,” said the lawyer as he stood up. “Your Honor, if it pleases the court, I believe Miss Ross is correct. I am aware of both incidents. The first was the event which prompted the need for the order, while the second was clearly instigated by actions taken by Miss Chong which were in clear violation of that order.”
“The court hereby mandates that the restraining order shall now work both ways,” said the judge. “Each woman is hereby ordered to stay away from the other.”
“Sir, Miss Ross always visits Archer Devonshire on Wednesdays, and she would like that to continue,” said the lawyer. “Could it be put into the document somehow that Miss Chong refrain from visiting on that day, and Miss Ross will agree to attend only on a Wednesday so there’s no danger of violating the order? She has no desire whatsoever to seek out Miss Chong for any reason.”
“I can’t enter it as such,” the judge said. “It will be incumbent upon Miss Chong to willingly refrain from attending that day.”
“My brother got work detail the other days,” she replied with a slight smirk. “Look like we both want the same day.”
“Your Honor, as I understand it Miss Chong has been flooding the media with propaganda about herself and Miss Ross’ boyfriend,” the lawyer continued. “I would request that she discontinue this behavior since it’s just another form of harassment. I was given to understand the protection order was clearly explained to her, but so far she seems disinclined to desist.”
“Is that right, Miss Chong?” asked the judge sternly, flipping through more documents that attested to Mia’s behavior.
“Your Honor, I know for a fact that Miss Ross came to Archer’s house intending to become his surrogate mother,” Mia said flatly. “It’s not illegal to tell the truth when some reporter jams a microphone in your face…”
“Your Honor? May I approach the bench?” Athena demanded as she strode forward from the back of the room.
“Who’s this?” he asked the bailiff.
“Athena Caldwell, sir,” he said. “Archer’s mother.”
“By all means,” he said. “If you can shed some light on things, it would be very helpful.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “For the record, I am the mother of Archer Devonshire, who is currently in the prison and is indeed the father of Kady Ross’ unborn child. As Archer’s mother, it would seem I’d know which of these young ladies he calls his own, and I can assure you that although I heard the tale of the surrogate mother story straight from both Archer’s and Kady’s mouths, he and Kady are most definitely a couple. More to the point, Mia Chong isn’t even Archer’s friend, let alone his lover, and although Mr. Blank here has advised us against it, my son Archer had a statement prepared in which he asks for relief from Miss Chong and her behavior. A formal document has already been filed restraining her from any further slander where he is concerned.”
“Pull up the new document, will you?” the judge said to the woman at the computer, and she quickly did so.
“Sir, it should be on screen now,” she said.
The judge read the file. “Miss Chong, it would seem that your behavior over the past months despite the restraining order far exceeds its limitations. I’m going to have to remand you back into custody and have you undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Miss Ross, you’re free to go.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Kady as she hid her triumphant smile. She and Robert walked out again side by side, and a flurry of reporters pounced.
“Miss Ross? Are you satisfied with the outcome of today’s hearing?” asked one of them, and she couldn’t help but stop and answer the question.
“Yes, sir, I am,” she said. “Miss Chong has been acting in a very erratic manner and spreading lies throughout the media, and it’s about time somebody took notice of it. I believe recently she even tried to tell everyone that she’s having Archer’s child, but he and I were never apart long enough for that sort of thing to have happened. Clearly it’s part of her delusional state. I wish there was more that I could tell you about all of this, but—“
“Miss Ross?” said a female reporter with a smirk. “Are you aware that Mia Chong and Archer Devonshire were lovers in college?”
“I don’t really care if they were,” she replied, sighing, suddenly glad to have spent the other night digging through information on the Internet and coming to that conclusion on her own instead of being startled by it in front of a bunch of cameras and gossip hungry reporters. “Archer fully admitted to me that his behavior in college was less than exemplary. Next question, please.”
The same woman pushed forward as she said, “Miss Ross, are you aware that Parker Chou sold the services of his sister Mia and two of her friends to Archer Devonshire on more than one occasion during that time? Perhaps that’s why Miss Chong thinks of herself as belonging to him. A man like that deserves to be in prison.”
“Do you have any proof of what you are saying, ma’am?” Kady wanted to know, the temper in her voice growing as she began to lose patience with the woman.
“Robert, really,” Athena said as she came out, interrupting any answer Kady would have given. “Take Kady to the car. You know better than to subject her to these hounds.”
“Yes, Miss Caldwell,” he replied, grasping Kady by the arm.
The woman slid a card into Kady’s pocket and their eyes locked. Kady nodded slightly, and then she was gone.
Chapter 37
Kady was finally alone for the evening. Nervously, she slid the reporter’s card from her pocket and stared at it. Did she really want to hear what this woman had to say? What it if shattered her reality? What if it ruined all of the dreams she’d begun to hope would become a reality? What if Archer was not what he seemed?
