Darlene Gardner - The Other Woman's Son

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Ebony Brown, for graciously answering my

questions about dialysis and kidney failure.

I couldn’t have asked for a better source

and you couldn’t be a more worthy advocate.

Any mistakes, of course, are mine.

And to my buddies in basketball,

Marian Covino and Beth Marson,

because we’ll always have Memphis.

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

JENNA WRIGHT BOPPED down the stairs to the beat of a song she’d heard that funny man John Belushi singing in the movie she’d watched last night with her big brother.

“Gimme some lovin’,” she sang, then sang it again, those being the only words she remembered.

She hit the ground floor running, her small bare feet slapping against the kitchen tile. Maybe she could talk Mom into getting her a black hat and black sunglasses like the cool guys in the Blues Brothers movie wore.

“Gimme some…”

She skidded to a stop beside the wall phone, the words dying on her lips. Mom had been talking on the phone when Jenna got the idea to put on her bathing suit and cool off with the water sprinkler in the backyard. Even though the window air-conditioning units were running, the house still felt hot.

Where was Mom?

Jenna scratched her head, feeling her sloppy ponytail get even messier. Mom wouldn’t like it if Jenna didn’t ask permission. Mom didn’t like much since they moved from the big house in Memphis to this tiny one in Little Rock.

But Jenna so wanted to get wet. Maybe then some of the kids on the street would come over and she’d have friends like she used to in Memphis.

She was about to yell for Mom when she heard a sob. Then another. And another.

Jenna’s heart jumped like the frog she’d seen down by the creek when her brother Jeff took her for a walk. She followed the sounds to the family room and froze.

Mom sat in a chair, her face in her hands, her body sort of shaking. Jeff must have heard Mom first, because he was moving toward her. He looked real sad, like he had on the day they’d left Memphis.

“Are you okay, Mom?” he asked.

Mom’s head jerked up. She wiped at the tears on her cheeks and smiled, but not her happy smile. The smile she’d used when the kid next door asked where Jenna’s daddy was.

“I’m fine, Jeff.”

Jenna was only eight, but she could see that Mom wasn’t fine. Jeff must have known it, too, because he put a hand on Mom’s still-shaking shoulder. Jenna felt so scared she thought she might throw up.

“Was that Dad on the phone?” Jeff asked. A pretty dumb question. Whenever Dad called, Mom usually yelled, mostly about “that woman.”

Mom rubbed her head like it hurt, then shook it. “No, honey.” Her voice was all slow and tired like. “It was your Grandma Wright. She called about your Dad and Margo.”

Jenna grew even more still. They didn’t talk about Margo. Ever. If Dad hadn’t met her, they’d still be living with him in the big house in Memphis and Mom wouldn’t cry so much.

Mom squeezed her eyes tight but tears still ran down her face. “They had a baby girl. Darcy.”

Jenna’s mouth dropped open. She knew that Margo had a son about her age, but Jenna couldn’t picture her with a baby. Jenna had only seen Margo once, in front of a restaurant back when Mom and Dad were still married. Margo didn’t look like a mom. She looked like a model in a magazine.

“Grandma wanted to tell you Dad won’t be coming to visit this weekend after all,” Mom said.

Jenna’s stomach felt like it dropped to the floor and splattered. Since they moved to Little Rock, Dad had only been to see them once. Jenna didn’t remember exactly when that was but it had been cold enough that she’d been wearing her red winter jacket.

And now Dad wasn’t coming to visit because of the baby who was making Mom cry.

Maybe Dad loved the baby more than he loved her and Jeff. Jenna got a yucky feeling behind her eyes and blinked hard a couple times to try to get rid of it.

“I’m going upstairs for a little while.” Mom squeezed Jeff’s hand, then got slowly out of the chair.

Mom took the other way out of the family room, away from where Jenna still stood. But the house was so small that Jenna heard Mom sobbing again on the stairs. Jeff left the house, the screen door leading to the cement back porch banging shut.

Jenna blinked some more, then followed him outside. Jeff would make things better. He always did.

She found him sitting in the shade on the cracked top step, staring at the water spraying from the sprinkler. He barely glanced at Jenna when she sat down beside him.

“I heard you and Mom talking,” she said.

“Then you know about the baby.” His voice sounded funny, like he was trying not to cry, too. Her heart jumped again, like that frog was trapped inside her. Jeff had just turned thirteen. She hadn’t heard him cry in forever.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Mom said they named her Darcy.”

“A dumb name for a dumb baby,” Jeff spat out.

They sat in silence, watching the water soak the brown grass. The grass even smelled dry. Jenna heard birds singing, dogs barking and, in the distance, what sounded like a baby crying.

Jenna liked babies. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that Margo and Dad had one. Their baby would be real tiny so of course Dad had to stay with it in Memphis this weekend. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t come to visit Jenna and Jeff other times.

He might even bring the baby. Before they’d left Memphis, Jenna’s best friend Rachel’s dad had a baby girl with his new wife. Rachel lived with her mom but told Jenna the baby was her sister.

“Jeff,” Jenna asked softly, “is baby Darcy our sister?”

He whirled on her, his face all scrunched up and fierce looking. “No!”

“But if she’s Dad’s baby, wouldn’t she be our—”

“No,” Jeff snapped. “And don’t you ever say that again.”

That horrible feeling behind Jenna’s eyes returned. “But why?”

“Didn’t you hear Mom crying? Dad left her for Margo. He left us for Margo, too.”

“But he still loves—”

“If he loved us, he’d come visit. He loves Margo and the baby now. And Margo’s son, too.”

Jenna tried to stop her tears from coming, but her eyes still got as wet as the grass. She no longer felt like singing a Blues Brothers tune or playing in the sprinkler.

Long moments passed before Jeff awkwardly patted her thigh. “Aw, don’t cry, Jenna. Mom and me are all the family you need.”

For the first time Jenna could remember, Jeff hadn’t made her feel better. That could be because he was crying, too.

Twenty-two years later

CLAY DILLON COVERED his sister Darcy’s much smaller hand with his, hoping the dread flowing through his veins like icy river water hadn’t chilled his skin.

She glanced at him with wide blue eyes, and he tried to convey with his expression that they’d get through this crisis no matter what the news.

Their mother Margo sat rigidly on the opposite side of Darcy, her pink lipstick standing out starkly on a face that had gone pale despite her expertly applied makeup.