He stood up abruptly, looking down at her with narrowed eyes. ‘That’s it, I’ve had it,’ he rasped. ‘I’m going downstairs to talk to Sonia. I somehow don’t think she will be as reluctant as you are to tell me the truth,’ he added scathingly.
Meg watched him as he strode angrily to the door, her heart constricting as she realized she didn’t want him to go, that she couldn’t bear it if he left her now.
‘Scott isn’t my son,’ she burst out emotionally, icily still as Jed slowly turned to face her. ‘Scott isn’t my son,’ she repeated brokenly.
Jed stared across at her, unspeaking, unmoving, his expression unreadable, too.
Giving her no indication as to how he had reacted to her stark announcement.
Meg stood up restlessly, no longer looking at Jed as she began to speak again. ‘Sonia had just attained her certificate to practise law, became involved with one of the junior partners in the law firm who had taken her on. A married junior partner, his wife the daughter of the senior partner,’ she added dully. ‘I’m sure you can guess what happened next.’
‘Sonia found out she was pregnant,’ Jed rasped.
‘Yes,’ Meg sighed. ‘The two of us were sharing a flat in London at the time, sharing expenses, and when Sonia told me about the baby, that she didn’t intend having it, I was horrified.’ She swallowed hard. ‘I persuaded her to keep the baby, told her that I would help her, that she wouldn’t be alone, was convinced that once it was born she would love the baby and want to keep it.’
‘But she didn’t,’ he murmured softly.
Meg turned away, vividly remembering the night at the hospital when Scott had been born, the way her sister had turned away from him, refusing even to hold him, Meg the one to take the newborn baby into her arms, a feeling of absolute love overwhelming her as she’d looked down at him.
But still she had been convinced that Sonia would change her mind, that it had been just a question of getting over the shock of Scott’s birth, that in time her sister would grow to love her beautiful son, as Meg already had.
It hadn’t happened. Scott had been given in to Meg’s care when the two had been discharged from hospital, her sister resuming her job, with another law firm, and her social life, as if Scott hadn’t existed. Within six months she had announced that she had met Jeremy and intended marrying him.
Leaving the question of Scott’s future in the balance.
Meg hadn’t carried Scott inside her, hadn’t given birth to him, but in every other way there was she had been his mother, loved him and cherished him, cared for him, played with him, laughed with him. And there had been a lot of laughter, her love for him absolute.
Sonia’s announcement that she intended getting married had thrown Meg into a complete panic at the thought of losing this beautiful child.
But she needn’t have worried, because Sonia had assured her she wouldn’t be taking Scott with her, that Meg could keep him if she wanted to. But only if she promised never to tell anyone Scott wasn’t her own.
And she never had. Had chosen to distance herself from her parents because she didn’t want to lie to them, her relationship with Sonia these last three years strained at best, neither of them ever wanting anyone else to know who Scott’s mother really was. Sonia because she was afraid she might lose Jeremy if he knew the truth, and Meg because she might lose Scott.
But Meg hadn’t cared about any of the sacrifices she had made. Because Scott was her son. In every way that mattered, he was hers.
And she wasn’t about to give him up now just because Sonia had had a belated attack of conscience.
‘No, she didn’t,’ Meg confirmed woodenly. ‘And she isn’t going to take him away from me now.’
Jed’s eyes narrowed. ‘You think that’s what she wants to do?’
Her brows rose. ‘Don’t you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ he said after a brief moment of thought.
Meg gave a pained frown. ‘But you heard her, she’s discussed it with Jeremy.’
‘She said she had told Jeremy about Scott,’ Jed corrected firmly. ‘Not that she wanted to take him away from you. Besides, do you really think your parents would just stand idly by while she did that to you and Scott?’ he reasoned.
‘But…’ He was right. Jed was right, Sonia hadn’t said anything about wanting Scott, only that she had told Jeremy the truth about him.
As she had just told Jed. Although it was difficult to gauge his reaction.
If he had one. After all, he would be leaving himself soon, much relieved to get away from this complicated family, she suspected.
And who could blame him?
