“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.