Joan Pickart - The Baby Bet - His Secret Son

And what had Kara meant by that other weird statement she’d made? He was more of a MacAllister than she was? That didn’t make sense. Robert MacAllister was her uncle. She was Dr. Kara MacAllister. Why would he be more of a MacAllister than she was?

Andrew spun around and strode out of the waiting room. He had every intention of getting the answer from Kara MacAllister.

Margaret MacAllister sat in a chair next to Robert’s bed, her hand covering one of his. Various machines surrounded the head of the bed, humming, blinking, showing a jagged line on a green screen, all of them having wires that were attached to Robert’s inert body.

Oh, Robert, Margaret thought, her eyes once again filling with tears. He was so still, hadn’t regained consciousness since he’d collapsed at the party hours before.

Margaret glanced down at her full-length evening dress and shook her head.

It seemed like an eternity since they’d been celebrating New Year’s Eve and the final event of the MacAllister reunion. It had been such a festive party and everyone there had been having a wonderful time.

And then?

That young man, that Andrew Malone, had appeared out of nowhere and shattered her world, destroyed her serene existence. Her beloved Robert was now hanging on to life by a thread, by the power of his will to survive the devastating heart attack he’d suffered when he’d heard what Andrew Malone had to say.

Dear heaven, Margaret thought, was Andrew Malone truly Robert’s son? Who was Sally Malone in regard to Robert? And even more important, how old was Andrew?

Margaret closed her eyes, tears spilling onto her cheeks.

Oh, please, let Andrew be older than Michael. Let whatever had transpired between Robert and Sally have taken place before she and Robert were married. She couldn’t bear the thought of Robert being unfaithful to her, having an affair after they had repeated their vows to each other, before their friends and families…and God.

Margaret opened her eyes and shook her head in disgust.

How selfish she was being. She was thinking only of herself, of how brokenhearted she would be if it came to light that Robert had actually been unfaithful to her.

She didn’t know if Robert was going to live or die, and she was centered on her fears of learning the truth about him and Sally, instead of focusing on Robert, willing him to hang on, to live, to fight this catastrophe and win.

“I’m so sorry, my darling,” she whispered. “I’m behaving badly. Oh, Robert, please, don’t die. I need you, love you so much. We have so many wonderful years left to spend together, so many memories to make.”

Margaret dashed her tears away, then shifted so she could layer both of her hands on top of Robert’s hand, which lay so still on the pale-green bedspread.

“Can you hear me, Robert?” she said. “Perhaps you can. I’m here for you and always will be.” She paused. “I’m not going to dwell on what happened at the party. I’ll just wait until you wake up and explain it all to me. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.

“So! Let’s relive lovely memories, shall we? How about Christmas? Yes, that’s perfect. It seems so long ago, but it has only been a week since we were all opening gifts at Jillian and Forrest’s house. Oh, my, it was noisy, wasn’t it? The children were so excited and…well, so were the adults.”

A soft smile formed on Margaret’s lips as she continued to speak.

“Remember how the triplets were dressed alike, confusing everyone because they’re almost impossible to tell apart? Jillian and Forrest have never dressed them the same, but the girls wanted matching dresses for Christmas. I guess you’d have to be a five-and-a-half-year-old girl to understand why.

“Jessica came running over to us, remember, Robert? You played your game with her, pretending you didn’t know which triplet she was, and she was so indignant, informing you that you were the only one who had been able to tell them apart from the moment they were born and you knew she was Jessica. She wasn’t Emily or Alice, she was Jessica.

“Your brother is finally a grandpa, and Mary is a grandma, because Jack showed up with his new bride, Jennifer, and her son—their son—Joey. My goodness, we were all so surprised. Mary is thrilled and already talking about where and when to have a baby shower because Jennifer is pregnant.”

Margaret squeezed Robert’s hand gently.

“I truly believe you can hear me, because you’ve always listened to whatever I’ve said, given me your undivided attention whenever I spoke. Such a lovely gift that has been all these years. I thank you for that, Robert.”

She drew a shuddering breath.

“I’m getting gloomy again. Back to nice memories. Oh, I know, remember how Jessica told us on Christmas how Patty had a new six-month-old brother because Uncle Ted and Aunt Hannah had ‘dotted’ baby Ryan from Korea?

“You told Jessica that baby Ryan was ‘adopted,’ and she informed you that she had just told you that very thing—baby Ryan was ‘dotted.’

“Oh, we’re blessed with so many wonderful grandchildren. Andrea was such a tomboy while she was growing up, never wanted to play with her dolls. Remember? And now here she is, the mother of two sets of twins. She and John are very busy parents, aren’t they?

“I forgot to tell you that Jenny confided in me a few weeks ago that she and Michael are stopping at two children, that our namesakes, Bobby and Maggie, are it. But one never knows. Bundles from heaven sometimes have a way of showing up in our lives when we least expect them.”

Like Andrew Malone, Margaret thought suddenly, a shiver coursing through her.

No, no, she wasn’t going to dwell on Andrew, on how old he was—not now. She was concentrating totally on Robert. Her darling Robert, who was going to make it through this, would open his eyes and smile at her. He was going to be fine, just as good as new.

He had to be.

Oh, dear God, he just had to be.

“Aunt Margaret?”

Margaret jerked in surprise at the sound of a voice and a hand being placed on her shoulder. She looked up to see Kara frowning at her.

“It’s close to 2 a.m.,” Kara said. “You need to go home, get some rest, Aunt Margaret. Uncle Robert is stable. I’ll call you if there’s any change in his condition.”

“I can’t leave him, Kara,” Margaret said, fresh tears filling her eyes. “What if he woke up and I wasn’t here? No, I’m staying.”

“You’ll need your strength to get through all of this,” Kara said. “I just spoke to Michael and he said he’d drive you home. Please. Take a nap for a few hours, at least. You can shower, put on clean clothes, have something to eat, then come back to the hospital. Come on. Michael is waiting for you.”

“I wonder where Andrew Malone is right now,” Margaret said, “and how he feels about causing Robert to have a heart attack.”

“Andrew is here at the hospital,” Kara said. “I’ve spoken to him, but he’s staying away from the family. He…he appears to feel very badly about what took place when he announced that he was Robert’s son.”

“This is all so unbelievable,” Margaret said. “Think of what’s happened because of an article in a newspaper. This is a nightmare.”

“I know,” Kara said. “But in all fairness, Aunt Margaret, I believe that when tests are run, we’ll discover that Uncle Robert had a problem with his heart long before tonight. I’m not defending Andrew Malone or what he did, but—”

“I understand.” Margaret sighed as she nodded. “Several times during the past week I saw Robert rubbing his chest and asked him what was wrong. He said he was simply having indigestion from all the rich food we were eating during the reunion. We didn’t heed the warnings his body was giving us.”