Westin Family Ties

She took another deep breath. “I know. But that wasn’t enough for me, and you knew it when we got married.”

“But then you didn’t come back. You didn’t tell me where you were. You just disappeared.”

“That wasn’t the original plan,” she said, pacing because she couldn’t bear to stand still. “I just needed a few days to think and make some kind of decision. But then I discovered I was pregnant, and after our argument I didn’t know how to go home.”

“You could have driven down our road. That would have been a start.”

“And presented you with the one thing you made it clear you didn’t want?”

“I can’t believe this. I am not your father. I am not the kind of man who turns his back when things don’t go his way. You know that.” He narrowed his eyes again. “You didn’t think I could change, did you?”

She stared at him a second, then she nodded. “That’s not exactly true. I just knew if I came back pregnant you’d have to change, so I couldn’t trust that the change would be real.”

He rubbed his jaw as he stared at her, another gesture imprinted on her heart. “I seem to be in a no-win situation. All I really know for sure is you should have talked to me. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead.”

“I’m sorry about that, I truly am. I took the chicken way out.”

“When my detective reported someone else was using your car and identification, what was I supposed—”

He continued on but she couldn’t hear him over the roar in her ears. He’d hired a detective to find her? Of course—how else would he have found out about Emma Kruger? The news that he hadn’t sat on his pride ’til hell froze over as his father would have done came as a shock, and on top of all the other shocks of the week she felt her knees buckle.

And then his hands were under her elbows, supporting her, and his eyes showed concern. “Maybe you should sit down—”

“Maybe you should leave,” she said, stepping away from him, holding on to the back of a chair, unwilling to sit.

The silence stretched on until he took a deep, shuddering breath. “Come home with me now, Cassie. Let me help you through the next couple of months.”

“I know you want to help, but don’t you understand? I don’t want to raise a family with someone who resents me. I don’t want this baby to be my mistake and your burden. He or she deserves so much more.”

She turned away from him to give her eyes a rest. Looking at him was agony. To love him, to want him, and yet to know he didn’t really want the very center of her heart, the essence of her life…

Had she always wanted things Cody couldn’t give? Had she always been blinded by her own feelings?

“I don’t know what else to say,” he murmured.

“You’ve already said everything,” she said, turning back to face him. “It’s funny, I guess. I dreamed of the moment you would find me so many times. That you would hold me in your arms and beg me to come back, thrilled I was carrying your child. But you aren’t asking me to come back to you; you’re telling me I’m an obligation. You want me to come back so you’ll feel better, not because it’s what’s best for us.”

His gaze turned stormy. “I thought a lot about this moment, too, Cassie, and in my dreams you weren’t wanted for murder while holding our unborn child hostage to my inability to react exactly how you rehearsed it.”

She started to protest and stopped. Is that what she was doing? Her head began to pound.

“Face it. You’ve gotten yourself into a real mess. You can’t stay here.”

He was right. That was the crux of the problem. Not the baby, not their marriage or their future, but the murder of an old woman and all the events that came afterward.

“Why would Banner say you took jewelry if you didn’t?” Cody added. “He must have known you’d contradict him.”

“He asked to search my suitcase before I left. I had nothing to hide, so I let him.”

“Then the jewelry was actually in your possession.”

“Exactly. There were several pieces stitched into the lining. When he found it, I panicked. The cab was right there and I just couldn’t think further ahead than getting away. I’d seen this apartment for rent during my walks and I knew it would be safe here, so I had the cab drop me at the bus station and then took a city bus back. I’d never felt like a fugitive before.”

“So someone planted the jewelry.”

“Of course. Maybe if I hadn’t bolted…oh, I don’t know. Maybe if I go back to the mansion now and talk to Robert, Mrs. Priestly’s grandson, or Donna, his sister, make them understand, they could get their father to back down. I don’t want Mrs. Priestly’s money, I’ll tell them that. I was going to talk to them this morning when I walked over there, but there were so many people—I’d forgotten about the wake.”

Cody shook his head. “Emerson Banner is aching to sic the police on you. You can’t go back there.”

She pressed her temples with her fingers. “Could you just stop telling me what I can and can’t do?”

He swore under his breath and regarded her from beneath the brim of his hat. “One last time. Come home.”

She shook her head. “Not like this.”

He stared hard at her a moment, then closed his eyes. In that moment he was so vulnerable her heart ached for him. When his eyes flickered open again, she saw he’d summoned the Westin resolve she knew so well.

“I came here ready to give you a divorce if that’s what you wanted,” he said, his gaze straying down to her belly. “It’s pretty obvious, even to me, that you don’t want to be part of my life anymore.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” she said. “I just need to finish this alone. Maybe you could return to Wyoming and let me think and maybe you could figure out how you feel about everything, too.”

“I know how I feel. What if they arrest you?”

“You’ll be my one phone call.”

Again he stared at her. She wished he would hug her and yet hoped he wouldn’t. Did he know he was one touch away from winning?

“We’ll do it your way,” he said. “Do you need money?”

“No. Mrs. Priestly paid me in cash and I hardly ever spent a dime. I’m fine for now.”

“But if the baby comes, a hospital—”

“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about…us.”

He stepped close and touched her cheek. When his lips brushed her forehead, she almost crumbled.

But she didn’t.

“Don’t disappear again.”

“If I decide to slink away in the night it will be from this place and these people, not from you, I promise.” Her breath caught as his fingers drifted away from her face.

“Goodbye, Cassie.”

And then he was gone.

She moved to the window and parted the drapes a little, watching him walk down the sidewalk. It didn’t take too much imagination to picture herself beside him, his arm wrapped around her shoulders…