“Come,” she called, her voice uncharacteristically wobbly.
The door opened and Janet, Mr. Ayers’s personal assistant, stuck her head inside.
“Miss Bluth,” she said, her smile as big as ever. “Mr. Ayers would like the Mikkle files.”
Offering her a smile, Diana reached across her desk and picked up the slender file folder. It was a brand-new case so there wasn’t much documentation yet. “Here you go.”
Janet took the files, eyeing Diana curiously.
“Are you alright, dear?” she inquired, her gaze softening. A woman of fifty-eight, she was nearing retirement age, though Diana didn’t think Ayers would be letting her go any time soon.
Diana’s smile faltered just a bit.
“I’m fine, just a little stressed. But nothing I can’t handle.” With lots of tears, second guessing, and elastic waistbands.
She nodded, though Diana could tell from the woman’s pinched expression that she didn’t believe her.
Janet turned to leave but then stopped.
“Are you coming to the party tonight?”
Party? It was the first she was hearing of it. “What party?”
She grinned. “Oh, it’s just an informal get together to celebrate Rick winning that ridiculous defamation case for David Brenner.”
At the sound of that man’s name Diana nearly broke into a sweat. Forcing a nonchalance and surprise into her bearing, she asked, “Defamation case?” Of course, she knew about it, it was all over, but if anyone knew details that weren’t in the news, it would be Janet.
“Uh huh. Now that it’s over I can share—” She glanced over her shoulder conspiratorially before turning back to Diana. “His ex-fiancée, some money grubbing socialite, claimed that she was pregnant with his baby in order to keep him from breaking off their engagement. He sued her for defamation. Needless to say, Rick won that case handily.”
Every word the woman spoke after the word “pregnant” didn’t seem to register in Diana’s brain. She knew all of this, but hearing it again, for some reason, turned her stomach, fear whirling in the pit of her belly.
This can’t be happening.
Diana swallowed down the rising panic, hoping her voice didn’t come out as a squeak.
“How did Mr. Ayers win?”
Janet grinned, pride drawing her shoulders back.
“He was able to prove that she’d never been pregnant and was planning to ‘lose the baby’ after her first child support check cleared.”
Diana gasped, horror rising to strike at the panic.
“That’s disgusting!” What sort of woman would do that? And poor David…what he must have gone through. “How did David—er—Mr. Brenner handle her making that claim?” She needed to know.
Janet shrugged. “According to him, he knew she was lying, of course. He claimed he used protection each time.”
Immediately, Diana lost the fight against the shudder that shot up from where the books were secreted in her lap. He’d used condoms with her as well…and look how well that worked.
Nodding jerkily, Diana commented, “But everyone knows those aren’t a hundred percent.” She was very aware she was using Margie’s words from the day before.
Janet must have heard that before because she chuckled. “That’s true, which was why Mr. Brenner provided the defense with his medical records. Apparently, there was something in there that made her claim ludicrous.”
God…I don’t know if I want to hear this.
“What do you mean?” she asked, jumping into her own torture with both feet.
She clicked her tongue. “You didn’t hear this from me, but…apparently, Mr. Brenner had a biking accident years ago, that rendered him incapable of having children. His swimmers don’t swim so good, if the reports are true.”
Diana blinked as the floor seemed to disappear beneath her.
Checking her watch, Janet turned away, oblivious to the catastrophe she’d just unleashed in Diana’s life. “Well, I best be going. I have lots to do before tonight.”
Tonight? Oh, right. The party. The one Diana wasn’t going anywhere near.
“See you at the Incantata—eight sharp,” Janet bubbled before disappearing through the door.
Every nerve in Diana’s body began screaming at the same time, just as every blood cell began to turn to thick, black sludge.
David Brenner was sterile. But obviously not sterile—because he’d gotten her pregnant!
That word echoed in her head, banging off the walls of her brain with a clatter.
If David was medically diagnosed with sterility, then her pregnancy was beyond miraculous. First, the barrier protection of the condoms, and then the ultimate baby-proofing with the sterility—there was no way on God’s green earth that he’d believe her now. Her chest constricted, her breath pushing through a throat too choked with unshed emotion.
No. She couldn’t tell David about the baby. Considering what he’d done to his ex-fiancée when she’d claimed paternity, her chances of getting away unscathed were a trillion to one. She’d be lucky to get out of that mess with her skin intact.
And there was no way in hell she was ever stepping foot in the Serata Incantata if he was going to be there. As far as she was concerned, if she never saw David Brenner again, and it would be too soon.
Diana skipped spending the weekend with Margie; she needed time and space to think about what was happening, and what was going to happen. First, she knew she needed to tell her mother. She’d be upset at first (she was old school conservative) but then she’d dive into grandmotherhood with gusto. If anyone could help Diana take the next steps into being a single parent, it was Elizabeth Bluth. She’d married Diana’s father straight out of high school—they’d been high school sweethearts. He had a job as a mechanic, and her mother was a first-grade teacher. They didn’t make much, but they were able to support Diana and her sister, Deirdre. Diana could remember them…their love for one another, always touching, kissing, teasing. She grew up with an excellent example of what a true relationship looked like. She guesses that was one of the main reasons she’d held on to her virginity for so long; she wanted what they had.
Her father died of a heart attack six years ago, and her mother was devastated, but she didn’t let that stop her from
