An Abundance of Babies by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Published: 2001-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Matthew was still in his office.

Raising her voice, Stephanie bullied her way past her brother’s secretary on the telephone, demanding to speak to him. Sebastian debated taking the receiver out of her hand and hanging it up, but he figured that she needed to get this out of her system. He knew what it was like to worry about someone who was important to him.

Stephanie’s body stiffened when she heard the telephone on the other end being picked up. “Matthew, it’s Stephanie.”

“Hi, Stef.” She heard someone talking to him in the background. “I can’t talk right now—”

She wasn’t about to be put off, not after what Sebastian had just told her. “You damn well can too talk right now. What’s going on, Matthew?”

His tone was guarded. “What do you mean?”

“With Father.” Carlton Yarbourough had never been “Dad,” or called by any other shortened form of endearment referring to his place in their lives. He had always been “Father.” The name was formal, distant. It suited him. “And I want the truth.”

She heard her brother blow out a frustrated breath. “You weren’t supposed to know.”

Then it was bad, she thought. Something inside of her sank. “Know what? What’s wrong with him, Matthew? Why is Father having tests done at the hospital—and before you try to deny it, Sebastian saw him going into the MRI office.”

For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line, as if Matthew was weighing his options. “He’s got bone cancer, Stef. It’s eating away at him. The progression is slow, but—”

“Bone cancer.” Stephanie’s mouth felt leaden as she repeated the diagnosis. Somehow, she’d never really thought of her father as being mortal before. Her hands tightened around the receiver, squeezing it. “How long have you known?”

“Suspected.” Matthew was quick to clarify the difference. “I didn’t really have facts to base it on, but—”

It took effort to control her temper. “Don’t play lawyer with me, Matt. How long?”

“Six months.” Matthew said the two words as if he was testing each out before uttering them.

“Six months?” She felt betrayed, shut out. How could they have kept this from her? How could Matthew not have told her? “You knew he had bone cancer for the last six months and you didn’t tell me?”

“We didn’t know for sure and he swore me to secrecy,” Matthew told her quickly. “He wouldn’t have even told me except I was there one day when he just…collapsed.” There was no better way to say it.

There was a sob suddenly forming in her throat. She did her best to keep it back. Six months. She sank onto the sofa, her knees unable to support her. “My God, Matthew. You should have told me.”

Ever the peacemaker, Matthew felt his loyalties divided between the man he’d given his word to and the sister he loved. “He has a right to his dignity, Stephanie.”

That was garbage and Matthew knew it, she thought hotly. You needed your family when you were ill. You needed your family to know you were ill.

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