His Long-Lost Family. Brenda Harlen
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Название: His Long-Lost Family
Автор: Brenda Harlen
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9781472005168
isbn:
But that wasn’t Jack’s future. When his marriage ended, he figured any chance of someday having a family had ended with it. And truthfully, he hadn’t been too disappointed. The whole wife-and-kids thing had never been his life’s ambition. But now it seemed he had a kid, whether he wanted one or not. And right now, he was leaning in the direction of “not.” He wasn’t proud to admit it, and he knew it wasn’t what Kelly wanted to hear, but it was true. He was thirty-seven years old, content with his life. Adding a child to the mix now would turn everything upside down.
Not that it was his choice to make. The fact of Ava’s paternity wasn’t something that could be debated. A test would either prove that he was her father or—dammit, he knew there wasn’t any “or.” In his gut, he knew that Kelly was telling the truth. The fact that she hadn’t faltered or flinched when he’d demanded proof of paternity convinced him that she had absolutely no doubt that he was the father of her child. Which meant that he had to accept not just the possibility but the probability that her twelve-year-old daughter was also his daughter.
He knew his responsibilities, at least in so far as the law was concerned. Despite Kelly’s claim that she didn’t want financial support, he understood that a father had a legal obligation to contribute toward his child’s maintenance—to ensure that she had food, clothing and shelter. And he would do so.
It was his rights more than his responsibilities that gave him pause. He was more than willing to write checks, but did he want to play any more of a role in the child’s life beyond that?
His practice in the field of family law had demonstrated to him time and time again that some people instinctively knew what it took to be good parents, and some people didn’t. And he’d often wished that those who didn’t would realize it before they made the mistake of procreating.
His brother, Matt, had always wanted to be a father, and when his girlfriend of only a few weeks told him she was pregnant, he hadn’t hesitated to marry her. He’d been a doting husband, catering to Lindsay’s every want and need—and thrilled beyond belief when Liam was born. Three years later, Lindsay admitted that Liam wasn’t really Matt’s son, that she’d already been pregnant when she seduced him. She’d chosen Matt because she knew he would want to be a father to her child, but once Liam’s real father was back in the picture, she wanted to be with him. Considering his brother’s experience, was it any wonder Jack was skeptical of Kelly’s claim?
Not that the experience had sidetracked Matt from his ultimate goal of having a family of his own. Not for too long anyway. Once he got over Lindsay’s betrayal and the loss of his son, he’d jumped with both feet into a relationship with his beautiful neighbor—a widow with three kids. In fact, Jack had stood up for Matt at his wedding to Georgia only a few weeks earlier, and though Shane and Quinn and Pippa weren’t Matt’s biological children, Jack knew his brother couldn’t love those kids any more if they were.
Which only proved to Jack how different he was from his brother. When faced with the news that he was a father, he didn’t feel the least bit paternal, just panicked. After his divorce, he’d accepted that fatherhood wasn’t in the cards for him and moved on. And he’d felt no twinges of loss or regret. In fact, he’d been grateful that he and Sara hadn’t had any children to fight over during the divorce. Not that they’d fought over much of anything. By the time she’d filed for divorce, it was obvious to both of them that whatever passion they’d once shared had long since burned out. Neither of them cared enough to take issue over anything.
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