Last Chance Baby

by Gallegos, Ashley

  “When I asked you before about my buddy’s suspicion about Christopher Dalton, you said you didn’t really know him. Yet last night you told both me and Theresa that he was the father of your child and the person you are running from. That says to me that you know him a little more than you told me before. So what’s the real story.” Chuck’s hands seemed to grip the steering wheel even tighter than before, as if he was bracing for her answer. He probably should. It was a doozy.

  “It’s both actually. I don’t really know Chris. It’s like I told you - I was friends with his wife, Erin. She was my best friend. But you’re right. This is his baby. But where you are wrong is in thinking it is also my baby. It’s not. I wasn’t Chris’ lover. I was Erin’s surrogate. Chris was pulling away from her and acting strangely. She became convinced that the only way to save their marriage was to have a baby but the doctor told her that wasn’t an option. She simply couldn’t have a child. So we came up with another plan. I would have their baby. And then I moved in with them and I saw something I shouldn’t have and everything went wrong from there.” Hailey looked up from her lap to see if Chuck was judging her. It wasn’t like she was one of those girls renting out her uterus for a few bucks. She had genuinely been trying to help a friend. Her original intentions had been good.

  Chuck nodded his head. “You’re right. That’s not what I was thinking. Thank you for telling me. That makes sense actually. Now that his wife has passed away, Dalton would be desperate to get his hands on that baby with all of the stipulations of the will.” That caught Hailey’s attention. What stipulations could he be talking about?

  “I don’t understand. Stipulations?”

  Chuck looked at her. “You really haven’t been watching any TV or checking online about the situation, have you? CNN was just reporting that Erin’s will stated that if she died without a child, all of her money not already invested in Dalton Enterprises would go to charity - not her husband. But if there is a baby, the money goes into a trust fund for the use of the child and Dalton has full control over the funds. That’s a $400 million baby you’ve got in there.” He pointed at her stomach and she looked down to see if magically her stomach would look different with the news.

  Hailey looked at Chuck. “It’s not about the money. This is Erin’s baby. This baby is a living piece of Erin. I have to protect it from him.” She seemed to be pleading with him with her eyes. He could see that she really loved her friend and truly loved her friend’s baby as a result. He knew right then and there that he would protect this woman and the child she carried even if it meant losing his own life.

  Eighteen

  They pulled up to what looked like an abandoned tiny airstrip. It was the kind of place that had been out of use for so long that local teenagers liked to use it for drag racing and drinking. Hailey looked around and saw a pristine small plane that looked completely out of place in this wasteland. A uniformed pilot hopped down out of the plane and was followed by another man in plain clothing. Hailey turned in her seat to see if Chuck had any reaction to the plane, which was so clearly out of its element. Chuck gave a nod to the men and pulled up a safe distance from the plane. He hopped out of the truck and came around the front to help Hailey down. Once Hailey was out of the truck, Chuck grabbed their bags and headed to the plane with Hailey trailing behind him.

  Chuck handed the bags to the pilot and tossed the truck keys to the other man waiting. The second man grabbed the keys and sprinted over the truck and left. Hailey watched the truck race down the road back in the direction from where they had come. It made sense that they couldn’t leave the truck there. It could give an indication of where they had gone. She was glad that Chuck had thought of it. She was lucky that Chuck was watching their backs while she was still in shock from her grief. She heard her name and turned to where the sound was coming from.

  Chuck was halfway up the stairs into the little plane. “Hailey, it’s time to go.” He reached out a hand to help her up the steps. She gladly took it and followed him in. The plane was surprisingly comfortable inside. It was the kind of plane that rich people owned and would use for a family trip to the beach house. It wasn’t the kind of plane that she had envisioned for a deep cover getaway and she was grateful to relax into the comfortable seat.

  “Frank, our pilot, comes highly recommended from my buddy. We can trust him. He’s going to fly us to Florida and then we’ll catch our international flight.” Chuck handed her a passport. “This is your new identity. You’ll need to learn it before Florida. Customs will ask you the information backwards and forwards.” Hailey opened the passport and was surprised to see her photo inside. It was the last photo that Gram had taken right after graduation. It tugged at Hailey’s heart and she made a decision then and there that she couldn’t afford to cry. She had to keep her focus to get through this.

  “So my name is now Sarah Anderson?” Hailey looked up at Chuck. He seemed to be blushing about something. “Why are you blushing?”

  “Meet Mark Anderson, your husband.” He showed her his passport and she saw that the names did in fact match. “I decided a traveling pregnant woman would attract less attention if she was traveling with her husband.” He looked at her as if he thought she might protest. She was afraid to admit to herself how appealing the scheme actually was to her.

  “Oh. Well, that makes sense.” Hailey took another look at her passport and made an effort to memorize the birth date and other information inside. When she looked up, Chuck was tossing a small box back and forth in his hands as if he was nervous. “What’s in the box?”

  “Your wedding rings.” Hailey sat up straight to make sure she heard that correctly.

  “My wedding rings? For our fake marriage?” Hailey giggled to make it seem like she didn’t care either way. But she was dying to see what was in the jewelry box.

