Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,33
to know.”
More likely her mother had been desperate for advice from the one person she’d assumed had as big a stake in keeping the secret as she did. Oh, Mom, what have you done? Cassie thought as she stared into that confident gaze. And why didn’t you warn me?
“Does Cole know?”
“Not unless he’s figured it out in the last half hour.”
“Why haven’t you told him?” Understanding dawned. “You haven’t hold him because even now you don’t think I’m good enough for him, because you don’t want him to know that I had his child. You’re afraid he’ll insist on marrying me. That’s why you came between us years ago, sending him back to school, then getting someone to write him a note saying I was breaking it off for good. That was you, wasn’t it?”
Color rose in Frank’s cheeks, but he didn’t deny the accusation. “You two were way too young to get involved. Your mother and I did what we thought was best.”
His words delivered yet another blow. The two of them had conspired, even before they had known about the pregnancy? She felt as if she were standing on a slippery slope and beginning to skid. Nothing seemed certain anymore.
“My mother?” she repeated, needing to understand, praying she was mistaken. “What did she have to do with it?”
“Who do you think wrote the note that Cole got? And who kept his note from you? No way I could keep Berta Smith from delivering it. She takes her duties at the post office real serious. But your mama got it out of the box and ripped it up.”
“Oh, my God,” she whispered, brokenhearted at the thought of the betrayal that had changed not just her life and Cole’s but their son’s, as well. Maybe they wouldn’t have married if Cole had known about the pregnancy, but they’d never had a chance to decide things for themselves. Each had been convinced of the other’s betrayal. As a result the choices had been taken out of their hands.
“Well, the lies are over now,” Frank said, a complacent expression settling on his face. “Cole will know about his son soon enough, and if I know my boy, he’ll be furious that you kept such a secret from him. He’ll fight you for custody.”
Cassie felt sick to her stomach as she realized that even now the man was scheming against her. “That’s what you’re counting on, isn’t it? That he’ll reject me but claim Jake?”
His eyes glittered with satisfaction. “That’s exactly right. You won’t stand a chance of keeping the boy, not in this state.”
If she hadn’t been filled with such white-hot fury, Cassie might have been chilled by his threat or by the triumphant expression on his face. Instead, poking him in the chest, she backed him up against the opposite wall, oblivious to the difference in their sizes, oblivious to anything beyond the outrage that his smug remark had stirred.
“You will never take my boy from me,” she said in a low tone, praying it wouldn’t carry down the hall. “Never. Not if I have to see you in hell first.”
She must not have gotten the right note of warning in her voice, because she could still hear Frank’s chuckle echoing after her as she stormed into Cole’s office to claim her son.
Chapter Eight
Cole had heard Cassie’s raised voice in the hall but couldn’t imagine what she and his father had to fight about, especially since his father had been giving so much lip service lately to the prospect of Cole getting back together with her.
Then their voices had dropped, and he hadn’t given the subject much thought since the boy sitting beside him was hurling questions at him so fast his head was spinning. The kid clearly had an insatiable curiosity when it came to computers, and he was smart, too. Cole didn’t have to talk down to him. Given what Cassie had told him about the trouble Jake had gotten into on a computer, he probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.
When he finally glanced up from the screen and spotted Cassie, his pulse took another one of those wicked lurches. She was wearing a sundress that showed off the satiny skin of her shoulders and her long, shapely calves. Her cheeks were flushed with color and her eyes sparkled dangerously. Whatever she and Frank had been discussing, it had rankled.
“Jake Collins!” she said sternly, avoiding Cole’s gaze altogether.
The boy glanced up at Cole, then gave a resigned