An Act of Persuasion - By Stephanie Doyle Page 0,90
wants me to live with him... This must have been how the Germans felt when they knew Patton was on the other side of the battlefield.”
“Resistance does sound futile.” Mark pinched the last dumpling from the container and popped it in his mouth.
“Was that the last dumpling? Did you seriously eat the last dumpling when there is a pregnant woman in the vicinity?”
“Snooze, lose. Besides, I thought the quart of pork lo mein and the twelve dumplings you already had would have been enough. No?”
Anna patted her stomach. “Well, it does leave me room for dessert.”
“Stop changing the subject. What are you going to do about Ben?”
“I’m probably going to lose.” Hell, she’d already lost. The idea of going home tonight and him not being there was unimaginable. He was making her ridiculously happy, and she simply had to find a way to deal with the fear.
“Probably?”
“Definitely. He’ll win. I’ll cave. It will take a few months, but I’ll start to realize he doesn’t feel about me the way I feel about him and I’ll have my heart crushed.”
“Honestly, though, is a lifetime of a one-sided love really that long to endure?”
Anna knew Mark was teasing her, but she wanted to kill him right now. Or at least wipe the smug look off his face.
“Listen, all kidding aside, I think you’re not giving Ben enough credit. Forget the fact that the guy bought you a house in case he died. I’ve known him a long time, too, and I never once saw him lose his control. The night he broke his own rule and knocked you up...that’s unprecedented.”
Was it? When he thought he might die? The bottom line was that Anna was afraid it no longer mattered. Letting him go, or trying to walk away from him a second time didn’t seem humanly possible.
“It doesn’t matter. I know what’s coming, but I’m not quite willing to surrender the battle yet. If he wants to move in with me, then he’s going to have wait until I’m ready. Besides, he’s got this really ugly sofa in his home office that I know he’ll want to bring with him and I hate it.”
Not the memories on it, of course. Those were precious. But the couch looked like an overstuffed piece of beige nothingness.
“There’s a reason to put your life in stasis. You don’t like his taste in furniture.”
She glared at Mark. “If you hadn’t eaten the last dumpling, I would have thrown it at you.”
“Yeah, right. As if you would waste the food.”
“Okay, well, how about we move on to another topic. Have you made any progress finding my birth parents?”
“Absolutely. I’ve got several leads. I’m tracking them down and making excellent progress.”
“Are you lying?”
“Yes. You know that’s what I say to all my clients when I’ve got zilch. I’ve been tied up with the Anderson case. Because it was a high-profile cold case, the sheriff of Montgomery County was anxious to have my input. I feel like I had to put my energies there first.”
“No, of course. You did great work on that case. Based on what you found the coroner confirmed it wasn’t a suicide as previously thought. Sally Anderson was murdered and now she has a chance for justice.”
“If the sheriff or I can find her killer. The trail is like an iceberg at this point.”
“You’ll do it.”
“Such confidence. But I guess that’s what I do...bring justice to the masses.”
He was laughing at himself in a self-deprecating way, but Anna didn’t discount the importance of Mark’s successes. “You know you might consider telling Sophie about some of the work you’ve done and, more importantly, some of the cases you’ve solved.”
“You think she would listen?”
“I think if I was a girl who didn’t know her father—oh, wait, I am that girl—and I learned he was one of the good guys, then, yeah, that might make a difference.”
“Is that why you are anxious to find them? Because you’re hoping they might be good guys in the end?”
No, Anna couldn’t expect that. She knew her father had left before her mother abandoned her so that automatically ruled him out of the good-guy category. Then knowing what her mother was and what her mother did, Anna didn’t think there could be a happy ending in any of this. She simply had this need to know what happened. Maybe so she could have certainty that it couldn’t happen again. Not to her child anyway.
“Not anxious...only curious I guess. I went so long without thinking