LITMIR.BIZ

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      The voices were swirling around Gayle Smith, and at first they didn’t make any sense. She frowned, trying to get this straight. The baby she was carrying wasn’t her late husband’s? How could this be?

      “We are so sorry, Mrs. Smith. Nothing like this has ever happened here at Jollaire Medical Labs before.”

      She shook her head, as though she could shake some sense into it. They had to be wrong. This was impossible. But the faces that stared down at her all had such worried looks on them.

      “The lab assistant involved has been fired….”

      “If you would please sign this release form and…”

      She winced and pulled back. The doctors were crowding her. She’d dealt with most of them over the long weeks of attempting to get pregnant, and she’d liked them all. They’d seemed caring and friendly. They’d been especially compassionate when her husband had died suddenly and left her alone to follow through on the childbearing plans they’d laid together. But now these people looked like strangers.

      And she was alone. Without her husband here beside her to help make sense of this, without anyone in her corner, she felt badgered and isolated. A deep, lonesome feeling filled her soul, the same feeling she remembered from her childhood when she’d often been left alone in the isolated Alaskan cabin where she’d been raised. She winced and put her hands protectively over the rounded belly that held her child, fighting back that familiar feeling of desolation.

      “We’re here to help you in any way we can….”

      She took a deep breath, steadying herself. This was no time to panic. She raised her hand automatically to smooth back her auburn curls, and the short, very round man in front of her flinched, as though he expected to be hit.

      She stared at him. They had done something terrible. And now, what did they want from her?

      “Please sign this form, right here by the X.”

      The voices were becoming more insistent, but this was no time to sign forms and make decisions. She could hardly think clearly. She had to get away from them all so she could think this through.

      She rose from her chair, headed for the door and stumbled from the room, resisting their efforts to stop her.

      A mistake. The words echoed in her head. A mistake. A mistake.

      It didn’t make sense. Things like this just didn’t happen. No matter how they tried to explain it to her, she couldn’t quite get her mind around it. This had to be—ha!—a mistake.

      She almost released a slightly hysterical laugh, but she didn’t get a chance to, because there was a great big man with very wide shoulders standing in her way. She looked up at him, blinking as she tried to make him out, because at first his face was obscured by the light spiking in from the bank of windows behind him, creating a halo effect.

      “Mrs. Smith?” the man was saying, looking down at her.

      His face came into focus. She looked at him blankly, uncomprehending. He wasn’t wearing a white coat and she didn’t remember having seen him here before, so she didn’t think he was one of the doctors. Was he going to apologize for the mistake, too?

      Maybe not. He didn’t look as scared as the others did. In fact, he was gazing at her with dark eyes that gleamed with a certain calm confidence, a sense of assurance she only wished she had at the moment.

      He took her hand in both of his, as though to comfort and protect her. His touch was solid, strong,

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