“The only reason?” Jenna saw exactly what Jack meant. Marti was beautiful and had a good heart. She’d heard the exchange in the hallway with Shelly and thought poor Marti had put up with a lot over the last few weeks.
“No, not the only reason. I’m sure Jack told you I’m in love with Cameron, and he’s in love with me.” She shrugged and got more comfortable on the sofa. Jenna was easy to talk to, and she needed to talk to someone about this mess.
“I’ve tried to convince him, the rest of you have, Shelly is using him. He’s convinced he has to marry her for the baby’s sake.
“I think letting him go would be easier if I truly believed there’s a baby. And if he cared deeply for Shelly. If I knew for sure she’d be a good mother to Emma and the baby.”
“That’s a lot of ifs,” Jenna said. “Shelly is manipulative and deceitful. She’ll do everything she can to make sure this wedding happens.”
“Cameron is just as determined to see it through.”
“You know about Emma’s mother? She died having Emma.”
“I know. Cameron harbors a lot of guilt. He thinks he can alleviate the guilt over losing his wife and leaving Emma motherless by giving the new baby both a mother and father and providing Emma with a mother at the same time. Shelly is no kind of mother at all, and it makes me angry. It breaks my heart to think in a few weeks, I’ll have to leave Emma to Shelly’s care. I won’t have a choice then.”
“None of us will. Jack, Elizabeth, Sam, and I will all have to accept Shelly as Cameron’s wife.
“I can only tell you the rest of us will do our best to watch over Emma. I wonder what will happen if he marries her and finds out later that she isn’t pregnant.”
“I’ve wondered the same thing. I can only say it’ll be his problem. We’ve all tried to tell him.”
Marti didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Cameron said you and Jack went back to Colorado.”
“We did. We go back and forth between here and the ranch. I came back because I promised Cameron I’d take over the charity benefit he sets up every year. It’s the night before ‘the wedding’ and he doesn’t have time to plan both. I need to line up some artwork to display and an auction. The auction is the easy part, Cameron collects things from all over the world all year for the auction.
“I’ve contacted several museums and private collectors to see if I can borrow some art. I wanted to find an artist who is well known and will draw a large crowd, but also has a set of paintings themed around children.”
“Why children?”
“The benefit is for his foundation. He raises money for the neonatal unit at the hospital where Emma was born. She was premature, and they saved her life. He’s had a benefit every year since, and donates all the proceeds to the hospital. The foundation is called the Emma Shaw Foundation.”
“Wow. Very admirable.”
“Yes, and just one more reason he won’t give up on the baby Shelly is carrying. If she’s carrying.”
“Have you had any luck at all getting some art?”
“Lots of people want us to display their work. It’s just, this is a big event in San Francisco, and I’d like to have something spectacular, something that will draw a huge crowd. You know, the kind of crowd with lots of money to donate. Cameron works so hard and travels so much, he can only do this once a year. Whatever he raises now will have to be enough, until he can do it again next year. The hospital would like to update some of their older equipment and hire two more full-time doctors. If we can raise enough money, they can do those things and more. Whatever is left over, Cameron rolls over to the children’s cancer ward.”
“You’ll find what you’re looking for soon.” Marti would make sure of it.
If Jenna wanted a famous artist with a set of canvases depicting a child theme, she knew just who to call. She’d contact the curator of her grandmother’s art collection and have him call Jenna.
“I hope you don’t mind being here with Emma. It’s kind of my fault. I sent Cameron to Japan. Obviously, I didn’t know Emma would get sick. I thought a few days away to clear his head would do him some good.”