LITMIR.BIZ

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1

      Five years later

       Winchester, Virginia

      Sandy-haired Dennis Lowell bounced his way into the small hospital, a huge smile on his face. He was the father of a baby girl. He hadn’t seen her yet, but he knew she was going to be the most beautiful baby in the whole world. What, he wondered, had he done to deserve this happiness? His dark brown eyes sparkled at the thought.

      Names for his new offspring flitted through his mind. He had been unable to get Allison to settle on one before she gave birth. He rather thought it was because she didn’t want to be committed to a girl’s name, then deliver a baby boy. Well, she wasn’t going to be able to procrastinate much longer. A baby’s name was going to go on the birth certificate. He hoped she’d go with Olivia—after his mother. But in the end, it didn’t matter what the choice was. He was just grateful that the newborn was healthy and had all her toes and fingers.

      Dennis straightened his tie, smoothed back his thinning hair, and took a deep breath as he made his way to the maternity ward. Childishly, he crossed his fingers, hoping that Allison would welcome him with a smile. But he knew in his gut there would be no smile. Possibly, a tirade awaited him. When the call had come into the office, he’d been going over a very muddled tax return with a client. A high-profile, high-paying client. There was no way he could bolt out of the office leaving a client so furious at the Internal Revenue Service. That had been three hours ago. His brand-new daughter was already three hours old, and he hadn’t so much as seen her.

      No, there would be no smile on Allison’s face.

      He stood outside the door of his wife’s room. He could hear voices inside. He frowned. Was it possible his wife had visitors so soon? Maybe it was a nurse, and they were cooing over the new baby. He brightened a little at the thought.

      Dennis knocked softly. At the same time, he pasted a smile on his face and pressed down on the latch of the door handle. He tried for a joke, but it felt sickly even to him when he said, “Ready or not, here comes the new father!”

      Dennis took it in all at once; two strange men standing at the foot of the bed, his wife sitting propped up in the bed like a princess and, of course, the nurse, a red-haired, red-faced woman who looked to be flushed with anger. There was no sign of a bassinet or his new daughter. He looked around, instinctively knowing something was wrong. He managed to gasp out one word. “Baby?”

      “Dennis, it was nice of you to come. It’s been, what, four hours since I had the baby.”

      Dennis looked at his watch. “Three and a half hours,” he managed to croak. The fear he was feeling escalated as he looked at the nurse and her cartful of medical equipment as well as medicines. The men had briefcases. What did that mean? Suddenly he felt light-headed in the small private room they couldn’t afford but Allison had insisted on. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he recognized one of the men standing by the foot of the bed. He’d seen him at the Rotary Club. A lawyer. What the hell was a lawyer doing in his wife’s hospital room? The other one must be a lawyer, too. What the hell were two lawyers doing there? Whatever it was, he knew instinctively it wasn’t going to be good for him.

      Allison’s voice was cool and detached when she made the introductions. “Dennis, this is Jason Carmichael and his partner, Oliver Barrows. They are my attorneys. I’m divorcing you and giving you sole custody of the baby. These two gentlemen will handle all the details. I don’t want anything from you. You can keep the house, the cars, and what little we have in the bank. When I’m discharged, I’m walking away from here, and you’ll never see me again.”

      Dennis looked around for a chair. There wasn’t one. He struggled with the words he’d just heard. “I don’t understand” was the best response he could manage. He felt the red-faced nurse’s hand on his arm. It felt warm and comforting, but it did nothing to take away the dizzy feeling. He wondered if he was going to make a fool of himself and pass out.

      Allison’s voice turned ice cold. “It’s simple, really, Dennis. Things haven’t been right between us for a long time. The pregnancy never should have happened. You knew I didn’t want to have children. So I’m giving you the child I never wanted. I no longer want to be married to you. I can’t make it any more simple. Now, if you’ll just sign the papers, these gentlemen will handle everything. Grow up, Dennis. This isn’t a fairy tale. I don’t want to be your princess, and I no longer want to live in a cracker box. With or without you. I do not want to be a mother. I want to be myself and live a life of my own choosing.”

      Dennis’s head was still spinning as he tried to absorb all that he was hearing. He wondered who was paying for these attorneys. What a stupid thought. He looked at the two men, who were eyeballing him. One offered him a pen, and he scrawled his name, as directed, in about ten different places. He heard his wife’s sigh of relief. He looked over at the nurse, whose eyes were full of pity. She led him from the room.

      In the antiseptic hallway, the nurse took his arm and steered him toward the nursery. She pointed to a small pink bassinet and smiled. “Everything happens for a reason, Mr. Lowell. That’s how you have to look at things right now.”

      Dennis pressed his face against the glass and stared at the tightly wrapped pink bundle. His daughter. Tears rolled down his cheeks. “I’ll do my best…Olivia.”

      When the nurse tugged at his arm, he looked up. “You should go home now, Mr. Lowell, and…and…make some plans. You should be able to take your new daughter home at the end of the week. You need to prepare.”

      Dennis turned to walk back to his wife’s room. He wanted an explanation. The nurse tugged on his arm again. “Your wife left instructions that you weren’t to be permitted any other visiting privileges. Just the one. I’m truly sorry, Mr. Lowell.”

      “Yeah. Yeah, me too.”

      Dennis left the hospital in a daze. The nurse was right, he had to make plans. Serious plans.

      His shoulders slumped with misery, his eyes wet, Dennis drove home, still trying to make sense of what had just happened to him and his brand-new daughter.

      Chapter 2

      He was her client.

      A superrich paying client.

      And, said client was ticked off, big-time.

      A murderous glint in her eyes, Olivia Lowell took one step backward, then another. “I refuse to tolerate this type of behavior, Cecil. I will not be intimidated. I was told you were a gentleman. Ha!”

      Alice, the West Highland terrier at Olivia’s feet, barked shrilly and showed her teeth. “She’s a killer, Cecil, so it might behoove you to rethink your actions. Now, what’s it going to be? Be aware that I am a woman whose biggest failing in life is my lack of patience.”

      Cecil eyed the woman standing in front of him, then the yapper at her feet. And he did what any red-blooded Yorkshire terrier would do. He lay down, rolled over, and barked. Happily. Bounding back up on all fours, he raced across the studio, whirled, twirled, and did a hind-leg jig. His one and only trick. Alice ran after him and somehow managed to swat his rear end with one furry paw. They ended up tussling on the studio floor.

      “Now look at you, Cecil! The executors of your owner’s estate are not going to like this. I need to take your picture, so let’s get with it. You’re big news, Cecil. You just inherited the Manning fortune. You’re going to live a life of luxury. Don’t you want to get your due? It isn’t every day a fortune lands in a dog’s lap. C’mon, let me take your picture. I promise it will be painless,” Olivia pleaded.

      Cecil hopped onto a stool and did his jig again, to Alice’s dismay. Olivia resigned herself to the fact that she wasn’t going to get a portrait of the famous dog but would have to go with action shots, which probably wasn’t a bad thing at all. She’d tried to explain to the dog’s handler, a lawyer named Jeff Bannerman, that Cecil had a mind of his own, but he refused to listen. What Bannerman had said was something to the effect that you’re supposed to be the best

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