Everything She Wanted

by Jennifer Ryan

  Alex wailed even louder. Ben took him and bounced him in his arms. “Kate, relax. These are my very good friends.” He held his hand out. “Jenna is . . . well, my friend, client, and partner in Haven House. We’ve known each other a long time. Elizabeth is her sister-­in-­law. They’re married to twin brothers.”

  “Really?” Kate asked, interested.

  “Identical twins,” Jenna confirmed. “I have twin boys too.”

  “Wow.”

  “Last but not least, Marti is married to my cousin, Cameron, who is also the president of Jenna’s company, Merrick International. Now, between these three ladies, they have seven children. Elizabeth’s Grace left her handprint on my shirt last night.”

  Kate smiled softly. “The little girl who’s got you wrapped around her finger.”

  “She’s not the only one. Ask these guys. I do their bidding too.”

  Kate laughed. “Really?”

  “He’s a tough one,” Jenna said, “but we manage to get him to say yes most of the time.”

  Alex’s crying softened, but he squirmed and whacked his hand into his mouth a ­couple of times. “I think he’s hungry.”

  Elizabeth stood and came forward. “Kate, so nice to meet you. Do you have a bottle in the bag?”

  “Uh, yeah.” Kate dug it out along with the can of formula.

  Elizabeth took both. “Great. How many ounces does he eat?”

  “Six. I can do that.”

  “It’s no trouble. I know where the kitchenette is. I’ll warm some water, mix up the milk, and be back in a jiffy.”

  Jenna stole Alex right out of Ben’s hands. “Come here, little one. What’s all the fuss? We’ll get you fixed up right away.” Jenna didn’t ask for the diaper bag, just picked it up off the floor and took it to the sofa with her. She pulled out a diaper and the pad and laid it and Alex out on the couch. “Let’s get you clean and dry. Aunt Elizabeth will be back with your food and you’ll be all set,” Jenna crooned.

  Kate stared up at him.

  “They’ve got this. Tell me what happened at your sister’s house.”

  Kate took a deep breath and let it out. “First, I got all the papers from Margo’s safe deposit box. It’s everything I expected. Alex’s birth certificate, the deed to the house in her name, her will, stuff like that. Then I got the papers from the safe at the house. They don’t make sense. It can’t be. You have to find out who is responsible for this mistake and sue them.”

  “Wait. What are you talking about?”

  Kate pulled the strap up and over her head. She set the heavy messenger bag on the chair Elizabeth vacated and pulled out the folders. She handed him several papers.

  Ben read through them quickly, trying to understand what it all meant. “This is a DNA test. Donor #1 is not a match to Donald Faraday.”

  “According to that, Alex isn’t his son.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. The papers from the fertility clinic clearly state you were inseminated with Donald Faraday’s sperm.”

  “Someone made a huge mistake. If Alex isn’t Donald’s child, he gets nothing.”

  Jenna stepped up beside them with Alex in her arms. Kate touched her fingers to Alex’s head. “If he’s not Donald’s son, who is his father?”

  Ben hated seeing the tears in Kate’s eyes.

  “He just lost his mother and father. Now, I don’t even know who his father is?”

  “How could this happen?” Marti asked the question all of them were thinking.

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I’ll contact the clinic. We need to know for sure what happened and whether or not Donald really is Alex’s father.”

  “But the DNA test says he’s not.”

  “It says Donor #1, not Alex Faraday. If I’m to prove anything in court, we’ll need confirmation one way or another. Let’s start there. Mistakes happen. Maybe the test is wrong. Maybe the lab that ran the DNA test made the mistake and not the clinic. Whatever the answer, we’ll get it,” he assured Kate.

  “That’s not all I found. Donald and Margo never filed the adoption papers. A judge never signed them. If Donald found out Alex wasn’t his son, it explains why they never filed with the court.”

  “Maybe they didn’t file the papers because Margo knew you were having trouble giving Alex up. Maybe she wanted to wait in case you changed your mind and wanted him back.”

  Kate bit her bottom lip, the tears spilling from her eyes. “The evidence points to the fact the clinic made a mistake. They didn’t want him if he wasn’t Donald’s.”

  “Kate, honey, you know that’s not true. They loved him. They wanted him.” He held up Donald’s will. “Donald had this drawn up only two weeks ago. After this DNA test was done. He left everything to Margo and his son Alex. What does that tell you?”

  “I don’t know. It’s all so confusing now. Everything I thought was true is muddled with those other papers. One says one thing and the others say something completely different.”

  Ben gave in to his need to touch her. He cupped her cheek in his hand and rubbed his thumb over the soft slope, taking away her tears. “We’ll sort it out. I promise.”

  Elizabeth arrived with Alex’s bottle. “Here we go.”

  “We’ll leave you two alone,” Jenna said, handing Alex off to Kate, who took the bottle from Elizabeth and pushed the nipple into Alex’s open mouth.

  “So nice to meet you, Kate.” Marti pressed her hand to Kate’s shoulder. “If you need anything, we’re all here to help.”

  “Thank you. I’m sorry for all the swearing and yelling. Everything is kind of a mess right now.”

