“Griffin!” Felicia jumped, pulling the earplugs out of her ears. “You scared me.”
“Sorry. I did knock before I entered. I figured you’d be stuck in this box a while tonight.” His eyes landed on the number of files and vials lying in her wake. “So I thought I’d bring you dinner.”
Felicia smiled and Griffin’s heart skipped several beats. “That’s so sweet of you. I could use a break.” She led Griffin into a small kitchenette with stainless steel countertops, a refrigerator and microwave that sat off the main lab. The room had a metal table with four matching chairs.
Griffin sat the food and drink on the table. He reached for her chair and gestured with his hand for her to take the seat. Felicia inhaled the scents and rubbed her hands together. “What’s in the bag?”
Griffin took the seat across from Felicia. “Just your favorite—chicken, apple and cranberry salad with glazed pecans in a cranberry vinaigrette.”
Felicia’s face lit up. “It sounds wonderful, but I think I smell something more.”
“Yes, you do.” He reached inside the bag and pulled out a basket of homemade French fries.
“Yes!” She reached, swiped two French fries from the basket and stuffed them in her mouth.
Griffin laughed. “I know my lady.” Their eyes met and Felicia gifted him with a slow, sexy smile. “When did you eat last?”
“This morning with Alyia.”
“You’ve got to do better. Speaking of doing better, Green couldn’t find you a better spot to work? This room is like a long, narrow tin can.”
Felicia gave a flippant wave. “I’ve been in worse places.” Her mind flashed back to the small shack she’d worked out of in South Korea. She’d had to put on wading boots every morning in order to walk through flooded conditions. “All I need is a cool, bright and clean place to work, and I’m fine.”
“Yeah, but we have some state-of-the-art labs upstairs.”
“I know, and they’re all busy. This is fine,” she declared, taking another bite of her food. “You headed home?”
Griffin smiled; he liked the sound of Felicia referring to his place as home, even if she didn’t mean it in the way he hoped. Not yet at least. “No, I have a couple of post-op reports I’m waiting to review, so I thought I’d keep you company.”
“While I appreciate the thought and the food,” she said as she bit into another French fry, “this isn’t exactly the kind of work that’s made for distractions.”
“I understand, and I’ll let you get back to it after you’ve had a break. We both know the mind needs it, even if we find it hard to take.”
Felicia conceded his point and acknowledged it with a quick nod. She picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth. “Okay, fair enough. You not eating?”
“I already ate, but I was hoping you’d share some of yours. That’s a pretty big basket,” he said, eyeing the fries.
“I guess,” Felicia said, teasingly pushing it closer to him. “How was your day?”
“Busy, but I don’t want to talk about work, although you were amazing at this morning’s press conference and briefing, by the way.”
Felicia dropped her eyes. “Thanks. So what do you want to talk about?”
“Whatever you like,” he said, taking a few fries and popping them into his mouth.
“Tell me about your parents,” she said.
“There’s not much to tell,” Griffin replied as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“That can’t be true,” she insisted.
“Dad’s from Mason, Georgia, and Mom was born in San Francisco. But when she was ten, her parents moved back to Beijing, China, where she stayed until she met and married my father.”
“How did they meet?” she asked before taking another bite of her salad.
“Mom was an artist, but as you can imagine she didn’t make much money at it, so she took another job as a party hostess for a friend’s catering company. Dad was in town on business—”
“What kind of business? Was he doing his media thing then?”
“‘His media thing,’” he repeated, laughing. “No, he was a freelance reporter at the time. He was doing a story on building a new type of military-to-military relationship between the US and China.”
“Wow...”
“Dad had been embedded with the military for three months when one night he and a few of his friends went to a party where Mom was hosting and—”
“Let me guess. They met and fell in love at first sight,” she proclaimed.
A wide smile spread across Griffin’s face. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Not exactly.”
“I knew there was a story here,” Felicia stated, rubbing her hands together like she was in for the scoop of a lifetime.
“Dad and his friends weren’t exactly on their best behavior that night.”
Felicia’s eyes widened.
“See, Dad wasn’t much of a drinker when he was younger, but he did have a thing for beautiful women...a lot of beautiful women.”
“Like father, like son, I’m sure,” she murmured. Griffin’s left eyebrow rose. “Sorry, please continue.”
“When Dad and his friends walked in to the party, they did what they always did, started pointing out which of the beautiful women they wanted to spend some quality time with. What he didn’t count on was my mom being immune to his charms. So much so, she had him kicked out of the party.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep, she told him that she was not that type of woman and to leave her the hell alone.”
They both laughed. “How did he finally win her over?”
“He was a reporter. What do you think he did? He found out everything he could about her—who she was, what she liked—and he chased her. He wrote her notes, sent her favorite flowers, art books—you name it—until she finally agreed to have dinner with him. She once told me that Dad had to prove he was worthy of her because she knew without a doubt that she was worthy of him.”