Her fingers were already dialing the cell phone before she even realized what she was doing. The voice of the woman greeted her ear as she held it to her ear.
“I knew that you’d call me, Miss Ross,” she said, slightly condescending on the other end of the line. “I think maybe you and I have both been trying to piece together the same puzzle from different ends. Would it be possible to meet somewhere and maybe fit them together at last?”
“I’m not at liberty to do something like that openly,” Kady said softly. “You need to understand where I’m coming from here, Miss Cooper. I love Archer, and whatever he may have done ten years ago, and whatever involvement he’s had with anything more recently, I can only go by what I see. He was tired of what he had become—a jaded wreck of a man—and now he has a chance at something better. He is no longer the playboy party animal the media once knew him to be. We sit home watching sitcoms all night, for goodness sakes.”
“You also need to understand something, Kady,” she said. “I’m not trying to get Archer into trouble here, I’m just trying to determine what is true, and what is false. People are begging to know the whole story, and I just want to give it to them.”
“And you’ve spoken to Archer about all of this?” Kady scoffed. “You had him confirm that what you’re trying to push off on the public is the real truth?”
“Admittedly it was Mia who said it,” she laughed. “I just wanted to see if you’d tell me the truth if I shocked you.”
“Considering I don’t know the whole truth, I doubt it,” Kady said. “But I do know that those two women Mia is always with are involved in all of this somehow. And Parker as well. I just haven’t worked out how.”
“I
know that Mia, her brother, and those other two were all there on a scholarship,” she said. “They all lived in a two bedroom apartment, and they were having real trouble making ends meet. Parker convinced Archer to help them out, and that’s when he met Mia. It seemed to be love at first sight, but only for Mia.”
“You know, at first I thought Parker ruined Archer because he was jealous, then I had wondered if he simply wanted revenge for some reason,” said Kady. “But the more I look at all this, the more I believe that it’s Mia who is directing the entire thing. Mia convinced Parker to ruin Archer in the hope that she could swoop in and offer comfort. The only thing I don’t get is why she would have been at a meeting instigated by Archer applying to be his surrogate mother. If it’s true that they knew each other in college, why would they seem so—unacquainted—at that meeting?”
“So you don’t think he knew her?” asked Miss Cooper.
“He didn’t appear to know her very well if at all, and also, I could see that he didn’t particularly like her either,” Kady said. “She kept trying to hang all over him and he was barely polite in his tolerance of it. That hardly seems like the behavior you’d see between lovers.”
“Have you ever asked Archer about college?” she asked.
“No, but I will,” she said. “He’s supposed to call me any time now. I’ll make a point of it and tell you what he says. Will that suffice?”
“Yes, I suppose it will have to do,” she agreed. “Thank you, Miss Ross. I look forward to your call.”
#
When the phone rang, Kady pressed the speaker button and laid back on the bed again. “Hi, hon,” said Archer. “How did things go at court? I did my best to sway things in your direction.”
“Court went fine,” Kady grumbled. “It’s after court I’m more worried about. Some reporter thinks that you and Mia used to be lovers in college. Did you used to know her at all, Archer?”
“I knew of her,” he explained. “But she and I only met once, at her brother’s house about three weeks before he got arrested. She was all over me that time, too.”
“Well, the reporter tried to say that Parker was selling you his sister’s and her friends favor’s during college, if you know what I mean.” Kady scoffed. “Mia must have told her that.”
“No, sweetheart, I didn’t need to buy women from Parker,” Archer scoffed. “It would be more likely I’d have paid some of them to leave me alone if anything. I mean, I know that Parker and those three lived together during our school years, but the first time I saw Mia was about a year ago, and then not again until she caught wind of me wanting a surrogate. I remember that she told me she would be more than willing to be much more than the mother of my kid if I’d rather do things that way.”
“Why do you suppose she would say you got her pregnant?” Kady wanted to know. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, not unless—“ Archer began, but stopped short, as if he might be blushing.
“Go on,” Kady prompted.
“Parker convinced me one time to go donate sperm,” he finally admitted. “You don’t suppose he told her about that?”
“You’re kidding!’ Kady groaned.
“Well, no, but I mean, if she got it from that place they’d have it on record, right?”
“Sounds like I may have a bit more footwork to do,” she sighed. “I don’t mind telling you, this is starting to get really weird.”
“I’m sorry, Kady,” he laughed. “But I did tell you I used to be young, dumb, and full of come. I just did it for the experience.”
“It’s all right, Archer,” Kady sighed. “But I sure hope Mia’s baby and mine aren’t going to be siblings. I refuse to tolerate that woman for the next eighteen or more years.”
Chapter 38
Archer had given Kady the name of the company where Mia might be able to acquire his sperm, and she had given them a call, but of course they wouldn’t tell her anything useful due to patient confidentiality. What they did say was that regardless of who the donor had been, a woman impregnated by it had no legal right to demand money or support since all of the fathers would have signed away their rights to the children at the time they’d given the samples.
