Quarterback's Secret Baby(128)

I almost started blubbering at her kindness.

"By the way, are you going to be around tomorrow?"

There was something in her tone - something stilted. Simone isn't a good liar.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm having a package delivered in the morning. I don't know, around eleven? If I'm not around can you sign for it?"

Simone kept her eyes on her Chinese food as she spoke, not looking up. I knew something was going on but I didn't have any idea what it was. I agreed to sign for the package and we went on with dinner and gossiping about the other interns at the office where she was spending the summer.

That night, there was an e-mail from my bank informing me of some wire transfer fees that had been taken out of my account. Maybe Darach had decided to pay me for the work I did? I logged in to my bank account fully prepared to send it right back and felt my eyes widen when I saw the balance. Two days earlier it had been at $123.48 - that night it was at $489,401.00. The wire transfer was from the Bank of Scotland. It had to be Darach. My first instinct was to send it right back but there didn't seem to be a way to do that. My second instinct was to take a moment and ponder the amount of money that was. More than I had ever seen in my life. It was enough to pay off all of my student loans, pay for my final year and still have a lot left over - enough to give myself a head start at the life I'd dreamed of having for so long but never quite allowed myself to believe in. A modest house in the countryside, somewhere cheap and close to where my grandmother raised me. A small yard so I could grow vegetables in the summer and a room with a window that looked out over the yard where I could write in peace. How much was my pride worth?

I decided against making any rash judgments - it could wait until tomorrow or the next day - at least until it sunk in what kind of money that was - and until I figured out if in fact my pride did have a price.

Simone was gone when I woke up the next morning to another muggy day. I made myself a cup of coffee and went online to browse for jobs - for anything that would allow me to support myself until classes started up again. I still wasn't counting on keeping the money - I was actually starting to lean towards not keeping it. Try as I might to convince myself that my grandmother would have approved of my keeping it I knew she wouldn't. Maybe with an apology. Maybe. But I wasn't about to start opening the e-mails from Darach - I was too emotionally vulnerable, just barely managing to hold it together by keeping my mind occupied and refusing to think about the things - and people - I'd lost.

When the doorbell rang at almost noon I remembered what Simone had said about the package and ran to answer it. As soon as I opened the door and saw Darach standing there, towering over me as usual in one of his expensive suits, I tried to close it again. He quickly wedged his foot in between the door and the frame, preventing me from slamming it in his face.

"I have nothing to say to you." I said coldly, fighting the tears that were welling up at the sight of him.

"Jennifer, I didn't know. Listen to me, I didn't know."

Oh how I wanted that to be true. But how could it be? How could he not have known?

"Go away, Darach. Please. Please."

"Jennifer!"

Darach pushed his way into the room, easily overpowering me and taking my face in his hands, forcing me to look at him.

"Listen to me! I didn't know. Do you hear me?"

Of course, I started bawling immediately. Darach bent down, kissing my tears off my cheeks and whispering:

"Jenny, please let me explain."

I caught his eye, desperate for him to be telling the truth but burning with anger at the likelihood that he wasn't.

"How couldn't you know?! The police came! They dragged me out the front door like a criminal, Darach! How couldn't you know?"

I was screaming at him, clutching at his suit jacket and trying to shake him.

"Jenny. Beautiful Jenny. I'm so sorry. Come sit down and I'll explain it all."

"NO! Explain it here, right now!"

Darach still hadn't let go of my face, he was still looking right at me, refusing my attempts to pull away.

"Jenny, Mr. Clyde is in charge when I'm away. That's always been the policy - I trust him to make any and all important decisions."

"Well I guess you fucked that up," I interjected, sucking in a shaky breath that made me sound like a small child and terrified that Darach was lying.

"Yes, I did," he said, quietly. "By the time I found out, you were gone. I tried e-mailing you but you weren't opening them. So I found your friend's number on your phone and told her everything. And now I'm here to tell you I'm sorry and that I think you might be the best thing that's ever happened to me. I refuse to allow Diane to ruin this for us. I haven't been as happy as I was with you since I was a child, Jenny - and you said exactly the same thing to me."