But could he possibly be right about Sonia not wanting to take Scott away from her…?
There was only one way to find out. Jed watched the emotions flickering across Meg’s face before she rose and left the bedroom. Jed remained unmoving for several long seconds, still slightly dazed himself by what she had just told him.
What sort of woman was she, that she could take her sister’s unwanted newborn son as her own?
She was the woman he loved, he acknowledged achingly. More than ever, now that he knew what she had done, the sacrifices she had made to keep Scott for her own. And the fact was, he knew that she didn’t regret any of it, that if the circumstances were presented to her she would do it all over again.
She was an amazing woman.
Totally unselfish.
Totally adorable.
And he wanted to gather her up in his arms, to love, cherish and protect her, and never let her go, ever again.
Weren’t they the words to the marriage ceremony?
Close enough, he realized, slightly stunned. Because that was what he wanted with Meg. Marriage. Nothing less would do.
And now was not the time to tell her that.
In fact, it couldn’t have been a worse time, he acknowledged. That was him, Jed Cole, the master of bad timing.
He wanted to go downstairs right now, gather her up in his arms, and make everything right for her. But he stopped himself from doing that, knew that he didn’t have the right to do that, that Meg hadn’t given him that right.
That maybe she never would.
‘Jed?’
He turned to see David Hamilton standing in the bedroom doorway, his handsome face lined with strain. ‘Meg?’ he questioned gruffly.
David gave a rueful smile. ‘Jeremy and I left Meg, Sonia and their mother discussing the plans for Meg to formally adopt Scott.’
Jed raised his eyes briefly heavenwards, breathing a heavy sigh of relief as he turned back to the older man. ‘Your youngest daughter is an amazing woman.’
‘Isn’t she?’ David nodded emotionally. ‘But in her own way, Sonia is just as amazing,’ he said quietly. ‘To know, to accept, that you can’t be the mother that is needed, necessary, and to give that child up to someone who is, is very brave indeed.’
Was it? Perhaps, Jed allowed. Sonia had been twenty-three when Scott was born, abandoned in her relationship, possibly frightened of what the future might hold for her as a single mother.
Although that didn’t change the fact that Meg hadn’t hesitated to go through that herself for a child who wasn’t actually her own.
‘Yes.’ David seemed to read some of his thoughts. ‘But twins are a strange entity, are joined in a way that other siblings are not,’ he continued frowningly. ‘In some ways, Scott was always Meg’s as much as he was Sonia’s. Do you understand what I’m saying or does it all sound like nonsense?’ He frowned at Jed.
Yes, he did understand what David was saying, and in some way that might be true. It was a little too deep for Jed to think about right now, Meg his only concern. ‘Is she going to be all right, do you think?’
‘Oh, yes,’ the older man assured him confidently. ‘Lydia and I will make sure of that. Scott has become very precious to all of us, and he will remain with his mother.’
Jed didn’t doubt that the older man would keep his word, or that Lydia would ensure that he did. She surely knew better than anyone what it was like to lose a child you loved.
But that didn’t stop Jed from pacing the bedroom restlessly as he waited for Meg to come back upstairs, needing to talk to her again, if only to hear from her own lips that she was going to be okay.
As it was she was the one to knock on his bedroom door, her expression somewhat shamefaced when he opened the door to her.
She grimaced. ‘I believe I owe you an apology for some of the things I said to you earlier.’ She sighed. ‘They were unnecessary, and my only excuse—’
‘Meg, I don’t give a damn about any of the things you said to me earlier. And will you stop talking to me like a polite stranger?’ he added impatiently, pulling her into his bedroom and firmly closing the door behind her. ‘We may once have been strangers, although I don’t believe that is any longer true, but we have certainly never been polite to each other,’ he added ruefully.
‘Oh, now I’m sure that isn’t true,’ Meg came back. ‘We must have been polite to each other when we first met. No, perhaps not,’ she added teasingly as she obviously remembered the circumstances of that first meeting.
Jed lightly cupped the sides of her face with his hands, looking down at her intently. ‘Your father said…is everything all right now?’ he probed huskily.