A Baby for Eve by Maggie Kingsley

Author:Maggie Kingsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

HE DIDN’T believe her. She could see the disbelief and denial in his face, knew he was expecting her to suddenly smile and say, ‘I didn’t mean that,’ but as she continued to stare silently back at him, she saw his incredulous expression gradually turn into one of shocked horror.

‘You had an abortion?’ he said hoarsely. ‘You aborted our child?’

‘I didn’t want to do it, Tom,’ she said, returning the pressure of his fingers, willing him to believe her. ‘If there had been any other way—if I could somehow have kept the baby—but I couldn’t, and believe me there hasn’t been a day since then when I haven’t regretted what I did.’

‘You had an abortion,’ he repeated as though by saying it he could somehow make it untrue.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, and he let go of her hands, and stepped back from her, revulsion flooding his face. ‘How could you have done that?’ he demanded.

‘How could you have taken the life of an innocent child and just thrown it away?’

His words and his expression cut her to the bone but, as she stared back at him, saw the disgust in his eyes, it wasn’t pain she felt, it was anger. A blind, furious anger that he could judge her so easily, and so instantly.

‘You think,’ she said, her voice shaking so much she could hardly get the words out, ‘you think I just did the test, and thought, Oh, good heavens, I’m pregnant, now that’s really inconvenient, but never mind, I’ll get rid of it?’

‘I don’t know what you thought,’ he threw back at her. ‘How can I when I don’t feel like I know you at all? All these years and you said nothing. All these years when I could have had a son or a daughter, but you chose to go ahead…to…without telling me… It was my child, too, Eve.’

‘A child you wouldn’t have wanted—not then,’ she cried, her heart thumping so hard she was sure he must hear it. ‘Time and time again, that summer, you told me you didn’t want to be tied down, didn’t want a wife, or a family, wanted to be free, to make something of your life.’

‘You didn’t give me the chance to say whether I wanted our baby or not,’ he declared, his face twisted with fury and anguish. ‘You just decided, without a word, a call…’

‘How could I have contacted you, Tom?’ she protested. ‘“I’m off to the States,” you said, and then I got a postcard from New York, and another one from California saying you were applying for a job with Deltaron, but you never even bothered to tell me whether you’d got the job. All I knew—guessed—was you were somewhere in America. Well, America is a pretty big place, Tom.’

‘You…you could have phoned the offices of Deltaron,’ he said defensively. ‘They would have told you where I was.’

‘And if I’d done that—turned up on your doorstep—and said, “I’m pregnant, Tom,” how would you have felt?’ she demanded.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.