“OK…so how did the mom get into the foyer? She didn’t use the elevator.”
“There are usually two penthouse suites in your bigger hotels. The one in Houston across from yours was vacant the night of the wedding. So we know that the mom wasn’t in there. There was no footage of a woman with a baby walking the halls of the hotel late at night. But there isn’t a multitude of cameras in the staff areas. My first thought was the mom used a fire escape. A stairwell. But they are all locked on the main floors. You can come down a stairwell, in case of a fire, but you can’t go up. Chances are there is some kind of trigger on the doors, something electronic, that opens the locks if the fire alarm is screaming.”
“There weren’t any alarms going off that night. Besides, taking the stairs up twenty-plus floors with an infant is a long hike.”
“Right. But if the mother was staying in the hotel…say a few floors below yours…not such a chore, if she could gain entry to the upper floors.”
Katie murmured her agreement. She hadn’t considered that.
“I don’t think she hiked up the stairs at all,” Patrick said.
“She didn’t?”
“No. She used the staff elevators. A trick you might know something about.”
Katie’s eyes widened. Yeah. She knew how to get around the hotel without detection. She’d grown up in them. “How would she know where the staff elevators even are? They aren’t on a guest map of the hotel and they’re not accessible from the inside of the guest halls.”
“How she knew about the staff routes I can only assume. Someone told her about them is my guess. Who knows, maybe the mom worked in a hotel at one point. I considered that angle for a while. Thought maybe mom was a maid, someone who knew who you were…left her baby for you to raise.”
Katie had considered that scenario as well. “But the letter…a staff member wouldn’t know those details about me.”
“I agree.”
“So the mom befriended a staff member? Learned the lay of the hotel from someone working in Houston?”
Patrick shook his head. “Doubtful. Look, this is what she did. She rented a room at the hotel and arrived a day early. You never saw her arriving or leaving the hotel because she didn’t do it on the day you were looking at the videos. There are five hundred thirty-three rooms at the Houston Morrison. She knew you wouldn’t look for a single woman registering without a child.”
“I didn’t even consider that she was a guest. I figured she dropped the baby and ran.”
“She obviously brought the baby in later. Somehow, she got her hands on a room service staff uniform. Not very hard to do. The laundry service is seen going in and out of the hotel daily. She could have gotten her hands on one either on site by finding the staff room or by following a truck to where the laundry is washed. Either way, she manages to get a uniform. This tells me a couple things about our girl. She’s smart, and very determined to keep her identity a secret.”
“Obviously.”
“As a guest, she then orders room service. A tray arrives and the waiter leaves the rolling cart in the room to be picked up later. Instead of asking room service to clean up her mess, or leaving the cart in the hall, she keeps the food on the plates and waits. She waits until she knows you’re back in your room. She then changes into a uniform and loads up Savannah…under the cart and hidden by the tablecloth…and wheels her down the hall to the service door. She travels the path to your suite in a service elevator and waits outside the penthouse hall door. She hears you and Monica coming home and then tucks in behind the camera angle before knocking on your door and leaving Savannah.”
Katie pictured everything Patrick was saying…easily mapping out the woman’s path. “So she was hiding behind the service door the whole time Monica and I were standing in my doorway.”
“Yep.”
“Do we have any footage of her?”
Patrick moved from his chair to the sofa and sat beside her before turning on his tablet. “I do. In one shot, she’s wearing what is clearly a wig…in another she’s not.”
Katie clenched her fists in her lap. She’d waited forever for this moment. “Do I know her”
“You have to tell me.”
Patrick played the footage. “I looked through hours of this…hallway footage of room service trays being rolled in and out of rooms. There aren’t that many single women checking into the hotel who aren’t a part of a convention. There weren’t any going on when all of this was happening. I only had to focus on a few floors. Here is the tray being rolled in.” Katie watched as guest services arrived at a room and stepped inside. The person who opened the door was out of the frame.
The tape cut and started back up again. “Here it’s after midnight.”
Sure enough, a woman with dark hair was leaving the room pushing the tray. Her head was down but that didn’t stop Katie from squinting her eyes to try and see her features. She was petite…for a new mom. About the same height as her. The woman in the video kept looking around as if she was nervous.
Patrick voiced what she saw. “She’s nervous.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
She pushed the cart through an unlocked service door. With the exception of the penthouse level, the others weren’t locked. If a diplomat visited or a security need arose, they could be, but in Houston that wasn’t needed at the time Savannah was being delivered.
The woman hesitated at the service door and looked up.
Patrick froze the image. He zoomed in and the quality started to fade, but her features were still visible.
Katie swallowed hard and her hands started to tingle.
It can’t be.
“Do you know her?”
Katie bit her lip. “I need to see another picture. Her hair isn’t right.”
“Like I said. It’s a wig.”
Patrick moved the images forward. When the woman was seen again, she was careless about her face. The wig was gone, and she was all but running, holding her stomach, as she made her way back to her room.
