over it within hours. Then everyone would know.
The phone’s sharp burr split the silence, making his heart leap. He pushed back his chair and went to the phone in the kitchen. Caller ID indicated that the number was unavailable. He started to walk away when he heard Daria’s voice leaving a message on the answering machine.
“Travis, it’s Daria. I’m trying to reach Cole. Carla said he wasn’t in the office yesterday, and I need to talk to him right away. If you happen to come home for lunch could you—”
Cole grabbed the handset. “Daria?”
“Cole, thank God you’re there.” She started to cry. “Somehow the Kansas City Star got hold of our story, and it’s plastered all over this morning’s paper. I haven’t seen the Eagle, but I’m afraid it will be in there, too.”
“I saw it, Dar. But it’s not in the Eagle. Not today’s anyway.”
“Oh, Cole, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do, Daria. Word is traveling pretty fast here, so it won’t be news to anybody in Bristol anyway. If the Eagle prints it, they print it. Have Nate or his parents seen the Star?”
“I haven’t talked to them this morning, but I’m sure they have. Reporters were crawling all over the hospital yesterday, so we were all expecting something.”
He cleared his throat. “So did you see him?”
“Yes…I saw him.” She spoke so softly that he had to strain to hear her.
“And?”
“It was terrible. Jack and Vera hadn’t told him that I remarried!”
“You’re kidding—”
“They just assume that Natalie and I are going to move in with them—and Nathan.”
Did her words mean that she thought the Camfields’ assumption to be unlikely? A spark of hope ignited in him. “Did you tell him, Daria? That we’re married?”
“Yes. He was going to—” Cole could sense that she’d been about to say something but changed her mind. “When I realized that he didn’t know, of course I told him.”
“About the baby, too?”
“No, Cole. I didn’t tell him that. He was so upset about the other news that the nurses had to sedate him.”
There was silence on the line between them. Then she said abruptly, “Oh, Jack said pretty much the same thing Dennis told you.”
“Which was—”
“That my marriage to you is the legal one.”
He wished he could see her face. Her voice was expressionless. He wished she would say, “Cole, honey, we’re safe. Everything is okay. Thank God, nothing’s changed. I’m still your wife.” But she didn’t.
“Do you want me to call your parents and warn them about the news story?” he asked, eager to change the subject.
“I already called them. I know Nattie isn’t big enough to understand, but I didn’t want them to freak out when they read it and end up scaring her.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, not knowing what else to say.
More silence. Finally he asked, “When are you taking Natalie? To the hospital, I mean.”
“Well, Nate is supposed to be discharged today or tomorrow, so I’ll wait and bring her to Jack and Vera’s later this week. It’ll be easier for her there—on familiar territory.”
“Will you go back to the hospital today?” he risked.
“I’m afraid to, Cole. I just know there will be reporters everywhere. No, I’m going to start home in just a little bit.”
“Daria,” he asked, closing his eyes, willing her to give him the answer he wanted to hear, “where is home?”
“Don’t ask me that, Cole. Not now. I don’t know.” She started to cry.
“I’m sorry, Dar, I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.”
He could hear her soft weeping on the other end, and he felt like a jerk for causing it.
“I’m sorry, Dar,” he whispered again. “Are you okay? Is everything all right with the baby?”
She whispered a yes and sniffled. “I’d better get going.”
“Be careful on the road,” he said softly.
He hung up without waiting for a reply.
Twenty-Nine
Nate gazed out the passenger window of his father’s car as the Kansas City skyline receded, giving way to flourishing residential neighborhoods west of the city. He marveled again that he was actually back in the United States. The events leading up to his escape and the long journey to Bogotá remained a blur. It seemed they had happened a lifetime ago.
But he remembered clearly the moment Daria had walked into his hospital room. The elation he’d felt at finally seeing her beautiful face again, and at hearing from her own lips that she had borne him a precious daughter.
And today he would meet little Natalie, hold her in his arms. It had