“Some people would call what your father did stalking and say that your mother was arrogant, but I say it’s romantic...in a crazy kind of way,” she said, laughing as she reached for her soda.
Griffin lost his train of thought when he saw Felicia’s tongue reach for the straw as she wrapped her lips around it. After several sips, Felicia released the straw. “Griffin... Griffin?”
“Sorry, my mind wandered,” he said, grateful his napkin covered his response to her.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. Enough about my parents. Farrah and Robert—what’s their deal?”
“Now, there’s a story for you,” she said, taking another sip of her drink.
“I bet.” Griffin smirked. “How long have they been together?”
“That’s hard to say,” Felicia said.
“What do you mean?” His forehead crinkled.
“Well, we found out that they’ve been secretly married for months.”
Griffin burst out laughing. “What?”
“Long story short,” she said, brushing the salt off her hand. “They’d closed a case in Vegas and decided to stay and party with some of Farrah’s friends. They lost a bet and ended up married. Farrah wanted out right away but Robert didn’t, so he tricked her into staying married to him.”
“And he’s still breathing?”
Felicia laughed. “She loves him. It just took her a minute to figure it out, but they’re happy.”
“What does he do?”
“Robert is head of our company’s field security and he designs a number of our security systems. He and Meeks are best friends. They actually had a computer technology company that they sold for millions before they even graduated college.”
“Nice. How was the rest of the visit with your sisters?”
“It was fine, but you’d swear there was a bigger age difference between us other than a mere five and ten minutes.”
Griffin used another napkin to wipe his mouth. “Why...what’s up?”
“They just love giving me unsolicited and unnecessary advice. Although some of it really has been great and timely.”
“Like what?”
“Two years ago, Farrah convinced me and Francine to go in with her and buy an apartment building in Paris. We just recently finished the remodeling, which will come in handy with my new assignment.”
“New assignment?” Griffin tilted his head slightly. By the instant crinkle in Felicia’s forehead, Griffin could tell she had said more than she’d intended. “What new assignment, Felicia?”
Felicia pushed out a slow breath. “I’ve been offered a promotion. A combination of my current role and my boss’s current job, only it’s been amped up, so to speak.”
“Oh...”
“Yes, additional field responsibilities have been added to the role. My boss is retiring in January and the first assignment will take me to Paris.”
“For how long?” Griffin asked, his eyes narrowed.
“However long it takes to resolve the issues,” she said.
“When were you planning to tell me...and what are your plans for Alyia?”
“I haven’t actually accepted the role yet—”
“But you plan to accept, right?” Griffin’s voice rose slightly as he leaned forward in his chair.
“Honestly, I thought I had. But now with Alyia and—”
“What...are...your plans?” he asked again, a little more forcefully than he’d intended.
Felicia sighed. “If I were to accept the position, Alyia and Ms. Ellen will travel with me, of course,” she said, holding his gaze.
She’s leaving you no choice. You have to tell her; you can’t lose them. “You know I can’t allow you to just take off with my daughter.”
“She’s our daughter,” she corrected. “Although legally she’s mine and I’m not running off anywhere. It’s work and it will only be for a short time.”
“You sure about that?” Griffin sat back and folded his arms, his face expressionless.
“Of course I’m sure. We’d only be out of the country a few months initially, then we’d go back and forth for a few weeks every other month,” Felicia explained, confident in her assessment.
“That’s not what I mean. Are you sure Alyia’s legally yours?”
“What?” Felicia’s forehead puckered.
Griffin had let Felicia slip through his fingers once and he wasn’t prepared to let that happen again, even if that meant he had to play hardball. He was prepared to do whatever was necessary to get what he wanted: both Alyia and Felicia in his life permanently.
Griffin released a deep, slow sigh. “It seems there was a small loophole in the documents I initially signed all those years ago when I donated and stored my sperm. Whoever drafted those initial documents didn’t anticipate someone wanting to do both at the same time. Due to contradictions in the language in both documents, all the sperm reverted back to me, which means any thing or person that resulted from said sperm is mine, solely, completely and legally.”
Felicia’s eyes widened slightly. “Wh...what?”
Griffin could see the fear in Felicia’s eyes and while it was killing him to have to do it, he knew he had to make his position clear. “Alyia is legally my daughter and your position as her guardian is tenuous at best,” he said, fighting to keep the emotion out of his voice.
“That can’t be right,” she whispered.
“It is, but feel free to have your sister check into it for you,” he suggested. “You won’t be taking Alyia anywhere without my permission.”
“How...how long have you known this?”
“For a while, but before, it didn’t matter. You are Alyia’s mother in every way that counts.”
“Obviously not,” she murmured.
“Felicia, I can’t let you cut me out of my daughter’s life.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said.
“Aren’t you? You’ve already decided how things will go without even talking to me about it.”
