Stella MacLean - Bringing Emma Home

“Grace! I’m sorry. Really sorry.” He went down on one knee in front of her, his eyes pleading, his voice filled with remorse.

“Five years ago?” She heard a scream and realized it was hers. “You had an affair five years ago when we were trying to have a baby?”

“Not an affair. Not really.” He scrubbed his face with hands that shook. “You and I were going through a rough time.”

Her mind fumbled over his words. Her husband, the man she loved, had had an affair with another woman. He’d broken a solemn vow to her, one he’d taken before God. This couldn’t be true. But hadn’t he just admitted to it? “When? When did you do this?”

“I... Back when I managed our clients in Spartanburg. Before Lucas took over.”

“Is that why Lucas started going there? Is he aware of what is going on?”

“No. No one knows. It was just one weekend, and I’ve regretted it ever since.” He stared at the ceiling, then back at her. “I’ve never regretted anything more in my whole life.”

There were tears in his eyes, but it didn’t matter. No amount of tears could change what he’d just admitted to. “Regretted it,” she echoed. “You had sex with her and you regretted it .” She struggled to sort out her thoughts. This was all wrong.

“I swear I did not know she had a child. And I know it isn’t mine. I wouldn’t...couldn’t.”

“Stop! You just admitted to having sex with a woman who had a child. Your child.”

“No! Not my child!”

“You lied to me all this time. I didn’t lie to you. But you sure as hell lied to me. You had an affair with another woman.” She pounded his chest, grabbed his hair and pulled as hard as she could. “You destroyed everything!”

He winced. His eyes didn’t leave her face. “Grace, please stop. I don’t want to upset you.” He touched her bare leg.

“Upset me,” she seethed. “You’ve more than upset me, you bastard.” Suddenly she became aware that she was naked. Desperately wanting to cover herself, to feel whole and in control, she pushed his hand off her. “Get out of my way, Aidan. I’m getting dressed and getting out of here.”

“Grace. No. Don’t leave. Please let me try to explain. I realize that this is a huge shock for you. It’s a shock to me, as well.” Aidan reached for her again, but she pushed him away as she got off the sofa and moved across the room.

“A shock to you? Really?” she said, feeling the bitterness like a flush of acid seeping through her mind. Everything she loved and cherished had been swept from her life by his awful words.

He followed her as she moved around the room, gathering up her things. “I didn’t mean it that way. I mean getting the call and not knowing what was happening—” He lowered his head. “I’ve totally screwed up.”

For a fraction of a second, she almost went to him, to console him the way she always had.

But those days were dead and gone. She couldn’t let him touch her when she knew that he’d had an affair with another woman, and had lied to her about something so personal, so destructive that she would never trust him again. “If this is not your child, a DNA test will prove you’re not the father, won’t it?”

His expression filled with anguish, he glanced away.

Angry and disbelieving, Grace tried to remain calm. Struggling to get into her skimpy sundress and high heels, she hopped on one foot as she fastened her watch on her wrist. It seemed to be taking forever to get dressed. She just wanted to get out of here as soon as she could, away from the man who had destroyed her world.

A man, she now realized, she didn’t really know at all. “This woman you had sex with had the DNA test done, didn’t she?” She pointed at the phone, her voice rising. “That man. That lawyer wouldn’t be calling you if there wasn’t proof that you are the father of this woman’s child.”

“He says he has DNA proof. But I don’t believe it. We, you and I, can’t have children, and so this has to be some sort of awful mistake.”

Grace struggled to put on her earrings and finally gave up, throwing them on the floor. Aidan grabbed them from where they landed on the plush cream carpet. “I gave these to you,” he said, in a disbelieving tone. “They’re your favorites.”

“I don’t want jewelry bought out of guilt,” she said, striding into the bathroom. She combed her fingers through her hair, applied a little blush and gathered her cosmetics bag. She may just have been totally humiliated by her husband, but she was a Southern woman, and she would not leave the suite without looking in control and in charge.

In the bedroom, she shoved the remainder of her things into her suitcase. So many thoughts were crashing around her mind, each delivering yet another blow to her self-esteem. Her husband had had an affair and a child by another woman. “If this is true, it means that I’m the one who can’t have children, doesn’t it?”

“Grace, we’ve been over this dozens of times before. The doctors told us it was no one’s fault that we couldn’t have children. That some people simply can’t conceive. Please don’t do this.”

“I have no choice. I’ve waited our entire marriage for a baby, and now I learn that you are a father.”

“Grace, honey, I recognize this is hard for you. I wish I didn’t have to bring it up,” he said, his head lowered, his expression downcast.

“But you did and now I have to deal with it. How could you do this? To cheat on me, on us, is unbearable. And the fact that you didn’t recognize how hard this would be for me, to know you had a child when I couldn’t. You have destroyed everything.”

“Please, Grace, don’t say that. It’s not over between us. It can’t be. We love each other. I’ve hurt you and I will make it up to you somehow. I should have told you about the weekend with Deidre, but I didn’t want to hurt you over nothing. And it was nothing. Just a mindless fling because I was feeling so isolated and alone in our marriage. But that’s no excuse. I broke the promise I made to you. Please understand I never meant to hurt you. You, of all people. I love you, Grace.” His face was ashen, his eyes pleading.

“A mindless mistake showing your total disrespect for me, for our marriage, and I’m to believe that it’s as simple as you making a mistake? How stupid do you think I am?”

“I don’t think you’re stupid. I’m the stupid one for ever having anything to do with the woman.” Aidan stood still, misery an almost tangible aura around him.

“Well, it’s too late now. You can’t go back and undo what you did. And because of what you did, there is a child and you’re the father. Is it a girl or a boy?” she asked, feeling nothing, as if her body were floating off somewhere, that none of this was real.

“It’s a girl,” he said, his voice flat, as if the realization hadn’t yet dawned on him that he was a father.

“How old is she?” Grace demanded.

Aidan glanced around the room his hands shoved deep into his pockets. “I guess she’d be four or so.”

“What do you intend to do about her?” Grace asked.

Aidan gave a long sigh. “I don’t know. I figured it would get cleared up tomorrow.”

“If you’re so sure the child is not yours, maybe you should take our lawyer with you,” Grace said, trying to sound reasonable and in control even as her heart crumpled in her chest.

Her husband had fathered a child with a woman he’d had a weekend hookup with. That hurt in the worst way possible. All those times they’d hurried to make love while she was ovulating, only to be disappointed. All those times...the heartbreak she’d had to face...while he’d sought the attentions of another woman.