The Son that Changed his Life

‘Some problems are too huge to be resolved. It needs trust and honesty to sort out important issues. When they are absent, there is never a way forward.’

He went back to the sitting room, leaving her to stew that over. Emily ground her teeth, hating the fact that he had the gall to make out that she was lacking in honesty. Picking up the mug, she hurried after him, hating him with every fibre of her being. Ben had been so afraid of facing up to his responsibilities that he had chosen to deny his own child. There couldn’t be anything more dishonest than that!

CHAPTER THREE

TOM arrived about twenty minutes later. Emily hurried to the door when she heard his footsteps coming up the path. The rest of the team were assembling by the cars while Alan supervised the loading of the stretcher into one of the vehicles.

‘How is he?’ Emily asked, ushering Tom inside.

‘Not too good.’ He glanced into the sitting room and sighed. ‘Severe hypothermia from being half-submerged in the stream for several hours, plus a badly fractured femur. Good job Ben spoke to HQ. They’ve arranged for the helicopter to meet us in town and do the transfer.’

Emily nodded, not needing to labour the point. Speed was of the essence and the poor man was already at a disadvantage after being missing for so long. She led the way into the sitting room, avoiding Ben’s eyes as she went over to Louise. She’d let Tom fill him in. The less she had to say to him the better.

‘Louise, your husband is going to be flown to hospital in the emergency helicopter,’ she explained gently, sitting down beside her. ‘There isn’t room for you, I’m afraid, but someone will take you there so you can be with him.’

‘Alan’s going to take her,’ Tom put in, dropping wearily into an armchair.

‘Oh, that’s good.’ Emily smiled at the woman but still failed to get a response. Louise continued to sit there. She hadn’t attempted to drink her tea despite Emily’s urgings and Emily was beginning to feel really concerned.

‘Louise seems to be very shocked,’ she said, glancing at Tom. ‘She hasn’t said a word since she got here.’

Tom frowned. ‘She didn’t say anything when we found her, either.’ He turned to Ben. ‘Do you think this is a normal reaction?’

‘It’s difficult to say. Everyone reacts differently to stress,’ Ben replied. He got up and came over to the sofa and Emily hurriedly moved aside as he crouched down in front of the woman. ‘Do you understand what we are saying, Louise? Your husband is alive and he’s being taken to hospital.’

Louise looked at him with hollow eyes. ‘Are you sure? Sure that Dennis is alive? Only the last time it happened, they were wrong, you see.’

Emily frowned. ‘The last time? You mean this has happened before?’

‘Not to Dennis, no. But to my first husband…’ Louise broke off. She gave a little sob then managed to collect herself. ‘Frank and I were out shopping one day when he had a heart attack. The paramedics told me that he was all right but he wasn’t. I don’t think they meant to lie, really, they just didn’t realise…’

Louise couldn’t go on as tears overwhelmed her. Emily patted her hand, trying to hide her dismay. No wonder the poor woman was so distressed. To have it happen once would have been bad enough but to have something similar occur a second time must be horrendous.

‘It isn’t the same this time,’ Ben said gently and Emily shivered when she heard the compassion in his voice. Nobody hearing it could doubt that he wanted to help and she suddenly wished with all her heart that she’d received this kind of consideration when she had told him about Theo. It was hard not to let her emotions get the better of her as he continued in the same caring tone.

‘Your husband is alive and he will be treated at the hospital. Yes, he is very sick, but he’s alive, Louise, and everything possible will be done to keep him that way.’

Louise took a shuddering breath then stumbled to her feet. ‘I want to see him.’

‘I’ll take you,’ Tom offered immediately, standing up. He led her to the door, leaving Emily alone with Ben. He stood up as well, making it clear that he had no intention of lingering. Why should he, Emily thought bitterly as she followed him out. There was nothing here to interest him, after all.

‘Mummy!’

A pitiful wail from the top of the stairs brought her spinning round and her heart sank when she saw Theo standing there. He had Raffie, his favourite toy giraffe clutched in one hand, and his comfort blanket in the other. Obviously all the comings and goings had woken him up.

‘It’s all right, darling,’ she said, running up the stairs and picking him up. She cuddled him close, feeling the tremor that passed through his sturdy little body. The cottage was quite secluded and he wasn’t used to hearing a lot of strange noises during the night.

She carried him downstairs, knowing it was pointless taking him back to bed. Theo needed a little reassurance and there was no one better for that than his mummy. She reached the last tread and stopped, only then realising that Ben was still standing where she’d left him. She’d expected him to beat a hasty retreat as soon as he’d heard Theo but, oddly enough, he was still there.