Felicia’s shoulders dropped. “You’re right and I’m sorry. But I’m her mother and I don’t care what some lawyer told you. She is my daughter and she needs to be with me.” Her voice rose slightly.
“No, she needs to be with both of us. Don’t you see that?” he asked, leaning forward.
Felicia stood and wrapped her arms around her waist as though she was trying to keep herself from falling apart. He remembered how she’d do that whenever she was upset when they were in school. “I think you should go...now!”
Griffin’s phone beeped before he could respond. He checked the screen and stood. “My patient’s test results are in.”
“Just go.”
Griffin could see the unshed tears Felicia was holding back. He wished he could kiss Felicia and reassure her that things would work out, but he really wasn’t sure they could. “Let’s talk tomorrow.”
Felicia turned her back to him without responding. Griffin walked out of the kitchenette as Felicia was pulling out her phone. He heard her say, “I need your help.”
Griffin knew then that he was in for one hell of a fight.
Chapter 25
Felicia was sitting at a table in the back of the hospital cafeteria, holding her foam cup with both hands, sipping a vanilla coffee. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before. When she wasn’t pacing her room, she was staring down into Alyia’s crib, trying not to wake her. Felicia watched the door and checked her watch as she waited, trying not to panic. What if Griffin is right and I have no legal right to Alyia? “Calm down,” she murmured as she’d finally spotted the one person she hoped would ease her mind. She raised her hand and waved over the lifeline she prayed had the answers she needed.
“Well...”
“Good morning, Felicia,” Fletcher Scott said, opening his arms wide for his customary embrace as he stood next to the table.
Felicia stood. “Sorry. Good morning, Fletcher,” she said, stepping into his outstretched arms. “I’m just a little anxious for some good news.”
“I understand,” he said, taking a seat across from her.
“Coffee?” she offered.
“No, I’ve had my limit. Hit Starbucks before I boarded the plane, hit another when I landed. Look—” he presented his hands to her “—no shakes.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Felicia replied, laughing nervously. She wished she could say the same; she didn’t dare present her hands.
“Good morning, Dr. Blake,” three young interns called as they made their way to the breakfast burrito line.
“Good morning,” Felicia replied, plastering a fake smile on her face.
“I’ll get right to it. It looks like Griffin may be correct.”
The light moment disappeared and Felicia’s heart sank, but she kept her head up when all she wanted to do was to scream and cry. “You said may.” Felicia knew she was reaching, but at the moment a sliver of hope was better than none at all.
“The contradictions in the documents work in Griffin’s favor. The sperm belongs to him, and so do the children spawned from it—if the fetus is taken to term, that is.” Fletcher looked around to make sure he wasn’t overheard.
The corner of Felicia’s mouth curved downward slightly. “So that’s it?”
“Not exactly. There’s no precedent for this—any of it. Legally and biologically, Valerie was Alyia’s mother, regardless of how she became that way, and in a court of law, her wishes would hold a lot of weight...”
Felicia sensed what was coming, so she asked, “But?”
“B
ut, technically, Valerie did steal Griffin’s sperm,” he explained. “While you could and hopefully would win in the end, Griffin could prevent you from leaving the country while this thing plays out in court, and there’s no telling how long that could take. Not to mention it could get very ugly and very public.”
“Public?” Her brows snapped together.
His frown matched hers. “A story like this won’t stay buried once the courts get involved, no matter how hard you try. I can see the headlines now—Rich Doctors Fight Over Results of Stolen Sperm.”
Felicia shook her head, picturing Griffin and his family, her sisters and maybe even a blotted-out picture of Alyia plastered all over the gossip magazines. “No, that can’t happen.”
“Then I suggest you two try to come up with some type of compromise.”
She sank back into her seat. “I thought we were.”
Fletcher leaned forward. “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking?”
“My new job will take me out of the country for a few months at a time and—”
“Aw-ww,” he groaned. “I thought Paris was a one-time trip. I didn’t realize that much travel would still be an ongoing thing for you.”
“So, you’re on his side.” Felicia took a drink of her coffee.
“No, I’m on Alyia’s.”
Felicia batted her eyes rapidly. “Alyia’s?”
“She lost her mother, gained a new one along with a father, and now she could be pulled into a nasty custody battle, creating another uncertain future.” Fletcher reached over and squeezed Felicia’s hand. “Just because the two people who should know better can’t find a way to put her needs ahead of their own.”
Felicia freed her hand and wiped away a lone tear. She thought marrying a man she didn’t know well enough for such a lifetime bond was more than putting Alyia’s needs before her own. It was sacrificing everything she believed in about love and marriage, that they should go hand in hand so that a stable foundation meant it wasn’t hitting the skids a few years after they both said “I do.” She also believed that accomplishing everything she set out to do on a professional level was equally important, and that a woman could have it all—especially if she had the kind of support system in place that she knew existed.
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