The Other Woman's Son

The Other Woman's Son
Darlene Gardner

Clay Dillon is everyone's hero–especially to his family. So when his kid sister needs a kidney, he tracks down Jenna Wright. Jenna's the only one who can help, but to gain her trust he has to lie.Jenna believes Clay can be everything to her until she finds out who he really is–the son of the woman who ruined her life. In that instant Jenna's dreams for a future with Clay dissolve.Jenna is in so deep, she actually considers doing what Clay asks. But how can she help his family at the expense of her own?

The Other Woman’s Son

Darlene Gardner

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

To Ebony Brown, for graciously answering my

questions about dialysis and kidney failure.

I couldn’t have asked for a better source

and you couldn’t be a more worthy advocate.

Any mistakes, of course, are mine.

And to my buddies in basketball,

Marian Covino and Beth Marson,

because we’ll always have Memphis.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

JENNA WRIGHT BOPPED down the stairs to the beat of a song she’d heard that funny man John Belushi singing in the movie she’d watched last night with her big brother.

“Gimme some lovin’,” she sang, then sang it again, those being the only words she remembered.

She hit the ground floor running, her small bare feet slapping against the kitchen tile. Maybe she could talk Mom into getting her a black hat and black sunglasses like the cool guys in the Blues Brothers movie wore.

“Gimme some…”

She skidded to a stop beside the wall phone, the words dying on her lips. Mom had been talking on the phone when Jenna got the idea to put on her bathing suit and cool off with the water sprinkler in the backyard. Even though the window air-conditioning units were running, the house still felt hot.

Where was Mom?

Jenna scratched her head, feeling her sloppy ponytail get even messier. Mom wouldn’t like it if Jenna didn’t ask permission. Mom didn’t like much since they moved from the big house in Memphis to this tiny one in Little Rock.

But Jenna so wanted to get wet. Maybe then some of the kids on the street would come over and she’d have friends like she used to in Memphis.

She was about to yell for Mom when she heard a sob. Then another. And another.

Jenna’s heart jumped like the frog she’d seen down by the creek when her brother Jeff took her for a walk. She followed the sounds to the family room and froze.

Mom sat in a chair, her face in her hands, her body sort of shaking. Jeff must have heard Mom first, because he was moving toward her. He looked real sad, like he had on the day they’d left Memphis.

“Are you okay, Mom?” he asked.

Mom’s head jerked up. She wiped at the tears on her cheeks and smiled, but not her happy smile. The smile she’d used when the kid next door asked where Jenna’s daddy was.

“I’m fine, Jeff.”

Jenna was only eight, but she could see that Mom wasn’t fine. Jeff must have known it, too, because he put a hand on Mom’s still-shaking shoulder. Jenna felt so scared she thought she might throw up.

“Was that Dad on the phone?” Jeff asked. A pretty dumb question. Whenever Dad called, Mom usually yelled, mostly about “that woman.”

Mom rubbed her head like it hurt, then shook it. “No, honey.” Her voice was all slow and tired like. “It was your Grandma Wright. She called about your Dad and Margo.”

Jenna grew even more still. They didn’t talk about Margo. Ever. If Dad hadn’t met her, they’d still be living with him in the big house in Memphis and Mom wouldn’t cry so much.