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Mollie?s throat was tight with suppressed tears as, with a look of wonderment, Tom gently brushed his finger against Harry?s cheek. "I?m your daddy," he repeated, as if the words were brand new. As if he were the first man in history to say them.

"Really?" Tom nodded wordlessly, as Harry considered his response. "I didn?t know I had a daddy." Mollie?s hand flew to her mouth as Harry turned to her. "Can I show Daddy my car when we get home?"

"You?ve got a car?" Tom asked.

"It?s got a horn and lights and everything. I have to drive it in the garden though, not on the road."

"Will you give me a ride?"

Harry giggled. "You?re too big."

"It?s a pedal car," Mollie cut in, quickly. Speaking had been a mistake. It reminded Tom that she was there. And his eyes, as he looked up, lost the soft mistiness of emotional overload, warning her that she?d better have a good reason for keeping his son from him.

Well, he needn?t think that a belated attack of fatherly feelings would impress her. She?d had a good reason as he very well knew.

"I?ll go and fetch the car, shall I?"? Angie suggested.

"Good idea," Tom said. "We?ll all go home together."

"But your car ? " Mollie interjected. She was losing control. Correction, she?d lost control the moment Tom Garrick walked back into her life.

"I?m coming with you and Harry," he said. His voice remained quiet, but with a strand of steel that warned her she?d better not argue.

And for the first time in five years she felt a moment of doubt.


"How could you have done it? Kept him from me?"

They were home. Tom had admired Harry?s car and every possession he held dear with a patience that left her pulling her lips tightly back against her teeth. Finally, Angie had tempted Harry away for lunch and now they were alone.

"You really didn?t know?" Mollie asked.

"Do you think that if I?d known I had a son, anything would have stopped me from finding you both?"

The doubts intensified and she swallowed hard before she forced out the words. "Not even a hundred and fifty thousand dollars?"

"Is that how much they said I took to walk away?" He shook his head, then bit out, "I don?t know which is worse. That you believed I?d take their money. Or that you?d value yourself so low."

"Then...what did you think I?d done, Tom?"

"Don?t ask." Don?t ask him to tell her about the painful images that he?d lived with. Tom couldn?t believe he?d been so gullible, so easily taken in. But the letter had been in her handwriting, signed by her.



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