Blinking away tears, Madeline vowed to herself that she would find a way to keep her promise to her unborn child or children. As much as she longed to be loved by a man, she would make certain that their lives together would be happy and unaffected by the fact that there would be no man in the picture.
The following day, she was going to take one of her friends up on their invitation to wait things out until she went in for the test at their house. She was entirely too nervous to do this on her own. The decision made, she yawned widely and climbed into her nice soft bed; her hand settled protectively over her abdomen as she allowed happy dreams to lull her to a peaceful slumber. She was so relieved that she had the next few days off from work, it wasn’t even funny.
The chaos and stress that came with her job could wait for another day… After things with her hopeful pregnancy were settled and her baby was safe and sound, implanted within her uterine wall where nothing could possibly harm him or her… or even them, if things went right.
Chapter 2
“Is it done?” The question was asked anxiously as Eric paced his living room floor holding his cell phone up to his ear. The doctor blustered on the other end of the line, clearing his throat.
“After your call yesterday, I reluctantly pulled the eggs from the freezer, but I got called away before I could deal with them. Hang on a second and I’ll go check to see if anyone else finished the process. I left the instructions to destroy the embryos on the counter near the vials.”
Eric ran his hand over his head, messing his hair up as he nervously moved across his front porch. He needed the fresh air that the outdoors had to offer. Being inside when he was this nervous had made it feel as if he was breathing in nothing but dry Texas dust.
Ever since he’d made the decision to destroy the eggs, it was all he could seem to think about. He’d been completely useless the day before. It was a good thing he had ranch hands to help him work the animals as well as the land, otherwise, his thriving ranch would have been in serious danger.
It seemed like forever before the doctor came back on the line. “Um… Eric; I really don’t know how to say this,” the other man hedged, awkwardly clearing his throat.
“They didn’t get destroyed, did they?” Eric asked, knowing deep in his heart that it was true. He couldn’t have explained it if he had to, but he had felt it all day, the day before. That was what had driven him to make the call to check on the status of the eggs this morning.
“There was a mistake,” the doctor explained. “I left the vials on the counter with the instructions to destroy them… But there was a woman who was set to be inseminated that morning. Her eggs had been sitting out on the same counter, a few feet away from Victoria’s eggs.”
He cleared his throat and went on. “Evidently the note to destroy the eggs was closer to this woman’s eggs than it was to Victoria’s … The intern grabbed the wrong set of eggs for the implantation, Eric. I’m begging you to have an open mind and pray that you won’t press charges against us.”
Eric stumbled backwards into the porch swing. “Are you telling me that somewhere out there, some woman is walking around with Victoria’s… with MY children embedded in her womb?”
“The procedure did take place,” the doctor told him with a shaking voice. “But as to whether or not it will take is yet to be seen.”
“I want her name and address,” Eric demanded, running his hand over his face, thinking about how this changed everything for him.
“You know I can’t do that, Eric… Our policy clearly states…”
“Don’t you dare spout policy at me!” he bellowed angrily. “Those eggs were never meant for anyone other than Victoria, and she’s been dead for years. I told you I didn’t want them saved when we buried her; but you wouldn’t listen. Insisted on saving them. Now here you are, telling me that you gave them to some woman without my permission. Your no names policy for your donors does not apply to me and you damn well know it. I have rights where those eggs are concerned and I am exercising them. Tell me who this woman is and where I can find her.”
He heard the heavy sigh on the other end of the line followed by a long pause. “Her name is Dr. Madeline Randal. She works at Good Sam hospital just down the street from my office.”
“You gave my children to a Doctor?” Eric asked in disbelief. “Come on, man… Some stuffy ugly woman who is so busy in her career that she has had no time to meet a man to make babies of her own with? Assuming she isn’t some hag who couldn’t get a man of her own even if she did have the time…What the Hell were you thinking?”
“That isn’t fair. Madeline isn’t like other doctors first of all, and secondly, she wasn’t meant to be implanted with your eggs… She had her own eggs fertilized and she was supposed to have received those.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that you didn’t argue that she was some ugly woman who can’t get a man of her own.”
The doctor laughed. “That’s a nice joke. Clearly, you’ve never met Madeline. No matter. She’ll be a fine mother to the babies. After all, you did tell me you had no interest in being a father after Victoria died. Well, she does want kids. The babies will be loved and will have a good life with her.”
“That was before I found out that despite my decision not to go through with becoming a father, due to the ineptitude of your clinic, I’m about to become one anyway. There is no way my kid is going to be raised by some single woman who spends most of her time at work thinking about other people’s health. If I’m going to be a father, that child is going to be part of my life and this Dr. Madeline Randal is just going to have to learn to deal with that.”
Eric hung the phone up and looked up at the sky with tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Victoria… I promise you… if our child is going to be born without you; I promise you, I will be there for him or her. I will be a good father to our child or children. You have my word.”
Nodding his head in decisiveness, he went into the house and pulled out the phone book. He had to find out what Madeline’s schedule was so he could get a good look at her or at the very least find out where he could find her. One way or another, that woman was going to have to deal with him. Now that she was going to have his child or children, he was about to be part of her life too, whether she liked it or not. At least until he could figure out how to take the child from her.