  Chuck got up out of his seat and knelt down in front of Hailey. “Sarah Anderson, will you marry me?” He opened the box and inside was a gorgeous round solitaire diamond set in white gold next to a diamond studded white gold band. It was stunning and Hailey felt herself wishing this was real for just a second. That she could pretend she was really getting engaged or married to the love her life and they would have a baby together rather than being on the run and mourning Gram. Hailey pulled out the rings and put them on her finger. They fit perfectly and glittered in the sunlight streaming in through the window. Chuck got up and sat back in his own seat.

  “I’m glad they fit, little mama.” He winked at her and pulled out a laptop. “Now get some sleep, Mrs. Anderson. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.” Hailey took one last look at the glistening diamonds and then settled into her seat to do just that.

  Nineteen

  Krispy Kreme doughnut boxes littered the floor below Erin and Hailey while the Clueless movie played on in the background. Hailey had experienced her first pregnancy craving and Erin had indulged alongside her. Erin joked that she was going to get so fat with Hailey’s cravings that no one would be able to tell which one of them was carrying the baby and which one was just fat. Erin was sprawled out comfortably on the bed and Hailey was sitting up next to her. The days since Hailey had moved in had been spent mostly like this. It was as if they were sorority sisters hanging out. They laughed and laughed as if they hadn’t a care in the world.

  Sometimes even Chris would come home and even laugh with them at dinner. Hailey had never spent much time with him prior to moving in. She really only knew what Erin had told her about him and frankly there wasn’t much that Erin shared that Hailey found to be positive. Mostly they talked about how Chris would change mood suddenly and how Erin wanted his affections so desperately. That was how this whole situation had come about. But since she moved into the mansion, she found that she was running into Chris more and more. There was no substantial conversation exchanged. Mostly she would bump into him in the hall on the way to breakfast or a shower and he would ask how the baby was doing. He did seem very invested in the baby so that
seemed to be a plus to Hailey. He was always pleasant with her and she made an effort to be pleasant in response. After all, she was carrying his baby in his house.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I had Chris pull out the insurance documents that you’ll need for the OBGYN. He said that he left them on his desk in the study. I should get up and get them now so that you’ll have them for your doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning but I feel like a lazy cow.” Erin made an effort to stretch and then grabbed her stomach. “I think that last dozen donuts may have been a dozen too many.” Hailey giggled. Erin did have a huge sweet tooth despite the appearance of her petite body. Hailey pulled herself off the bed.

  “That’s okay. I need to stretch my legs anyway. I can get them. His office is the one down the hall and to the left, is that what you said before?” Erin nodded and turned back to the movie as Hailey made her way into the hall. She had no idea that you could put surrogates on your insurance plan but somehow Erin had made it happen. She had no doubt that Erin and Chris would handle the medical bills either way but she was raised that insurance was as good as gold so she felt better having it. She found the big wooden door that hid Chris’ office and knocked twice to make sure he wasn’t in there. She thought tonight was the night of his big charity event but he had so many of them that she couldn’t keep them all straight. When there was no response, she entered the room quietly and turned on the light.

  Hailey had planned to just grab the insurance paperwork and go back to her movie night with Erin. But the desk was littered with documents. She was going to have to find the right ones and that might take some time. She sat down in Chris’ big leather chair and surveyed what was here. She found a few documents that said Dalton Enterprises and picked those up first. Erin had said the insurance was coming from the company so it seemed like a good place to start.

  But what Hailey saw didn’t make any sense. These were financial documents and every number at the bottom right on the page was bright red with a minus sign in front of it. Didn’t that mean that Dalton Enterprises was losing money? But Hailey remembered a press release just last week about additional stock options for the company in which the company was portrayed as extremely profitable. And Erin said that Chris told her the company had made $25 million in profit alone this quarter. If she was reading these documents correctly, then Chris had lied to all of those prospective investors and Erin.

  Hailey looked around and listened to make sure no one else was going to come in. She quickly took out her cell phone and took pictures of what she found. She needed to make sure that Erin knew. Once she had the pictures on her phone, Hailey replaced the papers and quickly found the insurance paperwork. With her original goal in hand, she opened the door and was shocked to find Chris on the other side of it.

  “Oh, Chris. You scared me! How was the event tonight? Was it the one for multiple sclerosis?” Hailey put a hand to her heart to try to slow its beating. Chris had a look on his face that said he suspected she was up to something but wasn’t quite sure what.

  “No, this one was ovarian cancer, actually. Multiple sclerosis is tomorrow night. Did you need something from my office?” He casually put his arm against the wall and shifted his weight to appear like he was being friendly while efficiently and effectively blocking her way.

  “Yes but I found it.” Hailey held up the insurance paperwork. “Erin was going to come grab them for my appointment tomorrow morning but she’s in a donut coma so I offered to grab them myself.” She smiled to show that she was harmless.

  “Oh good. Did you find them okay? Sometimes I leave my desk such a mess. All of these documents that don’t mean a thing just clogging up my workspace.” He seemed to be trying to figure out how much Hailey had seen.

