Marta lay her head on her husband’s shoulder. Considering his own past, the son he’d refused to acknowledge for more than thirty years and now loved with all his heart, she wasn’t surprised he’d think that. Actually, she agreed with him. Whoever had made her little girl pregnant should know it. And if he already did and he’d turned his back, then he deserved the whipping Jonas was so ready to deliver.
But there was Sam to consider. Her daughter was a grown woman, entitled to make her own choices even if they were poor ones. She’d yet to say she even wanted her baby.
“Let’s give this some time. We’ll let Sam think about her situation and we won’t do anything impetuous while she does.”
“Some time,” Jonas cautioned. “Not too much.”
“No,” Marta said, “not too much.”
She kissed her husband. He went into his study; she continued up the stairs to the second floor and paused at Sam’s door.
“Sam?” Marta knocked gently. “Darling, may I come in?” She waited, then opened the door. The blinds were closed, casting the room in artificial twilight. She could see Sam sitting in a rocker, her legs drawn up under her. “Darling? Are you okay?”
“That sounds like the beginning of a bad joke,” Sam said. “‘Are you okay?’ the doctor said to the woman, and she said, ‘Well, Doc, that depends on your definition of okay.”’
“Wouldn’t some sun be nice?” Marta said briskly. She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, she walked from window to window, opening the blinds and letting in the light. “There now. Sweetie, I know this is a shock, but—”
“I never even thought of it,” Sam said in a small voice. “Isn’t that stupid? When I think back on the last few weeks, I don’t know how I missed all the signs. I’d stopped getting my period but I just figured it was the pill. I mean, my periods are light as it is…”
“Darling. You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”
“And I was nauseous,” Sam said, as if her mother hadn’t spoken. “I felt like I was riding an elevator that kept making sudden stops. You know?”
“I know,” Marta said, sighing. “I still remember, even after all these years.”
“I was moody, too, and tired all the time…” Sam shook her head. “Just like Amanda, when she was pregnant, but I didn’t put two and two together.” She swallowed. “I guess I didn’t want to.”
“No. Of course you didn’t.” Marta hesitated. “Still, you must have known. In the back of your mind, I mean, or you wouldn’t have…” She hesitated again. “I’m assuming that’s why you left—whoever it is that made you pregnant.”
“Maybe, subconsciously. The truth is, I left him because—because…” Because he was tired of me and my heart was breaking, knowing he didn’t really want me anymore.
“Because?” Marta prompted.
“Because our relationship had run its course,” Sam said carefully, “the way relationships always do. Why else would I have left him?”
Why, indeed? A woman who left a man for such a logical reason didn’t turn up on her mother’s doorstep looking hollow-eyed with despair, but Marta knew better than to say that.
“And now it turns out I’m pregnant.” Sam took a breath. “I just can’t believe it. I never intended—”
“Lots of pregnancies begin that way, darling.”
“This isn’t lots of pregnancies, Mother. This is my pregnancy.” She took a shaky breath. “I never thought about having children.”
Marta sat down on the edge of the bed. “I know, baby. As I said, lots of—”
“No.” Sam uncurled her legs and leaned forward. “You don’t know. Maybe I’m not saying it right. I really didn’t intend to have kids. Not ever.”
“Sam,” Marta said carefully, “I’ve watched you with your nieces and nephews. You’re wonderful with children.”
“Only because I knew they belonged to someone else,” Sam said bluntly. “It’s lovely to coo to a baby and cuddle it, even to wipe up after it, when you know you can give it a kiss at the end of the day, hand it over to its mother and go back to your own life.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
Marta nodded. “Yes.” She took a deep breath. “And I’ll support whatever decision you feel you must make, darling.”
“Decision?”
“About what—what’s happening.”
Sam gave a harsh laugh. “I’m pregnant, Mom. You might as well say the word.”
“No. I mean, I’d rather not, if you’ve decided to—to—”
“Decided to…?” Sam stared at her mother. “You think I’m not going through with it,” she said softly.
