Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby. BEVERLY BARTON

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СКАЧАТЬ he knows something,” Leenie said.

      Kate took a sip of coffee, clutched the mug with both hands and looked right at Leenie.

      “I hope and pray one of those baby boys is Andrew. But while you’re hoping for the best, you have to prepare yourself for the worst.”

      “I don’t know if I can do that. I don’t want to think about what it’ll mean if—”

      “It doesn’t mean you have to give up hope. As long as you don’t have proof that Andrew is dead, then no one can take your hope away from you,” Kate said emphatically.

      Leenie stared at Kate, puzzled by the fierceness in her voice, by the resolute certainty of her statement. “What is it that you still hope for, Kate?”

      Gripping the mug she held as if it were her anchor in a stormy sea, Kate closed her eyes for a split second, then opened them and looked directly at Leenie again. “I hope that out there somewhere, my little girl is alive and well and somebody is loving her and taking good care of her.”

      Rendered speechless by Kate’s honesty, Leenie gaped soundlessly, her heartbeat drumming in her ears. Although she had suspected Kate had lost a child, hearing her admit it tore at Leenie’s heart. “Was your child…your daughter kidnapped?”

      “Yes. Mary Kate was barely two months old when it happened.”

      Kate inhaled and exhaled slowly. Leenie figured the deep breathing technique was a tool Kate used to keep her emotions in check. Despite her in-control-at-all-times facade, Kate occasionally let her vulnerability show. And Leenie liked her all the more for those tiny lapses.

      “Mary Kate was kidnapped eleven years ago,” Kate said. “At the time, we thought she’d been taken for ransom because my husband—my ex-husband now—is a member of a very wealthy and prominent family.”

      “But she wasn’t taken for ransom?”

      Kate shook her head. “The FBI was brought in, of course, and we waited for the call or the letter to tell us how much money the kidnappers wanted. But there was no call. No letter. Trent hired a private firm to search for our daughter, but they never found her, of course. And after a while, Trent convinced himself that Mary Kate was dead.”

      “What made him think she was—”

      “Nothing in particular. I believe it was the only way he could cope with what had happened. He loved her as much as I did. We just coped with her loss in different ways.” Kate set the mug on the table and laid her hands flat against the wooden surface on either side of the mug. “We argued about it day and night. I told him he was wrong to give up hope and he told me I was living in a fantasy world if I thought we’d ever find Mary Kate, that she was dead.”

      “It’s apparent that you never changed your mind, that you still believe your child is alive. Did your exhusband ever come around to your way of thinking?”

      “No. And that, along with his family’s interference and Trent’s feelings of guilt and my feelings of guilt…and the endless arguments, destroyed our marriage. We’ve been divorced ten years now. And I haven’t seen him since the divorce became final.”

      “But you still love him, don’t you?”

      Kate laughed, the sound mirthless, stilted. “Now who’s the romantic?”

      “You’ve never remarried, have you? That means something.”

      “It means I’m afraid of being hurt,” Kate admitted. “Besides, most men want children and I know that I could never have another child and risk losing her or him. The pain is too great.” Kate gasped. “Oh, God, Leenie, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

      Leenie reached across the table and grasped Kate’s hand in hers. “We haven’t lost Andrew. Just as you have somehow managed to keep the faith for eleven years, I’m not giving up hope. Not now, after only a few days. And not ever. If I keep telling myself over and over again that one of those babies the abduction ring is putting up for sale is Andrew, then it will be. It has to be!”

      Kate squeezed Leenie’s hand. “Yes, it will be.”

      “And someday you’ll find your daughter.”

      “I believe Mary Kate is alive. If she weren’t, I’d know it, wouldn’t I? In my mother’s heart. Wouldn’t you know if—Oh, damn, I keep saying all the wrong things.”

      “No, you don’t,” Leenie assured her. “I understand what you mean. But I honestly don’t know if my believing Andrew is alive is because I’d know in my heart if he wasn’t, or if it’s because I simply cannot accept the possibility that…” Leenie paused, her emotions so raw she feared bursting into tears. “I can’t even say it.”

      “Then don’t say it. Don’t even think it.”

      “I wouldn’t want to live in a world without Andrew.” Leenie clenched her teeth tightly, determined not to cry.

      Kate squeezed her hand again. They looked at each other, tears misting their eyes, their deepest, darkest fears kept just below the surface.

      Frank paced the floor in the Memphis FBI office on Humphreys Blvd. He’d drunk the equivalent of three pots of coffee since he’d arrived this morning and he’d all but worn a hole in the floor. It was nearly three-thirty. Where the hell was Moran? The last word they’d had from the agents involved in the operation was around noon and Frank had been privy to the information only because Moran had personally okayed it. All Frank knew was that the two male infants had been taken into FBI custody and were being checked by a local pediatrician. From overhearing snippets of conversation that the office personnel didn’t share with him, Frank had figured out that arrests were being made, the ringleaders of the abduction ring gathered up, along with the lawyers involved in the illegal adoptions.

      As much as Frank appreciated the importance of the bureau’s great victory in this case, what mattered most to him was finding out if one of those babies was his son. Leenie’s son. If only there was some way to find out, if only there was something he could do. But all he could do was wait. And hope. And pray. He’d done more praying these past few days than he’d done all his life. But he supposed when things seemed hopeless was the time a man was most likely to turn to prayer. Frank had known hopelessness before, but not helplessness.

      He knew that the feds weren’t deliberately keeping any pertinent information about his son from him. During this case, Moran had shared more confidential info than was probably legal and Frank appreciated that fact. And he believed that Moran would let him know something about the babies just as soon as either could be identified as Andrew, or both could be ruled out as his and Leenie’s son. The federal agents had regulations and procedures they had to follow and even though Moran had bent a few rules lately, he couldn’t give Frank information he didn’t have. Not yet. But soon. It was only a matter of waiting on a definite ID for both baby boys.

      A flurry of activity occurred outside Moran’s office where Frank had been waiting impatiently. Doors slammed, voices rose and suddenly Moran came barreling into his office, a wide smile on his face.

      “We got ‘em,” Moran said. “Every slimy, fat-cat, freaking bastard. We took them down from the top. We arrested twenty people, including the four masterminds and three of their lawyers.” He slapped Frank on the back. “By God, it’s over. And now we’ve got ourselves СКАЧАТЬ