  “Ben will help you sort it out. He’s good at that kind of thing,” Jenna said, hugging him goodbye. “Evan will wish he never met either of you when you get done with him.” Jenna caught his eye. “Whatever you need, it’s yours, all you have to do is ask.”

  “Thank you, Jenna. I appreciate it.”

  The three ladies left his office without another word.

  “What did she mean by that?”

  “Exactly what she said, and a whole lot she didn’t say. Jenna has the means to provide us with whatever help we need. Elizabeth’s husband is an FBI agent, so we’ve got some help there if we need it.”

  “You think we need a federal agent.”

  “No, but it’s nice to have someone with a badge on our side. Elizabeth’s father is also a very prominent judge.”

  “You hang out with some very well-­connected ­people.”

  “They’re my family.” He really did mean that. Which meant he needed to stop holding himself apart from them. “I don’t want to use them, but if we get into a jam, they might come in handy.”

  Kate took the seat in front of his desk. She fed Alex and stared up at him. “What do we do first?”

  “You take a break. Let me call the clinic and set a fire under them to figure this out.” He brushed his hand over her hair. Her eyes softened and she leaned into his hand. “Did you eat anything for lunch?”

  “No. I came straight here after my run-­in with Evan.”

  “Does your neck hurt?”

  “It’s sore. Not as sore as his arm and shoulder are though.”

  That made Ben smile and his chest swell with pride. It also settled his tense gut. Kate could definitely take care of herself. “You should press charges.”

  “The cop watching the house saw the whole thing. He came at me first, but I put him in his place. Leave it alone for now. I want him to go down for murder, not get out of another assault charge. Besides, I threatened to kill him in front of the cop. The last thing we need is for him to press charges against me and leave Alex vulnerable.”

  “Kate . . .”

  “I know. I lost my temper.”

  He rubbed his fingers deep into her hair and the back of her neck. He rubb
ed the tense muscles. “I hate seeing you hurt.”

  “It’s nothing. You need to call the clinic.”

  “You need some food. You need to take care of yourself.”

  She leaned back into his hand. He rubbed harder and she groaned.

  “You’re doing a good job of taking care of me right now.” Her gaze shot up to his. “That came out wrong.”

  “No. It didn’t. Wait here, I’ll be right back.” Ben left his office, walked to the kitchenette, and rummaged through the refrigerator and cupboards. He made Kate lunch and took it back to his office along with a bottle of water.

  “Here you go.”

  “You made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

  “I keep some staples here in the office for those days and nights I work right through lunch and dinner.”

  Kate popped a grape into her mouth. “Fresh fruit too.”

  “The grocery store delivers once a week for me and the staff.”

  “Lucky staff.”

  “It pays to keep them happy. They work harder and barely complain about the long hours.” Ben took his seat and grabbed the papers Kate brought. “You eat. Let me take care of this.” He picked up the phone, dialed the number on the clinic’s form, and said the only thing he needed to say to get to the person who could help him. “This is Ben Knight. I’m filing a lawsuit against your clinic for impregnating my client with the wrong sperm. Who should I speak to . . . ?”

  The person who answered transferred him, and he spent the next ten minutes explaining what he knew, what Kate and Donald had set up at the clinic, and the DNA test he held in his hands. He hung up and stared across at Kate. The fatigue and sadness in her eyes killed him.

  “They’ll review their records. I’ll take you down there on the way to the morgue. They’ll run a DNA test on Alex and compare it to our lab report.”

  “You asked them to verify it against the DNA test the police are running on the bloody knife that they’ll compare to Donald also.”

  “Never hurts to cover all our bases.”

  Kate dumped her empty plate in the trash bin beside the desk. “Thanks for lunch.”

  “I’ll do better than a sandwich next time.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Raspberry jelly is my favorite.”

  He smiled. “Mine too.”

  “Shall we go?” she asked. The weariness in her voice matched the look in her eyes.

  “Any chance I can send you to Tahiti for a few weeks until I sort this all out and Evan is behind bars?”

  “Nope. But if he comes near me or Alex again, will you at least bail me out?”

  Ben bobbed his head sideways. “Of course.”

  “Let’s get this done.”

  They drove in near silence to the fertility clinic. Alex slept in the backseat of his Audi RS 7.

  “I can’t believe you put a car seat in the back of this sports car.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right.”

  “I drive clients around in this all the time.”

  “I bet the speed and other bells and whistles impress, but let’s face it, this isn’t exactly a family car.”

  “Sure it is. This is a dad’s kind of family car.” That didn’t earn him even the hint of a fake smile.

  “When we conceived Alex, we all went to the clinic together. Margo and Donald disappeared into a room together. I don’t know what they did in there, but a few minutes later, Donald came out with the sperm.”

  Ben laughed at her choice of words. Came. Hey, he was a guy, he couldn’t help himself.

  “Margo and I went into another room. I dropped my pants and they . . . you know.” She cocked her head. “I teased Margo that she got all the fun, and I got all the work.” She went quiet again. “I don’t know how they could have messed it up.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of it. No matter what, Alex is your son. Margo left you the house and everything else. You’ve got more than enough to take care of him. You give him the only thing he really needs.”

