haven’t even told him he’s adopted yet.
Devin is everything to her and Gary. They can’t let Erica mess with that. Cheryl gets up and pours herself a glass of white wine.
Later that night, once Devin has gone to bed and Gary is finally home from a dinner meeting, Cheryl takes him down to the TV room in the basement and unloads all her fears. ‘I’m telling you, it was her!’ Cheryl says to her husband.
‘Keep your voice down,’ he tells her in a loud whisper.
‘I don’t think he can hear us down here,’ Cheryl says in a more normal voice.
‘This isn’t good,’ Gary says, looking worried. ‘I don’t trust her. I never have.’
Gary Manning has been very successful, partly because he’s smart and hardworking and partly because he can be quite ruthless – when he needs to be. He hadn’t liked it when this Erica Voss had come into their house and told them to pay her a hundred thousand dollars or she wouldn’t give them her baby. They could have told the agency what she was doing – but then she never would have let them have Devin. If it had been just him, he might have told her to get lost. He wanted the baby; on the other hand, he didn’t like being taken advantage of. But he’d taken one look at his wife, remembered everything she’d been through to get to this point, the years of frustration, anticipation and pain – there was no question, it was all much harder on her than it was on him – and he gave in, just like that, and offered to write the woman a cheque.
He’d been more worried than he cared to admit that she might back out of the deal after she got the money. He hadn’t liked it that she’d forced them to break the law – they would have no recourse if she double-crossed them. But he did it for Cheryl. And now … God, Devin is such a great kid, and they both love him to death. Devin is the best thing that ever happened to them. So he’s never regretted it, not one bit. Devin is theirs, he was meant to be theirs and he will always be theirs. So he doesn’t know what this woman thinks she’s going to do.
She has no legal rights to their son. And he doesn’t think she gives two figs about him or she would have shown up before now.
He tries to tell Cheryl that she doesn’t need to worry; Erica’s not interested in her son. But he’s plenty worried.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
WHEN PATRICK GETS home from work he finds Stephanie pacing the living room. Her hair is a mess, and she looks more distressed than he has ever seen her. ‘Was Erica here?’ he asks suddenly, with a sickening feeling.
She looks at him, her eyes a little wild. ‘No. Why?’
‘You look upset,’ he ventures.
‘Of course I’m upset!’
‘Have you been out today at all?’ he asks, looking around the untidy house, the coffee mug on the floor, the fussing babies that smell like they need a change.
She shakes her head. ‘No. I don’t want to run into her. I’m not going outside again in case she’s out there.’
Patrick’s heart sinks. This is all his fault. His wife is in terrible distress, not herself, and he’s to blame. Erica leaving that gift for the twins on their doorstep seems to have pushed her over the edge. ‘Stephanie, you have to calm down.’
‘How can I calm down?’ she asks, her voice rising. ‘Your ex-lover might be a psychopath and she’s trying to destroy us. I can’t leave the house because she might be waiting for me! I’m a prisoner in my own fucking house!’
She looks back at him wildly; he’s never seen her like this. She’s completely losing it. ‘Honey,’ he says, his voice breaking, ‘you just need to get some sleep.’
‘Yes, I need to get some sleep,’ she agrees. ‘But that’s not going to make all of this go away, is it?’
He looks back at her in alarm. He needs her on his side. He can’t do this alone.
Suddenly she says, ‘Patrick, why did you marry me?’
‘What? What are you talking about?’
She repeats tearfully, her voice anguished, ‘Why did you marry me?’
‘Because I love you. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, you know that! This – this is – you’re just overtired, Steph, you’re not thinking straight.’
The twins begin to cry and the din is soon