  “I didn’t notice. I saw the insurance paperwork on the corner and just grabbed it and came straight back out again. We are almost to the good part of the movie so I wanted to rush back before I missed it. In fact, I should probably hurry before Erin watches it without me.” Hailey tried to keep things light and friendly as she attempted to move around him.

  “Have a good night then, Hailey.” Chris watched her walk back down the hall until she turned and then he went into his office to see what Hailey could have seen. He had been in the hall a good twenty minutes while she was in there so her story of just grabbing the insurance documents was clearly a cover up. Now the question was what did Hailey know and would she keep her mouth shut?

  Twenty

  The plane landed with some turbulence and woke up Hailey from her slumber. These dreams of Erin were bittersweet. She missed her friend but it was also a memory of all her past mistakes that had lead to this life on the run. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and saw that Chuck was putting away the laptop he had apparently worked on for the duration of the flight. Surely Chuck would know better than to do anything online that could allow Chris to track them. Based on Chuck’s behavior so far, Hailey suspected that Chuck had a colorful past as a SEAL that he was not revealing quite yet. Whatever his history, she was glad that she had him along for the ride. Maybe together they would get out of this alive.

  The pilot opened the door to plane and let down the stairs. He approached Hailey and Chuck and bowed. The man actually bowed!

  “Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, we have arrived in Miami. I will now escort you to the terminal for your international flight. Please do not forget your passports or your purse, ma’am. There is already a man down on the tarmac to handle your luggage for you. Welcome to Florida.” Hailey realized that this was the point where Hailey got left behind and Sarah Anderson took the controls. As she reached for her purse, she realized that her bag had been exchanged from the Walmart special she had carried since her arrival in Seattle to a fancy Chanel bag. She recognized the style from her time with Erin and knew that it cost more than Gram’s truck. She looked up at Chuck, or Mark Anderson, with questions in her eyes.

  “A woman who arrives by private plane yet carries a duffel bag and worn out purse will attract attention. But another rich wife who simply wanted comfort during her first pregnancy will fit right in with the Miami culture.” Chuck helped her up and handed her the Chanel. Its leather was as soft as butter and it made her casual outfit of jeans and a t-shirt look like she was trying to be ironically trendy. She followed Chuck down the stairs onto the tarmac and saw that their luggage had also been exchanged for Louis Vuitton trunks. They definitely looked like they belonged in Miami.

  Once they reached customs, Hailey was glad she had memorized the information in her passport. She was asked her birth date, her name, and every other possible piece of information. She felt like she was passing the test with flying colors until the customs agent asked her where they were headed. Suddenly her mouth dropped and she looked to where Chuck was finishing up with his own agent. He ran over to her when he realized the situation.

  “Oh, I am so sorry, ma’am. The trip was a surprise for my wife so I had not yet revealed our destination to her. Honey, we are going to Paris. Is that alright with you? I know last time it was slightly uncomfortable for you but I think it was just the season. We can always head to Rome or London if you would prefer.” Chuck looked at her as if she really was his rich wife and she could pick anywhere in the world to go.

  “I think Paris would be just fine.” She smiled at the customs agent while Chuck kissed her cheek, playing his part of doting husband and father to be. The customs agent stamped her passport and handed it back to her.

  “Have a good trip, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. I would be happy if my husband would just take me to the Dave and Buster’s for dinner every once in a while. Paris sounds amazing! Enjoy!” She eyed Hailey with a combination of awe and envy. No one had ever looked at plain Hailey Richards liked that. If only she really was Sarah Anderson. She smiled back at the customs agent and followed Chuck towards the terminal.

  Twenty One

  They began to board the plane and Hailey was a little bugged that Chuck wouldn’t even let her hold her own boardi
ng pass. She got that he was trying to treat her as if she was a rich housewife above it all but she also liked to know details like when the plane was taking off and where they would sit. Her life was out of her control enough as it was. Couldn’t she at least know these few details? But every time she asked, Chuck would just say, “Oh, Sarah, darling, you don’t need to worry your pretty head about anything like that. Instead, why don’t you think of all the places you want to shop when we get to Paris.” Then he would pat her hand like she was a child that needed to be placated. She knew it was an act but it was still annoying.

  Finally it became time to board the plane. She knew that they were supposed to pretend to be rich but she was shocked when they boarded first and had the prime seats in first class. Who was paying for this? Theresa had done well with the farm but Hailey knew she wasn’t paying Chuck that much. When everyone else seemed to go to sleep on the plane to avoid jet lag, Hailey leaned over and asked Chuck exactly where the funds were coming from.

  “I have money saved from my SEAL days. I never had any reason to spend it and compound interest has been good to me.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Saving our lives seemed like a good enough investment.” Hailey felt touched that he had opened up his own personal coffers to help her. Maybe he was one of those guys who just got a kick out of being the hero. It made sense with his SEAL history. Chuck pulled out his laptop again to do whatever it was that he was working on. He reminded her that she was going to need her rest to avoid jet lag.

  “Yeah, but don’t you need to sleep too? I can keep watch for a bit.” Hailey tried to stifle the yawn when she said it. The nap she took on the small plane wasn’t going to sustain her.