“Samantha, you’re my child. I know, I know. You’re an adult, you make your own choices but you’ll always be my little girl. I’ll be there for you, whatever you do. I’d never turn away from you, even if—”
“Mom.” Sam reached for her mother’s hands and clasped them tightly. “I’m going to have my baby.”
Relief shuddered through Marta’s heart. “I thought you were saying—”
“What I was saying,” Sam said, with a little catch in her voice, “is that I really believed I never wanted kids or any of the rest of it, for that matter. You know. The house—puppy—kitten—babies thing. It didn’t interest me.”
“And now it does?”
“Amazing, isn’t it?” She gave a choked laugh. “That I’d suddenly want to trade a—a trip to Morocco for a trip to the maternity ward?”
Marta smiled. “Not so amazing, sweetie. We’re like that, we women. All it takes is the right man and…Samantha? Sam, what is it?”
Sam pulled her hands free of her mother’s. “But he wasn’t the right man. Don’t you see? I left him because he’s not for me.”
“He was, though, or you wouldn’t have become involved in the first place.”
“Mom.” Sam gave a little laugh. “I became involved because he’s incredibly sexy. He’s one of those men who—who just steal your breath away.” She knotted her hands together. “He wanted me. I wanted him. It was basic stuff. But he’s not the kind of man who’d ever settle down with one woman.”
“Really,” Marta said, while a cold knot formed in her stomach.
“He’s the kind of man a woman wants to go to bed with, not the kind she’d bring home.”
The cold knot was becoming a fist. “Charming.”
“But he was honest. He—he told me how it would be, that we had no future, and I—I didn’t care.” Sam got to her feet. “Sex is just sex,” she said blithely. “That’s what I’ve always believed. However long our relationship lasted would be enough.”
“And now you feel differently?”
Sam spun towards her mother. “Did I say that?” she demanded. “Why would I feel differently? It was sex. And it’s over.” Her voice broke. “And I’m pregnant.”
“Yes. That changes things.”
/>
“It doesn’t.”
“Samantha, for goodness’ sake, of course it does!”
“He doesn’t know. And I’m not going to tell him.”
“Oh, Sam. You have to!”
“No, I don’t.”
“Sam. Darling, this baby is half his.”
“This baby is entirely mine,” Sam said savagely.
Marta watched the transformation in her daughter’s face. Her skin went from pale to pink, her eyes from flat to glittering. All good signs, indications Sam was herself again. Too much so, perhaps. That independent streak didn’t make sense in this situation.
“Sam,” she said, trying to sound reasonable, “no matter what you think this man said about the—the impermanence of your relationship, it’s different now.”
“It isn’t.”
“But it is! This man—dammit, what’s his name? I can’t see myself calling the father of my daughter’s child ‘this man’ forever.”
“You’re not going to call him anything because you’re not going to meet him.” Sam lowered her voice. “His name is Demetrios. Demetrios Karas. And that’s to stay between us, Mother. I don’t want anyone else to know about him.”
“Sweetie, honestly, you can’t keep a thing like that a secret. Your sisters will—”
“I’ll take care of my sisters.”
This was not the time to argue, Marta told herself. “Have you considered the difficulties of raising a child alone?”
“If you’re saying I’ll need money…”
“Yes. You will. We’ll be more than happy to help but knowing you—”
“Knowing me, you figure I’d turn you down. And you’re right.”
“But you don’t have a real job.” Marta winced as she said it. This was an old sore point between them. “You can’t bounce around the globe if you have a child to raise.”
“There are lots of good-paying jobs for translators in New York. I just never wanted one before.”
“Then think about the baby. Isn’t he or she entitled to a father?”
“Carin, Amanda and I did fine without one.”
Marta chose to ignore the tossed gauntlet. “Surely, you’ll admit Mr. Karas has the right to know he’s fathered a child.”