Tessa Radley - Staking His Claim

The baby…

Ella’s hand crept to her stomach.

Mindful of how much her sister hated it when she nagged, Ella tempered her outrage. “You can’t just leave a baby for a few months… or even a year… and hope it will be there when you get back.”

“I know that, Ella.” Keira’s brows drew together. “Don’t try to put the guilts on me. I’m not ready for a baby—neither of us are.”

Ignoring her sister’s unfair accusation, Ella tried to fathom out what Keira’s response meant. Did she intend to give the baby up for adoption? Shock chilled Ella. Had her sister thought this through? She would hate to see Keira suffer when it one day came home to her what she’d lost. Perhaps Keira needed to be reminded of that.

“If you’re thinking about giving the baby up for adoption, just remember it’s not going to be easy to find a surrogate again if you decide you want a baby when you come back from Africa.”

She certainly wouldn’t be doing it again. She shouldn’t even have done it this time. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb decision. That’s what came of making decisions with her heart rather than her head.

Keira flicked back her pale silver hair. “We can do what Yevgeny suggested when we first talked about you being our surrogate—put our names down to adopt a baby.”

She’d known Dmitri’s high-handed brother was behind this!

The ache in her lower back that had been worsening all day, intensified. It wasn’t worth arguing with Keira, pointing out that putting down your name didn’t guarantee a baby because so few became available for adoption. And when one did, the legal mother had the final say. She alone could choose whichever couple she wanted—there was no waiting list, no way to predict who she would choose.

But right now Keira’s future plans were not her concern.

“And what about this baby?” Ella knew she sounded angry. But, damn it, she was angry. Yevgeny made her blood bubble—even when he wasn’t present. Just the mention of the man was enough! “You can’t just dump it—”

“I’m not dumping it—You’re the legal mother. I know you’ll make the best decision for the baby.” There was an imploring expression in her sister’s eyes that caused the hairs at the back of Ella’s neck to stand on end.

Oh, no! Keira had planned to leave the baby with her and come back to claim it. Panic prickled through her. “I can’t keep the baby.”

Keira’s eyes teared up again. “I know I shouldn’t have expected you to. But you always wanted the adoption of the baby to us to be an open one. So I hoped you would consider…”

“No!” Panic swamped Ella. “We have a surrogacy arrangement—”

Keira was shaking her head. “But Ella, you explained we can’t actually adopt the baby until after you sign the consent to give her up on the twelfth day. As the legal mother, you’re entitled to change your mind—but so are we.”

She’d explained the legalities too well to her sister. Ella swallowed a curse. “You can’t change your mind—because I can’t keep this baby.”

A wave of sick helplessness engulfed her.

Keira sighed. “We already have. We’re not ready to raise a child. I don’t even want to think about the decision you’re going to have to make, but you have to do what you feel is right, Ella. It’s your body, your b—”

“Don’t tell me it’s my baby!”

Keira looked doleful. “I think I always knew deep in my heart that you wouldn’t agree to keep her, and I’ve made peace with that. Even though I had so hoped…” Her little sister’s voice trailed away.

Dear God.

Did Keira not know how much this hurt? What she was asking? The pain that pierced her chest was sharp and unforgiving. And guilt made it worse. Ella wished she could burst into tears… weep and wail. But she couldn’t. Instead, she fought for composure.

She’d always been the adult in their relationship. No doubt Keira had known all along she would agree to sort everything out.

Her heart was racing, and her head had started to pound. The ache in her back seemed to be growing worse by the minute. Ella knew all this couldn’t be good for the baby. She had to calm down. Think of the baby. She drew a shuddering breath… counted to five… and exhaled slowly.

Pulling a cloak of assumed indifference around herself, Ella said with every bit of dignity she could muster, “I have a job—a demanding job. I don’t have time for a pet, much less a baby.” Ella would’ve loved a pet—a cat. But she didn’t have time to care for any living thing.

Keira was staring at her again, her bottom lip quivering.

Ella refused to feel one bit guilty. She was not going to be left holding the baby; she couldn’t keep it. That had never been the plan. The baby had been conceived for Keira—and Dmitri—to parent. This was not her baby.

Lifting her hand from her belly, she said, “Then we’re in agreement. I have no choice but to give your baby up for adoption.”

“If you see no other way out.”

Before she could reiterate that this was not her preference, that the baby was Keira and Dmitri’s responsibility, to her horror Ella felt the warm, wet flood as her water broke.

Keira’s baby girl was not going to wait another week to be born.

Night had already fallen by the time Yevgeny Volkovoy strode into the waiting room set aside for family visitors on the hospital’s first floor. He didn’t notice the calming decor in gentle blues and creams lit up by strategically placed wall sconces, or even the soft-focus photographs of Madonna-like mothers cradling babies that hung on the wall. Instead, his focus homed in on where his brother sprawled across an overstuffed chair while watching a wide-screen television.

Fixing startlingly light blue eyes on Dmitri, he demanded, “Where is he?”

“Who?” Dmitri swung a blank look up at him.

“The child.”

“It’s not a boy… it’s a girl,” his brother corrected him even as the soccer game on the television recaptured his attention. “I told you that after the ultrasound.”

Yevgeny suppressed the surge of bitter disappointment. He’d been so sure that the ultrasound had been read wrong. He should’ve known! For almost a century his family had produced boys… there hadn’t been a girl in sight. How typical of Ella McLeod to give birth to a girl. Contrary creature.

He waved a dismissive hand. “Whatever. I want to see her.”

Retracing his steps out of the family room he emerged in time to see his sister-in-law appear through the next door down the carpeted corridor. Yevgeny strode forward. Nodding at his startled sister-in-law as he passed her, he entered the private ward beyond.

Keira’s icicle sister was sitting up in the bed, propped up against large cushions.

Yevgeny came to an abrupt stop. He had never seen Ella McLeod in bed before.

The sight caused a shock of discomfort to course through him. Despite the fact that she barely reached his shoulder when she was on her feet, she’d always seemed so formidable. Stern. Businesslike. Unsmiling. Even at family occasions she dressed in a sharp, formal fashion. Dark colors—mostly black dresses with neck scarves in muted shades.

Now he allowed his gaze to drift over her and take in the other differences.

No scarf. No oversize glasses. No makeup. Some sort of ivory frilly lace spilled around the top of her breasts. She looked younger… paler… more fragile than he’d ever seen her.

The icicle must be thawing.

Yevgeny shook off the absurd notion.

As though sensing his presence, she glanced up from the screen of a slim white phone she’d been squinting at. Antagonism snaked down his spine as their eyes clashed.