The Baby Switch!. Melissa Senate

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       Chapter Two

      Shelby gasped.

      “That’s impossible,” Liam Mercer said, his gaze narrowed on the administrator, then on Shelby. “Come on.”

      The woman glanced from Shelby to Liam, then said, “In the chaos of the storm, the nurse didn’t follow procedure to secure an identifying bracelet around the male babies until the generator kicked back in. She was positive she’d put Ms. Ingalls’s baby in the left bassinet and Ms. Harwood’s in the right. But because we now know that Shane Ingalls can’t be the child Shelby gave birth to, she thinks she must have made a mistake.”

      Liam stood up, tightening his hold on the baby in his arms. “That’s ridiculous. Like Mr. Dirk said, the blood test results are a mistake. A mislabeled vial, and voilà, mother and baby are suddenly not related. There was no switching of babies.”

      “Mr. Mercer,” Anne Parcells said. “I wish that were the case. However, given that the generator failed at precisely the time when both babies were taken, within minutes of each other, to the pediatric clinic to be weighed and measured and cleaned up, it’s entirely possible that the nurse accidentally switched the babies. I also wish that the blood type issue could be a mistake, but Ms. Ingalls’s blood was drawn twice on prior visits to the clinic during prenatal care—and documented, of course. Her blood type is not compatible with Shane’s.”

      Oh, God. There went her last hope.

      “Entirely possible isn’t good enough,” Liam said, his voice ice-cold. “Either the nurse did switch the babies or she didn’t. If you don’t know for sure, then...” He shook his head, then stared at Anne Parcells. “Wait a minute. Alexander was born here, so you must have his blood type on record and his mother’s. Are they compatible? I’m sure they are.”

      The administrator nodded. “Alexander’s blood type, one of the most common, is a match for Liza Harwood’s. However, it’s also a match for Ms. Ingalls. Which leads to next steps. DNA tests must be conducted.”

      “There,” Liam said, “Alexander’s blood type is compatible with his mother’s. And mine, I’m sure. He’s my son.”

      “You visited the urgent care center twice in the past five years, Mr. Mercer. Your blood type is on record. Your blood type is compatible with Alexander’s, as well.”

      The relief that crossed Liam’s face almost had Shelby happy for him. But she was barely hanging on.

      “This is all some mix-up with Ms. Ingalls and her son’s blood type but it has nothing to do with me.” He looked over at Shelby then, his expression a mix of confusion and worry. Just like the night she’d first seen him. “I don’t mean to sound cavalier at your expense, Ms. Ingalls, but this is a mistake,” he said to her. “It has to be.”

      “He’s right!” Shelby shouted, panic and bile rising. “It’s all a mistake. It has to be a mistake!”

      “There were four babies born the night of November 5,” the director said. “Two boys and two girls. If there was a switch, it was between Shane Ingalls and Alexander Mercer.”

      The lawyers began talking, but Shelby’s ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. As Liam began pacing, she glanced at the baby in his arms—and gasped.

      “What?” Liam asked, freezing, his gaze narrowed on her again.

      “The little birthmark on his ear,” she whispered, standing up. “I have it, too. So does my grandmother.” Norah didn’t have it. Her mother didn’t have it. But Shelby did.

      Everyone peered at the tiny reddish-brown spot on the baby’s earlobe. Then at Shelby’s ear.

      “Oh, for God’s sake. It’s nothing,” Liam said, shifting Alexander in his arms so that he was out of view. “It’s a mark that will fade away.”

      Shelby’s legs shook to the point that she dropped back down in her chair. She stared at Shane’s dark hair, so unlike her own, which was blond. But Shane’s father, a bronc rider she’d foolishly married after a whirlwind courtship and who’d left town with another woman the moment Shelby told him she was pregnant, had Shane’s same dark hair. He had blue eyes, too, just like Shane.

      But the baby in Liam Mercer’s arms was also dark-haired. Also blue-eyed.

      In fact, the babies looked a lot alike, except for the shapes of their faces, and Shane’s features were a little sharper than Alexander’s. Did Shane look like Liam Mercer? Okay, yes. But he also looked a little like Shelby. Even if no one ever commented on that. He must look like his daddy, she’d heard someone say a time or two as they’d peered in Shane’s stroller, then at her.

      She suddenly felt dizzy and put her hand on her lawyer’s chair to brace herself again. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. This could not be happening.

      It was a mistake. Shane was her son.

      Liam’s lawyer also flipped through the paperwork, then looked up. “As there’s no reason to believe that Alexander West Mercer is not my client’s biological child, based on blood type, we’ll await DNA results before any further discussion.”

      Shelby’s lawyer nodded. “We’ll have Shelby’s and Shane’s blood tested for type at a separate facility. Until those results come in, we also will proceed with the understanding that Shane Ingalls is Shelby Ingalls’s biological child.

      Thank God Norah was dating a lawyer. Shelby’s mind was in such a state that she’d never have thought of that.

      “If that is agreeable to both parties,” the administrator said. “Of course I’ll need you both to sign some documents.”

      Shelby stared down at Shane, the voices retreating as everything inside her went numb. She held him as close as she could without squeezing him. He was her son.

      “I saw you,” Liam said, a reluctant awareness edging his deep voice.

      Shelby looked up. Liam was standing in front of her and staring at her.

      “The night Alexander was born,” he said. “I was in the waiting room and you were suddenly wheeled in, but another gurney was blocking the doorway. I was afraid you’d deliver right there in front of me.”

      “I remember,” she said. The sight of you, the way our eyes met, gave me something concrete to focus on.

      “I’d like to confer with my client,” Liam’s attorney said.

      “As would I,” Shelby’s lawyer said.

      Liam and his lawyer stepped to the back of the room. Shelby and hers stayed at the front.

      “Until we have your blood tested again, Shane is your son same as he was a half hour ago,” David said. “Even if the results indicate that you and Shane can’t be biologically related, operate under the assumption that he is your child under the law until the DNA tests are in.”

      He is. He is my son! But she heard herself ask the impossible. “What if he isn’t?” she said, her voice strangled on СКАЧАТЬ