A Very Special Holiday Gift

Chloe couldn’t help taking a step closer. The nurse was right. The baby was incredibly cute. She was sound asleep and lying on her back, giving them a good view of her perfectly round little face and soft skin and her tiny nose—and, yes, her perfectly darling rosebud mouth—just as Chloe had imagined.

The baby gave a little stretch and one tiny hand came out from beneath the blanket, almost waving at them. There was a hospital bracelet around her wrinkled wrist. Chloe saw the name Corrigan written on it and a painful lump filled her throat.

Zac was staring at the baby with a kind of awestruck terror.

‘So what do you think of your niece, Mr Corrigan?’ asked Ruby, the social worker.

He gave a dazed shake of his head. ‘She’s tiny.’

‘Her birth weight was fine,’ the nurse said, sounding defensive, as if Zac had directly criticised her hospital. ‘At least seven pounds.’

The social worker chimed in again. ‘Would you like to hold her?’

Now Zac looked truly horrified. ‘But she’s asleep,’ he protested, keeping his hands rammed in his pockets and rocking back on his heels as if he wished he could escape. For Chloe, by contrast, the urge to pick the baby up and cuddle her was almost overwhelming, as the maternal yearnings that she’d learned to suppress came suddenly rushing back.

She saw a frowning look exchanged between the nurse and the social worker and she worried that this was some kind of test that Zac had to pass before they could consider handing the baby into his care.

‘Go on,’ Chloe urged him softly. ‘You should hold her for a moment. You won’t upset her. She probably won’t even wake up.’

* * *

Zac felt as if the air had been sucked from his lungs. He couldn’t remember when he’d ever felt so out of his depth. The nurse was peeling back the pink blanket to reveal a tiny baby wrapped tightly in another thinner blanket. This was going to happen. They were going to hand her to him and he couldn’t back out of it.

‘Our little newborns feel safer when they’re swaddled firmly like this. It also makes them easier to hold,’ the nurse said as she lifted the sleeping bundle.

Reluctantly, Zac drew his hands from his pockets and hoped they weren’t shaking.

‘Just relax,’ the nurse said as she placed the baby in his arms.

Relax? She had to be joking. It was all right for her. She did this every day. He was still getting over the agony of seeing Liv. And now he was so scared he might drop her baby...

She was in his arms.

He could feel the warmth of Liv’s baby reaching him through the thin wrap. Could feel her limbs wriggling. Oh, dear God, she was so real. Alive and breathing. He forced himself to look down into her little pink face, so different from the deathly white one he’d so recently witnessed...

And yet...the similarity was there...

He found it so easily in the baby’s soft dark hair, in the delicate curve of her fine dark eyebrows, and in the tiniest suggestion of a cleft in her dainty chin.

‘Oh, Liv.’

His sister’s name broke from him on a desolate sob. His vision blurred as his throat was choked by tears.

* * *

Chloe’s heart almost broke when she saw the silver glitter in Zac’s eyes.

Even now, under these most difficult circumstances, it was a shock to see her boss cry. Zac was always so in control. In the day-to-day running of his business, it didn’t matter how worried or upset or even angry he was, he never lost his cool. Never.

He usually viewed any kind of trouble as a challenge. In fact, there were days when he seemed to thrive on trouble and conflict. Twice, to her knowledge, he’d taken his company to the very brink of economic peril, but he’d never lost his nerve and had emerged triumphant.

Of course, there was a huge gulf between the challenges of the business world and a personal heartbreaking tragedy.

Now Zac Corrigan, her fearless boss, was caught in the worst kind of heartbreak and he was shaking helplessly as tears streamed down his face.

‘Here,’ he said, thrusting the baby towards Chloe. ‘Please, take her.’

Her own emotions were unravelling as she hastily dumped their coats to accept the warm bundle he pressed into her arms. The poor man had been through so much—too much—in such a short time and, on top of everything else, he was dealing with jet lag. But, even though he had every reason to weep, Chloe knew he would be mortified to break down like this in public.

She wasn’t at all surprised when Zac turned from them and strode back down the corridor, his head high and his shoulders squared as he drew deep breaths and fought for composure.

Watching him, she held the baby close, inhaling the clean and milky smell of her. She thought how perfectly she fitted in her arms.

Beside her, Ruby, the social worker, said, ‘It’s such a very sad situation.’

Indeed, Chloe agreed silently.

The baby squirmed now and beneath the blanket she gave a little kick against Chloe’s ribs. Chloe wondered if this was how it had felt for Liv when she’d been pregnant. Such a short time ago.

Oh, help. If she allowed herself to think about that, she’d start weeping, too.

Perhaps it was just as well that she was distracted by Zac’s return. He seemed sufficiently composed—although still unnaturally pale.

‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ the nurse said.

Zac held up a hand and gave a brief nod of acknowledgement. ‘Thank you.’ His manner was curt but not impolite. Then he said, in his most businesslike tone, ‘I guess you need to bring me up to speed.’ He shifted his now steady gaze to the social worker. ‘What’s the current situation? Has anyone been able to locate the father?’

Ruby shook her head. ‘I’m afraid we’ve had no luck at all.’

‘You’ve definitely ruled out the fellow who was in the car with Liv?’

‘Yes.’

At this news, Zac looked bleaker than ever.

‘We’ve also interviewed the people who lived in the share house with your sister,’ Ruby said next. ‘But they haven’t been able to help us. They said Olivia wouldn’t tell anyone the father’s name. She simply told them that he wouldn’t be interested in a child and she didn’t want anything more to do with him.’

Zac stared at her for a long moment, his grey eyes reflecting a stormy mix of emotions. Eventually he nodded. ‘That sounds like my sister, I’m afraid. But there was a boyfriend. I’m pretty sure Liv was still with him last Christmas. An Australian. A singer in a band.’

‘Bo Stanley?’

Zac nodded grimly. ‘Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s his name.’

Again, she shook her head. ‘A housemate did mention him and he’s still in the UK, so we made contact and had him tested. It was easy to disqualify him. He’s completely the wrong blood type.’

This time, Zac stared at her as if he was sure she had to be mistaken, but eventually he gave an unhappy shake of his head and shrugged. ‘I guess he’s off the hook, then.’

In Chloe’s arms, the baby gave a little snuffling snort. When Chloe looked down she saw that her eyes had opened. The baby blinked and stared up at Chloe, straight into her eyes.