Heir to Scandal

“Craig was like that. I think that was half the reason he ended up getting a job at a fast-food place. He ate most of his salary.”

Rose could see the lights of the hospital in the distance. Xander slowed down and pulled into the parking lot near the emergency-room entrance. He found a spot and turned off the engine. She was anxious to get inside to Joey, but she could sense a hesitation in Xander. She waited a moment and at last he spoke.

“Rose, why didn’t you mention that you had a son before? We’ve been talking for hours. I would think that would come up in the conversation.”

Panic seized her, tightening her chest like a vise clamped on to her lungs. Her mind raced for an answer. “Honestly, tonight was about being back in high school again.” These words were true, if not entirely so. “You were attracted to me, just like the old days. I didn’t want to ruin the fantasy of our reunion by mentioning I was a single mother.”

“Why would that ruin it?”

Rose shrugged. “Because then I’m not the sexy girl from high school. I’m the single mother you used to date, complete with her own set of baggage.”

“Everyone has baggage.”

Boy, didn’t she know it. Joey wasn’t even the half of it. “I’m sorry not to bring him up. I’d better get inside. Thank you for driving me.”

Rose reached for the handle of the door but realized as she climbed out that Xander was getting out, too. Was he coming in with her? Why would he do that? Damn it. He was too thoughtful.

She rounded the hood of the car and stepped into his path. “You don’t need to go in with me.”

“I know that.” He ignored her protests and took her elbow, guiding her toward the building. “You’re upset. I’m going to walk you inside.”

With every step closer to the door, Rose could feel the noose tightening around her neck. There was no way that Xander would be able to look at her son and not realize the truth. Until he was about four, Joey had been a towhead and looked more like her sister than anyone. That and distance from Cornwall had bought her time from questions. But now Joey was so much the image of his father that sometimes it was painful for Rose to look at him. They had the same light brown hair, the same wide golden-hazel eyes. Joey had her nose and lighter complexion, but everything else was his father, especially as he got older. In a few years, he’d develop the same strong build and square jaw.

If Xander went into the patient area with her, there’d be no hiding it. Or denying it. As they pushed past the information desk into the E.R. waiting room, she wondered if she should stop and tell him the truth. Put an end to the hiding and the worries. At the very least, warn him before they got inside. They were in the middle of a crowded emergency room, surrounded by strangers with a variety of injuries and infectious diseases. It wasn’t the ideal place or time, but when exactly was? She couldn’t go back eleven years and change things. She either had to tell him or send him home. At least here there were too many witnesses for him to kill her.

“Xander?” She hesitated outside the door that would lead to the pediatric triage area. “Before I go in there, I need to tell you something.”

“Right now?” His brow knit together in concern. “Don’t we need to get back there to Joey?”

“I do,” she said. This was the moment. She could confess. The words were on the tip of her tongue. Then she chickened out. “But you don’t. Please go home. It’s late.”

Xander frowned, his hazel eyes searching her face for answers. “Why do you—?”

“Rose!” The triage door opened and Craig came out.

“We’re coming,” Xander replied.

The expression on Craig’s face was unmistakable. Her brother was not Xander’s biggest fan. He’d been around all these years, acting as Joey’s surrogate father. He probably blamed Xander for not being there, although it wasn’t his fault. Rose hadn’t told Xander about the pregnancy, because he deserved a better life. He would’ve walked away from his scholarship to stay in Cornwall and marry her. He would’ve given up his dreams of a life in politics to work some low-pay unskilled job and support his family.

She wouldn’t ask that of him. And she certainly didn’t want to ask him to take her back just for the sake of their child after she’d pushed him away. But maybe now that he was a success and Joey was older, the time had come. Fate seemed to be nudging her in that direction.

None of that mattered to Craig. As far as he was concerned, Xander was guilty of having sex with his little sister and that was crime enough. “We?”

“Of course,” Xander said. “I’m not just going to drop her on the curb and call our date done because her son is hurt.”

“Her son,” Craig repeated with a smirk. His gaze met Rose’s and she felt the urge to shrivel up into herself and disappear. Craig had figured out that Xander didn’t know the truth yet. Fireworks were about to fly in the E.R. and he would have a front-row seat. He shouldn’t look so damn smug about it, though.

“Shush, Craig. Come on.” Resolved to her fate, she took Xander’s hand and pulled him behind her. “Where’s Joey?”

Craig pointed down the hallway. “He’s in the fourth bed down on the pediatric side.” He started down the corridor and they both followed.

“Mom!”

The minute her broken child came into view, everything else that was going on no longer mattered. She let go of Xander and rushed over to her son’s bedside. They had his left arm in a sling to keep him from moving it.

She hugged him gently and brushed his damp hair back to press a kiss on his forehead. His skin was pale and moist from coping with the pain. “Hi, baby. How are you?”

“I’m doing a little better,” he said with a weak smile. “They gave me some medicine and it doesn’t hurt anymore. I also can’t feel my lips.”

Rose smiled. “That’s good. Did they take X-rays yet?”

“No,” Craig interrupted. “They’re coming to do that in a minute.”

Rose nodded but refused to turn and look at Xander. Not yet. She wanted to focus entirely on making sure her son was okay. That was the most important thing.

“Hey, everyone,” one of the nurses said, parting the curtains around his bed. She pushed a wheelchair over to where Rose was standing. “I’m going to take Big Shot here over to X-ray to get a look at this arm.”

Rose and the nurse helped Joey out of bed and got him settled into the chair. “Do I need to go with him?” She desperately hoped the answer would be yes.

“No, it’s better for you all to stay out here. We’ll be back in about fifteen or twenty minutes. Take a break. Get a drink. It will be a long night.”

Rose watched the nurse roll Joey away. The minute the chair rounded the corner, she heard Xander’s quiet, even voice from the other side of the hospital bed.

“I think we need to have a talk, Rose.”

She took a deep breath. The moment had come. She had been waiting eleven long years to finally unburden herself of this secret. Unfortunately, it was the kind of secret that was harder to tell the longer you waited. Now she didn’t have a choice. Rose nodded softly and shot a glance at her brother that said in no uncertain terms that he was to get out.

Craig gave her a disappointed look and started backing away. “I’m going to go see what they have in the gift shop. Text me if you need me.” He disappeared down the hallway.

Now it was just the two of them. And the truth.

“Rose...” His voice trailed off in near disbelief. His palm rubbed over his face, then back over his hair. His hazel gaze was near penetrating as he focused it on her. “Do you have something you need to tell me?”

“I think you already know, Xander. Yes, Joey is your son.”

* * *

The room felt as if it were spinning around him. Xander reached out and steadied himself on the footboard of the hospital bed. He tried to take a deep breath, but his chest was too tight to draw in the air.

He had a son. A ten-year-old son. And she’d never told him.

Rose sat down on the edge of the hospital bed. “I found out that I was pregnant about a week after you left for college. I was about to leave myself and I wasn’t sure what to do. I had broken up with you. You were leaving to do great things.... I decided to just start school and figure it out later. I had time.”

“You had a few months, not a few years, Rose.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness of betrayal from his voice.

“I know. I spent a lot of time at the hospital talking to my mother about my situation. It kept her mind off the treatments and how poorly she felt. She walked me through all my options, but I knew that I wanted to keep our baby. It might be all of you I ever had. She urged me to contact you. You know how moms are. She didn’t have much time left and worried about me doing this on my own. She thought you would marry me if you knew.”

“I would have.”