He had his rights where those eggs were concerned. If he had to, he’d contact a lawyer to get custody of the resulting child or children. He would be a father in every way before all was said and done. Madeline may hate the idea, but it didn’t matter. She had only received the eggs because of a mistake. She had no rights where his child or children were concerned, and by the end of the week, he was determined that she would know it.
The woman that answered the phone at the hospital was sweet and seemed sincere in her apology when she explained that she couldn’t give him any information on the staff. The most she was willing to give him was that Madeline was expected to be back in the office the following Monday because she was taking some personal time off.
He sighed as he hung the phone up. Anger and frustration filled him and he picked it back up, dialing the fertility clinic again. When the doctor who had insisted on holding the eggs for him answered, Eric leaned on him heavily again.
“I’m not hanging up until you give me Madeline’s address. If you refuse, I will contact a lawyer to make certain charges are pressed against your clinic.”
It was with great satisfaction that Eric hung up the phone with an address scribbled on the back of an envelope. Slapping it against his leg, Eric swore to himself that first thing in the morning after he saw to the animals, he would park himself on Madeline’s front porch and he had no intention of walking away until she heard him out. One way or the other, he would make sure she was well aware of the fact that he would fight her to the death for the right to raise his child or children once they were born.
Chapter 3
As it turned
out, Madeline wasn’t at her house when Eric went by. He sat in her driveway and waited for almost five hours before he had to reluctantly give up and go back home. He paced his living room, feeling like he was close to losing it. The panic that had threatened to overwhelm him was closing in on him, and he felt helpless in the face of it.
Madeline was a wildcard that he knew he had no choice but to deal with. This woman had his unborn children inside of her, and he knew that if he wasn’t careful, he could very well lose out on being part of their lives. He had to believe that he could convince a judge of his rights where the child or children born of this travesty were concerned. They belonged with their birth father.
After all, he reassured himself as he wore a groove in the carpet of his living room; it wasn’t as if he’d ever signed any release giving his rights up. As a matter of fact, the agreement he’d signed clearly stated that the fertilized eggs in question belonged to himself and his wife. This mistake that the fertility clinic had made was on them. It wasn’t his fault that they had dropped the ball and given some woman something that they had no right to hand over to anyone other than him.
He pictured how pleased Victoria would have been to have had those embryos implanted in her womb and his feet faltered, resulting in him almost falling flat on his face. Tears clouded his vision as he remembered how desperately she’d wanted to carry their child. Guilt swamped him and left him feeling tired and weary. It would have killed her if she’d gotten her miracle only to find out that she’d received the wrong eggs and that the precious life growing within her belonged to someone else.
Unease settled in his heart and he absently rubbed his palm over his scalp. “What do I do, Vic?” he asked; his eyes closed as emotion clogged his throat. “I can’t just sit back and do nothing while some stranger raises our child or children… but at the same time; can I really take away some woman’s happiness like that? God, how I wish you were here to give me some guidance. I’m so afraid I’m going to do the wrong thing and our children are going to be the ones that end up paying the price.”
The sound of a horse loudly snorting outside was his only answer and he lowered his face into his open palms, resting his forehead in them as he wept. This very thing was what he had been looking to avoid when he had told the idiot at the clinic that he had no interest in the eggs. Thinking about the child or children that they represented was hard on him. His heart felt like it was ripping in two all over again. The only thing he was sure of in that moment was that he couldn’t survive losing the child or children born from Victoria’s eggs. Not when they were all that remained of the woman he’d pledged to love for the rest of his life.
The decision was made. He would give this Madeline woman a month, just to make sure that she wasn’t so upset by his need to be part of the baby’s life that she ended up miscarrying. After that, he would make sure she was well aware of the fact that he had every intention of being the one to raise his child. If she could get pregnant once, she could do it again. He would even be willing to pay for her second procedure, he thought magnanimously. It was the least he could do after taking his child from her. After all, it wasn’t her fault any more than it was his that the clinic had given her the wrong eggs.
He would pay her medical bills and when the pregnancy was over, he would happily pay for her to get her own eggs the next time. Perhaps, he would even allow her to spend a little time with his son or daughter… After all, he’d heard that women tended to bond with the children they carried in their wombs. It wouldn’t hurt anything. Just as long as she understood that while she may have been the vessel to carry the child in question to term, she was not the baby’s mother. He was the only one with rights to the precious life or lives she would carry in her womb, and he would move mountains to make certain she knew the score before she would be allowed anywhere near the child after giving birth to him or her.
Needing a distraction, Eric picked the phone up and dialed his brother’s number, hoping that Jeff wasn’t out in the fields working with his horses or attempting to ride out eight seconds on some crazy bull as he tended to be. He tried to understand his youngest sibling’s wonder lust and desire to go into the rodeo, but when it came right down to it, Eric felt that the only real reason Jeff wanted to do it was to attract all of the buckle-bunnies that followed the rodeo circuit.