  She rolled her head to look at him.

  “You love him, Kate. It doesn’t matter who his father is.”

  “It does matter. Evan and Christina don’t deserve to take everything Donald left behind. Not after what they’ve done to him.”

  “Maybe that’s exactly how he felt when he named Alex in his will. Maybe it didn’t matter to him at all that Alex wasn’t his biological son. He planned to leave him everything. He wanted to take care of him. You saw Donald and your sister with Alex. Did you ever get the feeling they didn’t want him?”

  “Never. They loved him so much.”

  “If I’ve learned anything from being around Jenna and her huge family, it isn’t the blood you share but the bonds you create with the ­people who are closest to you.”

  “I liked them.”

  “They liked you.”

  “Why were they there? Seems strange they’d visit you at your office.”

  “They came to meet you.”

  “They did? Why?”

  “Because of something Morgan said last night at dinner.”

  “Who’s Morgan? What did Morgan say?”

  “Another friend. It’s not important.”

  “If it has to do with me, I want to know. I mean, they don’t even know me.”

  Ben didn’t want to sound like a lunatic. “Listen, Morgan is special. She isn’t like other ­people.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “She has a gift. Several actually.”

  “Are you trying not to tell me she’s psychic?”

  “Yes.”

  “Reeeally.” Kate drew out the word with every ounce of skepticism he’d once had.

  “She’s the real deal. She works with her husband, Tyler, for the FBI. She’s solved a lot of cases.”

  “Okay. You have my attention. So, what did she say about me?”

  “Nothing. She just said I’d meet you last night.”

  “You met me a long time ago. What did she really say?”

  Ben parked the car and shut off the engine. He stared out the window at the building, trying to decide what to say. Certainly not the truth. She’d think him crazy. He still didn’t know if he believed it.

  Liar, a voice in his head yelled out.

  Kate’s hand settled over his. “Ben, whatever she said, you can tell me.”

  “She made a prediction. I’ll tell you exactly what she said when I’m certain it’s come true.”

  “That’s it. That’s what you’re leaving me with?”

  He smiled at her incredulity. “Yes.” With that, he slipped from the car and took Alex out of the backseat. Kate met him at the front of the car.

  It didn’t take long for the director of the facility to make a dozen assurances that everything about the procedure had been standard practice and there couldn’t possibly be a mistake. They didn’t want to say or do anything that could be used against them in court. Ben assured them that at this point they only wanted the truth. A technician swabbed Alex’s mouth and Ben escorted Kate back to his car. Inside, he took her hand and linked his fingers with hers.

  “We’ll have our answer in a ­couple of days.”

  Kate didn’t say anything. She stared out the window as he drove to the morgue. She never let go of his hand. He settled into the drive, content to have her by his side.

  The morgue attendant tried to make things smooth and easy for them, but Kate still fell into his car pale and exhausted, a plastic bag of her sister’s personal items in her lap. He secured Alex in the back, making sure he had his pacifier and puppy for the ride to Haven House.

  “You can make the final arrangements with the funeral home tomorrow.”

  “It shouldn’t take long. I’ll have her cremated. I don’t know what C
hristina will have planned for Donald’s body. I wish I could scatter their ashes together. They’d want that.”

  “I’ll talk to Donald’s lawyer and see if I can make that happen.”

  Kate took his offered hand again. “Thank you for doing all of this.”

  “I want to, Kate. Anything you need, I’m here for you.”

  She squeezed his hand, then pulled free and opened the plastic bag. She took out her sister’s diamond engagement ring and slipped it on her right ring finger.

  “That ring has got to be worth a small fortune.”

  “She’d want me to keep it to remember that dreams do come true. She kept trying to get me to believe. The thing is, I did believe because I saw how happy she was to be marrying the man she loved. A good man, despite the circumstances. She’d want me to remember the past doesn’t have to be my future. I’m not that same little girl locked away in a closet.” Kate held her hand up and stared at the sparkling solitaire. “She loved me. I’m worth loving.”

  The last words came out on a whisper, but he heard her. He’d felt the same way when he was a young boy, terrified, watching his father beat his mother while he stood by helpless. He felt that way every time he got beat. Maybe a part of him still felt that way.

  He took her hand again and squeezed. “It’s beautiful. You two shared a close bond. I’ve never had anyone in my life like you’ve had Margo.” He’d been pushing ­people away the same way Kate did to him. She’d let Margo behind her walls. She’d opened the door for him to step through. Now all he needed to do was find a way to make her want him to stay, because for the first time in his life, he wanted to pull someone close. He wanted to let Kate into his life and share it with him.

  “What about Jenna and the others?”

  “I’m closer to Jenna than anyone, but I still hold her at a distance.”

  “You should stop doing that. It’s so obvious those ladies love you. They came to your office to check on you.”

  Ben laughed. “Yeah, they did.” He needed to stop pushing them away. Their invitations to be a part of the group could taper off until they stopped altogether if he made them feel like he didn’t want to belong—­even though that’s not really what he wanted. He hated that he might make them feel that way and vowed to be a better friend. The kind they’d been to him.