“Well, at least she can’t force him to give her child support either way,” Kady mumbled, her hand absently tracing the contour of her own baby bump.
Athena nodded. “I had no idea Archer had done something like that, but at least he’s safe from her on a legal standpoint.”
“Unless Mia continues to insist they had sex while I was not home,” Kady pointed out. You don’t suppose she went and got his samples on purpose and now she is making up the whole thing because she’s certain of whose baby she was carrying?”
“Wait,” Archer said. “You mean she intends to make it look like we did it by using the sperm bank, and then go after me to help her support the kid? How crazy could a person be?”
“Haven’t we already had that discussion?” Kady reminded him. She had no doubts at all now about just how far Mia would go to get what she wanted, whatever that really was.
“Well, sweetheart, this isn’t even the discussion I wanted to have when I called you,” said Archer then.
“Really? What was?”
“I know this is a really stupid way to bring it up, circumstances being what they are, but there’s something I have desperately wanted to ask you for a while now,” he admitted. “See, you’re having my baby and we love each other very much, so if this was a normal situation we probably would have already resolved this, but Kady, I want you to be my wife. As soon as I get out of this hell hole. We could have a huge wedding with plenty of media attention, and there’d be absolutely no more doubt who my girl was.”
“I don’t want to marry you just to get Mia off our backs,” Kady said sternly.
“While I admit that might help in that regard, I can assure you it’s not the reason I’m asking,” he chuckled. “I just can’t see the rest of my life without you in it. When I think about our son, I find myself hoping we end up with a daughter, too. Aren’t those the kind of thoughts a man has when he’s considering the thing to be official?”
“Yeah, they sure sound like some pretty official thoughts,” she agreed. “But weddings take some planning, Archer, especially ones that will become a media circus. And if they let you out soon, I don’t want to get married while I am as huge as a house, either.”
“No, sweetie, we’ll make sure the little guy’s out of there before the main event,” he agreed. “I know you’ve probably been designing your dress since you were twelve years old or something, but how about if we officially let you do it now? No holds barred, the sky is the limit, I want you to design the wedding dress of your dreams, okay?”
“And we could put our son in a little baby tuxedo,” Kady added with a grin.
“Perfect!” Archer agreed.
“It’d be winter if we wait on him,” she said. “Do we want to do green and red?
“I’ll leave all that up to you and my mother,” he said. “I know you two live for that sort of thing. Whatever you do, though, my tux is going to be black, and if you go with that theme the tie can be red. Green should be the accent color, not the main color. And maybe use darker tones, not too bright. And we could get a banquet hall for the reception, with the tables alternately dressed in red, green, and white cloths. All the glasses are tall flutes, decorated with holly, and every table could have wreaths wrapped around pillar candles—“
“Wow, Archer, way to leave the details to us,” Kady chuckled.
“What can I say?” he replied. “You two have really rubbed off on me. So, since we’ve already got the table settings in order, I take it that’s an official yes?”
“Of course it is, you silly man,” she grumbled. “You already knew my answer before you even asked.”
“I love you so much, Kady,” he told her then, his voice soft and sweet as it reached her ear.
“I love you too, Archer,” she sai
d. “Thanks for being my one and only.”
“Always,” he said.
They went on like that for a while, wrapped up in their future plans, until Archer had to go back to his cell for the night. Kady was so happy she slept like a log. Dreams of wedding bells and white dresses tumbled through her head, making her smile in her sleep.
The next morning, Miss Cooper called, bright and early, waking Kady from her blissful reverie. Sleepily, Kady answered the phone.
“What did Archer have to say about everything?” she wanted to know. Kady could hear the scratch of pen on paper from the other end of the line.
“Well, apparently the escort thing was a total lie,” she said. “Archer said that since he was at school with Parker, he was aware that he lived in an apartment with the three women, but that he never actually met Mia until three weeks before Parker got arrested, and she had immediately become a clingy nuisance that time as well.”
“Yeah, that makes a lot more sense,” the reporter agreed. “I can’t find any evidence to support the two of them knowing each other until Mia made that scene in the restaurant and then started blasting the newspapers. I think she told me all those things hoping that I’d write some weird, sensational piece like the others have been doing for her so far.”
“Tell you what, how would you like to write the real scoop instead?” Kady offered.
“I’d absolutely love to,” she replied, and so Kady spent the next half hour talking about her childhood, being raised in the slums and clawing her way out, the string of events that led her to Archer’s door, and eventually, his heart. Kady told her their whole story, and Miss Cooper wrote that one instead.
Chapter 39
The train of Kady’s gown required two women to hold it off the ground for her as she walked from the car to the chapel. She kept them on hand to help her until she was done with the vows and removed it, and then one of them set it inside a bag to store for nostalgia’s sake and put it inside the car so it would not be forgotten.
Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (Contemporary BWWM Romance) Page 15