Patrick stopped the film again and zoomed in.
There, with tears streaming down her face was a woman Katie had never met but knew a whole lot about.
“It’s Maggie. Dean’s ex-fiancée.”
Her entire body started to tremble.
Patrick turned off the tablet and set it down. “Dean is your boyfriend?”
She nodded wordlessly. “I just moved in with him.”
“Did he know Maggie was pregnant?”
Katie blinked a few times. Her mind went numb. “No.” He would never have allowed Maggie to have his child without him.
She stood and started to pace off the energy swarming her body.
Savannah was Dean’s daughter. His biological daughter.
More his than hers.
“Dean and I dated over a year ago,” she found herself explaining to Patrick. “He used to sneak up to my suite during the time we were together. He must have mentioned that to Maggie.”
“It did look as if Maggie knew the routine of the hotel. But unless Dean drew her a map, she had to have figured this out by herself.”
She thought of the note left with Savannah at the door. “It makes sense now. Dean knew I couldn’t have children.” It hurt to think he’d told his fiancée about her. She wanted to be angry with him but all she could feel was shock.
“I still don’t know why she gave Savannah up. Maggie called off their wedding and didn’t give him much of an explanation as to why.”
“She was pregnant. Maybe she freaked. Women get emotional when they’re pregnant,” Patrick said.
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe their breakup had more to do with you than it did Dean. Either way, I think we know who the mother is…and in light of the timeline, we know who the daddy is. From what I’ve discovered, Maggie is living with her aunt just north of Los Angeles.”
“How far away?” she asked.
“Hour and a half. Two, tops.”
Just yesterday the fabric of her life felt as if it were being sewn at the edges to hold everything together. Dean welcomed her and Savannah into his home and she’d never felt more comfortable in her life.
Outside of her father’s home when she was a child, Dean’s was home. More than Monica’s…more than the suite in a Houston hotel she called her own. The information Patrick delivered dripped acid onto that fabric. The fabric smoldered and left gaping holes.
“What should I do?” she asked almost to herself.
Patrick moved from the couch and placed a supportive hand on her shoulder. “Does he love you?”
Katie’s gaze flickered in Patrick’s direction. “I—I…we just reunited.”
“You’re a smart woman, Katelyn. Smarter than many of my clients. Would Maggie deliver her child to you as a tool to get Dean back?”
“She left him,” she snapped. “Common knowledge.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. My brother and Dean are best friends. Jack and Dean’s story of her exit was virtually the same.”
She barely noticed him stroking her back in comfort. “You can wait…see if Maggie comes to you.”
“Wouldn’t she have done that by now?”
Patrick didn’t meet her eyes when she looked at him. “If she had a nefarious reason for leaving Savannah with you…and she wanted to avoid any possibility of prosecution of child abandonment, she’ll get in touch with you soon.”
“How can you know that?”
“Texas laws differ from California. A mother can leave a child with a responsible adult for up to six months before the state considers it abandonment.”
“We’re both in California.”
Patrick moved his head to the side. “Doesn’t matter. She left Savannah in Texas. The papers for legal guardianship…the birth certificate were drawn up here in California. Maggie was careful in how she executed this entire ordeal. With the lawyers you could afford to hire, she would be hard-pressed to get Savannah back if she wanted to. And after six months, it’s all but ironclad. If she’d left Savannah here in California, there would be even less legality she could stand on.”
Katie blinked away the moisture in her eyes. “Savannah’s nearly three months old.”
Patrick offered a sympathetic look. “If it helps…I don’t think she’s coming back. She meant for you to have this child. I think it will be up to you to confront her.”
“And if I don’t?”
Patrick shrugged. “After six months you can relax. Even if she came after you for guardianship at that time, any lawyer worth their bar exam could get you custody.”
Katie ran both of her hands over her face and turned away from him. “None of this answers the question of why.”
“No. You asked for an identity. I told you when we started that I would find out who…how…but I’m not inside the head of this woman and I don’t know why she left you her child. It could be that she felt she wasn’t ready for parenthood. Or she couldn’t raise the child of a man who didn’t love her. Women are like that. For those answers you’re going to have to ask her.”
She cringed at the thought.
How could she talk to the woman Dean had been engaged to, the woman that could give him children…did give him a child?
When Katie had heard of Dean’s engagement, a part of her heart, her soul, had shattered.
Katie remembered those first and only days of knowing that, inside her, a life formed. A life created by her and Dean. And then that awful night had come.
At first, there were a few spots. She quickly looked up her symptoms on the Internet and realized that many women spotted during their first trimester.
But it wasn’t spotting.
Within an hour, she knew there was a problem.
She called Dean, frantic. Told him to meet her at the hospital.