She glanced at him and felt her blood freeze when she saw the expression on his face. Shock, disbelief, amazement were all etched there clear to see. For a moment Emily couldn’t understand what was going on and then it struck her in a blinding flash what had happened. Ben had finally been forced to acknowledge the truth. Now that he’d seen Theo, he could no longer claim he wasn’t the child’s father. The resemblance which had been so apparent to her from the moment her son had been born couldn’t be denied, although no doubt once Ben recovered his composure, he would do so. Tipping back her head, she looked him straight in the eyes.

‘This is my son, Theo.’

Ben felt as though his body had turned to jelly. His legs were shaking and his insides were trembling as he stared at the little boy clinging hold of Emily’s neck. The resemblance was unmistakable. He had two nephews and this child—Theo?—looked so like them that it was staggering. Had he been wrong? Was it possible that he had fathered this child after all?

‘Right, that’s settled. Alan’s taking Louise with him…’ Tom came back into the cottage. He stopped when he realised that he was interrupting something. He glanced uncertainly from Emily and Theo to Ben then did a double take, and Ben knew—he just knew!—that Tom had seen it too, seen the resemblance between him and Emily’s son.

It was all too much to take in and far too much to deal with. Swinging round, Ben strode out of the door, hearing Emily’s murmured response when Tom said something to her before he quickly followed him. He got into the back of the second Land Rover, cramming himself into the corner as Tom got in beside him. The rest of the team had divided themselves between the vehicles as best they could with the stretcher taking up so much room. It was a squeeze to fit everyone in but he didn’t care. At least Tom couldn’t ask him any awkward questions, awkward because he had no idea what the answers were. Had he been mistaken, had he seen something in the child that wasn’t there? Maybe he could have convinced himself if his friend hadn’t seen it too!

The drive back to town was completed in silence, at least on their behalf. The rest of the group was buoyed up by the fact that they’d found the missing couple. They tried to persuade him and Tom to join them for a celebratory pint at The Ship but Ben refused. He needed to be on his own, needed to sort out how he felt and after that, more importantly, he needed to work out what he was going to do. If the child was his then his whole life was about to change.

‘How about a nightcap?’ Tom let them in, closing the door quietly so as not to disturb Hannah and Charlie who were asleep upstairs. ‘You look as though you could do with one, if you don’t mind me saying so.’

‘Feel free.’ Ben sighed as he followed Tom into the sitting room. Maybe he would prefer to be alone but he could hardly refuse to talk to Tom. Slumping down in a chair, he looked at his friend with sardonic amusement. ‘It’s been an eventful night, one way and another.’

‘It has indeed.’ Tom handed him a glass of single malt then sat down. ‘Am I right in thinking that tonight turned out to be rather a shock for you?’

‘Yes.’ Ben took a sip of the fiery liquid and let it trickle down his throat.

‘So you had no idea about Theo?’

‘Yes and no.’ Another sip of whisky followed the first and the fire reached his belly. He had a son, a child of his own, something he had never dared hope he would have. Shock slowly started to turn to something more, the first glimmer of a far more positive emotion, but he battened it down. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, didn’t want to believe the evidence of his eyes with nothing to back it up.

‘Yes and no? I don’t understand. Either you knew that Theo was yours or you didn’t. Which is it?’

‘Emily told me she was expecting my child but I didn’t believe her.’ The words sounded so bald that the burgeoning feeling of euphoria disappeared. They obviously had a detrimental effect on Tom too because his tone sharpened.

‘Why the hell not? Emily’s not the sort of woman who’d string a guy along. Anyone who knows her will tell you that.’

Ben grimaced, aware that he had sunk more than a little in his friend’s estimation. ‘I didn’t believe her because I thought I was incapable of fathering a child.’

‘Really? How come?’

Tom’s tone was less abrasive and Ben sighed. Although he rarely talked about what had happened this was one time when he needed to open up.

‘I had Hodgkin’s lymphoma when I was in my twenties.’ He shrugged. ‘I had chemotherapy and I was told that it was unlikely I would be able to father a child because of the combination of drugs I’d received. A subsequent fertility test seemingly proved that.’

‘I had no idea!’ Tom exclaimed.

Ben smiled wryly. ‘It’s not something I talk about normally.’

‘No. I can understand that.’ Tom frowned. ‘So, what you’re saying is that you’ve always believed you were infertile?’

Ben nodded. ‘Yes. When Emily came to see me in Paris, I simply assumed she was lying and that the child wasn’t mine.’

‘But surely you knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t do something like that?’ Tom protested.

‘Maybe I should have done. However, when you have always believed what you’ve been told, it’s difficult to accept that someone is telling you something very different.’ Ben summoned a smile, trying not to let his friend see how awful he felt. He had been so cruel to Emily that day, turned her away with harsh words instead of offering her the support she’d deserved. He couldn’t bear to think how she must have suffered.