“Yo!” his carefree brother answered the phone. Eric could hear the sound of pounding hooves in the background and he wondered just how close to the coral his little brother was.
“Hey… Am I interrupting?” he asked, giving in to the need to sit down.
“No way, big bro. I’ve always got time for you. What’s up? Is it Laurie? Has she gotten herself wrapped around another man you need my help prying off her? Is it little brother to the rescue again?” he asked in a carefree tone of voice.
“Not that I know of. As far as I know, Laurie has given up on meeting a man. Last I saw of our sister, she was elbows deep in an engine… wearing more grease on her arms and face than what was probably left in the car she was working on. No. I called because I need a distraction.”
There was a long silence in which Eric knew his little brother was trying to figure out how to respond to this unexpected announcement. He hadn’t called needing a distraction since about a month after burying Victoria.
“What’s wrong?” Jeff asked quietly.
“I called you because I don’t want to think about it,” Eric growled in response.
“Okay….” Jeff said slowly; dragging the word out in a way that clearly stated that he was only humoring his brother and that he still very much wanted to know what was bothering him.
“What are you doing right now? Could we go get a beer?” Eric asked, rubbing his hand absently over his scalp.
“I could put this off until later. I’ll meet you down at O’Grady’s Pub … say in a half hour?”
“I’ll be there. Thanks little brother.”
“No problem… But you know… I’m not going to stop asking until you tell me what the hell is going on with you.”
Eric sighed heavily and slapped his cowboy hat against his thigh. “Yeah… I know. I’ll spill my guts when I’m good and ready. Say… after I’m good and drunk.”
Jeff laughed as he grabbed his wallet off the counter. “Well, you’re in luck big brother. I just heard back from the clinic where I sell my sperm. Someone chose my little swimmers, so they’re paying me to come back in and make another deposit. Drinks are on me.”
Eric groaned and closed his eyes. The clinic, sperm and women in search of fertilization without the love and participation of a man was the last thing he wanted to think or talk about.
“Hey… I know that you don’t approve of my making deposits to the sperm bank,” Jeff said, frowning deeply. “But that’s no reason to sound so grumpy. Why, if I wasn’t making regular deposits there, you and Vic would never have known where to go when you couldn’t seem to make things happen naturally. It ain’t like I plan on ever getting hitched. Not to any woman, no matter how sexy and sweet, and I’m healthy… Besides, I need the money now that Laurie has moved out. You know that after Mom and Dad passed on, I was counting on her pulling half the load, cost wise. Like it or not, big brother, I make damn good money selling my little swimmers to desperate women.”
“I really do need a distraction and I’d love to share a few beers with you, but you have to promise me… no more damn talk about that clinic, women wanting to get pregnant or little swimmers. It’s SERIOUSLY not helping,” Eric informed his brother; irritation showing clearly in his clipped words and sour tone.
It was late that night and several drinks later that Eric finally loosened up and told his brother in slurred speech about the horrible mix-up where some woman had accidently been given Victoria’s eggs. “I’m going to be a father after all,” he told his brother, sighing heavily. “As determined as I was never to do it without her… those babies are out there right now… possibly growing in some woman’s womb eve
n as we speak.”
“What are you going to do?” Jeff asked, settling his empty beer bottle on the table next to the other five empties; his attention firmly on his brother’s heartbroken features. He knew better than most what Victoria’s death had done to Eric. He’d been the one to help pick his brother back up and set him back on the path to normalcy when all Eric had wanted to do was sink into a well of despair.
“The only thing I CAN do,” Eric answered, groaning as he drug his hand slowly over his facial features. “I’m going to fight with everything in me for the right to raise my child or children. Victoria was desperate for them… And I vowed to her that we would raise them together. I can’t sit back and allow some stranger to be the only parent that Vic’s child or children ever know. One way or another, I will be the one to raise whatever child or children come of any resulting pregnancy that this mix-up may bring about. And this Madeline person that has my children growing in her belly is just going to have to learn to deal with it… because I never signed the same agreement that you did. I have rights… and I intend to assert them.”
Jeff blinked rapidly and signaled the waiter for another round. He had a feeling they were both going to need it to get through what he now knew he had to say. When they both had a fresh new bottle sitting in front of them, he licked his lips nervously.
Half way through the beer, Jeff finally spoke in a hushed, respectful tone. “I know you aren’t in a place where you want to hear this… but she has rights too,” he whispered, not willing to look his brother in the eyes.
Eric opened his mouth to argue and Jeff held his hand up in the air to stop him. “Listen to me… I’ve read all the small print in the damn policy. No… it’s not your fault that the clinic messed up and gave her the eggs that they had no right to give anyone other than you… and yes, that does give you rights…. That being said, it’s not HER fault either. She has paperwork that gives her rights… as the woman carrying the embryo to term; she has a lot of rights. She never signed anything that claimed that she was waving her rights to the child. She isn’t just a surrogate mother you’ve chosen to pay to carry your baby, Eric. As little as you may like it, this Madeline person will have just as many rights to any child she gives birth to as you do.”
Baby Mine (Stubborn Texas Siblings Book 1) Page 2