He held her as the doctor told her she’d lost their child. Something inside her was broken and she knew it. A week later her regular doctor sat beside her and Dean and told them that Katie couldn’t carry a child to term. Her inhospitable uterus would reject any pregnancy she could possibly conceive. The fact she already had was no surprise according to the doctor.
Katie had stopped listening at that point.
She would live a life without children.
The man she loved…the man who looked at her deeper than anyone ever had, wanted children. Wanted that life.
Hurting beyond reason, Katie did what she needed to do.
She wove lies and drove Dean away.
Straight into Maggie’s arms.
And now Katie was raising their child.
How could she face Dean and not tell him?
His own child was under his roof and Katie was the fraud. The thought of life without Savannah…without Dean, made her sick.
“Do you want my advice?” Patrick asked.
“God, please.” She had no idea which way to turn.
“Wait. Irrational decisions are rarely the right ones. Take a few days to digest this information before you do anything.”
She turned to him. “I live with Dean. It’s not like I can avoid seeing him.”
Patrick rolled his eyes. “You’re a woman. Plea some womanly issue and keep your distance while you figure out what to do.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
After only a week of living with each other, Dean felt closer to Katie than he ever had before. Their physical relationship was off the charts amazing. They talked about nearly everything…up until the day she left work early.
She returned from her day and claimed to be feeling unwell.
Claimed. He didn’t think she was sick. Some of the spark had left her face and he couldn’t help but think it was him.
While they were both sitting on the couch and watching some mindless television show, Dean lifted her feet in his lap and started rubbing lazy circles with his thumbs. Katie’s features lost some of the stress he’d seen behind her eyes.
“God that feels good,” she told him.
“Relaxing?”
She offered half a smile and hummed her appreciation.
He waited until her upper body melted into the couch before he asked her, “What’s going on, Katie?”
Her eyes popped open. “Going on?”
“Yeah. You’ve been preoccupied the last couple days. Stressed.”
Her throat moved and she blinked. “I am stressed,” she told him. “Worried about what Patrick is going to discover…worried he won’t find the mom at all.”
“She couldn’t have just disappeared.”
“You never know. The evening news is always talking about people dropping off the face of the earth.”
Dean didn’t think this mom left the country. A few feet away a mechanical swing clicked as it rocked Savannah back and forth. Her little eyes were losing the battle of staying open. “He’ll find her.” Dean stroked the arch of her foot as they talked.
“If he does and I know her? What then? Do I approach her?”
He hadn’t thought of that. “You can’t do anything until you know who she is. When we find out who she is, we’ll figure out what to do as a couple.”
Katie’s eyes instantly filled and Dean’s heart wept.
“Oh, baby. Don’t worry.” He pulled her into his lap and wrapped her in his arms. His action prompted tears to fall and a whimper to escape her throat. “I’m here.”
She buried her head against his chest and clutched his shirt. “He could tell me anything, Dean. The mom could be someone I know. What if Savannah is Jack’s daughter…or someone he knows?”
Dean stroked her hair. “Jack and Jessie have been exclusive since they met. And I don’t think he was seeing anyone for a while before they met.”
Katie pulled away and searched his eyes. “But it could be something like that. What then? Damn it. I wish I’d never hired Patrick.”
Dean removed a tear with his thumb. “You’re letting this eat you up, Katie. We’ll find out who the mom is and
then move on.” He dropped a finger to her lips when she started to ask another question. “And if we don’t find out who the mom is…we move on.”
He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Thank you…for being here with me,” she said. “I don’t want to do this alone.”
“You’re not alone. Is this what’s been on your mind?”
She looked away. “Yeah. Sorry I’ve been so off.”
Dean lifted her chin to stare into her eyes. “I know this is going to sound awful of me, but I’m glad it’s baby drama and not me. You had me thinking you’d regretted your move here.”
Her eyes widened. “What? No! We’re the best thing to happen since Savannah ended up on my doorstep.”
He kissed away the salty tears and she offered a tired smile before settling back into his arms.
Savannah gave in to dreamland and, from the way Katie had relaxed, she wasn’t far behind.
Dean tried to watch the television and remove his thoughts from what Katie had said…but her worry transferred over to him.
What if Savannah was related to one of them…to him?
What if the father showed up demanding her?
What if someone was playing a sick game?
God help anyone who would try anything cruel with the woman he loved and the child brought into their life.
Dean considered himself about as even tempered as they came…but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t come out fighting.
Katie had dodged a bullet. With as much honesty as she could bear, she’d shared her concerns with Dean. Her dishonesty was eating her up. Over and over she told herself it was a simple omission of the truth.
Just because Maggie was the mother…or the woman in the pictures running from the scene of the crime, there were no guarantees Dean was the father. In fact, Maggie might have had an affair and that was why she’d broken off their engagement.
Katie doubted the latter.
With a copy of the letter Maggie had left with Savannah, Katie met with Monica for a “long lunch” and an even longer talk.
Not Quite Mine (Not Quite series) Page 21