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powerful to ignore. But did she dare? Again, she reached out. Again, she hesitated...
"Go ahead. Open it." The deep, low voice seemed to come from out of nowhere.
Every muscle in Ruth's body tensed. She turned to find a pair of dark eyes coldly appraising her and
wondered what happened between their lovemaking at the swimming hole the day before, and now.
No love in those eyes. Had Edith told him about finding her in his office? There was no question that
Edith read the label on the folder before replacing it in the file drawer.
Whatever happened that changed Matt's feelings, the next few minutes could make the difference
between her staying on as Annie's nanny, or being dismissed and having to make a quick and
potentially dangerous decision.
She ran the tip of her tongue over her dry lips and said, "I'm really not interested in what's inside the
folder. I was just curious as to what it was." She turned toward him and curved her arms around his
neck, and said, "You look tired."
"You're lying." He pulled her arms from around him, leaving the tiny hairs on her forearms bristling
from his cold, impersonal touch.
Rubbing her forearms to stop the tingling, she said, "Why would I lie? You do look tired.
And it's no wonder." She offered a wry smile. "You were very energetic yesterday. Her smile did
nothing to soften his features. If anything, the line of his mouth grew harder, his eyes more intense.
"Edith found you in my office. What were you looking for?"
Aware of the challenge in his eyes, Ruth managed a casual shrug and said, "I wasn't looking for
anything. Everyone was gone that day and I was bored, and curious. I have a problem that way. I'm
kind of a snoop when I get bored."
"If you have questions about Annie's adoption all you have to do is ask," he said, inspecting her more
closely.
Ruth looked at him with a start. He'd been unwilling to talk to Brad about the adoption. Why was he
willing to talk to her? Something about this was definitely not right. She moistened her dry lips, and
after a prolonged silence, eased into the subject by saying, "Okay then. Why didn't you adopt a boy?
You treat Annie like one. All the men do."
"I wanted a boy," he said candidly, "but Annie's what we got."
"Where did you get her from?" There, it was out. This wasn't the way she'd planned to fish for
information, but it was done now and she couldn't take it back.
"An ad in the newspaper.
A numbness crept over her as Bill's words came back...
...black market children placed for adoption often turn up in newspaper ads...
She and her parents and almost everyone they knew had scanned the ads in every newspaper in the
country. How had they missed this one? Taking a deep breath to slow the pounding of her heart, she
said, "You bought Annie from a newspaper ad, like buying a dog or a car?"
Matt's eyes sparked with irritation, and his tone was oddly defensive when he replied, "I got her
through an agency that handles hard-to-adopt kids. Annie had emotional problems. It happens when a
mother dumps a child after having her for almost two years."
Ruth met his intense gaze. Under that relentless stare, a terrible awareness began to dawn.
He was piecing things together, and within days, perhaps even hours, he'd figure out the truth. So she
had little time to make her case for Beth... Or take Annie and flee...
Matt's face hardened. "Don't you want to know why her mother gave her up?"
Ruth looked at him with a start. How had he known that was precisely the question foremost on her
mind? Uneasy with his knack for reading her thoughts, she shrugged, and said, "It doesn't really matter
at this point, but if you want to tell me, go ahead."
"She gave Annie up for money. Thirty thousand dollars." His mouth compressed in a harsh line as he
waited for her response.
...black market children sell for exorbitant sums...
"That seems very high," she said, remembering Bill s words. "Is that typical?"
"Only with hard-to-place children," he replied. "In Annie's case, her mother was single, the father
married, a child didn't fit the mother's lifestyle, and the mother needed money." He looked directly at
her. "Strange how some women can walk away from their child, like they were so much excess
baggage." There was no question he'd directed the statement at her. If he didn't already know exactly
what she was up to, he was beginning to figure it out. Maybe he'd already learned that she was
Jennifer Ruth Sinclair, not Ruth Crawford. And to help him fill in the pieces, she d told him Eric was
married and wanted nothing to do with their child...
Then Matt's words came rushing back to make his case...
Annie's mother was single, the father married, a child didn't fit her lifestyle, she needed money...
"Isn t it illegal to sell a child?" she asked, then wished she could retract the words. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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