bastard!” Jared exclaimed, rage eating at him. He had thought when he’d left South Dakota that the Sorensons could never hurt him again. How wrong he’d been! To discover she’d hidden the most important thing in his life from him—his son—cut to his soul.
“Who are you to say that?” she answered. “You walked out and left me pregnant! Damn you, Jared! I was uneducated, young and dependent on my dad.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to reveal her father’s duplicity, but he wasn’t going to get into that now, or hurling accusations would be all they would do. He wanted to know about Ethan.
“So go on—tell me what you did. You married Mike and moved to Arizona.”
“That’s right. Under the circumstances, I was less than pleasant. Mike was interested in his career and I think there was someone in his life, but he was kind enough to keep her out of our lives. We got a quiet divorce after seven weeks and I left.”
“You came home once for a reception, I heard.”
“Yes, so Dad could convince people that Ethan was Mike’s son.”
“How could anybody believe that lie after Ethan was born?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what gossip flew, nor did I care by then.”
“I got a degree of revenge on your father in Ethan, since he looks exactly like me. Your father had to be constantly reminded of me,” Jared said. No one who knew both him and Ethan could mistake the connection. “Do you ever see Mike?”
“No. We went our separate ways and I haven’t talked to him since,” she said, and Jared was surprised by the relief he experienced over her answer. “My dad used to tell me about him occasionally. I think he’d even hoped we’d stay married. Mike established his own firm and married. That’s the last I heard about him.”
“Damn it,” Jared said. All they had both gone through because of her father. “And in all that time, it didn’t occur to you to let the father of your baby know about his son’s existence?”
“Don’t, Jared! Don’t accuse me—”
He grasped her shoulders again, fighting the urge to shake her. “I’m the father, and in this day and age I have rights. Yes, I accuse you. You know damned well you should’ve let me know we were having a baby.”
“I never once when I was pregnant thought I should let you know,” she said, the words tumbling out in a rage.
“When I first spoke to you last Saturday, you went white as a sheet and looked as if you might faint.” His voice was low, and he leaned closer with anger white hot. “You were filled with guilt for keeping silent. Admit it, Megan! Admit that you know you should’ve told me about Ethan.”
Her eyes were wide and green with anger as she shook her head, adding to his fury. “No. You gave that right up when you walked out without a word. You cut all ties with me in the cruelest possible way.”
When he flinched because what she accused him of was true, he still couldn’t bring himself to reveal to her that it was her father, because it would sound weak, as if he were making excuses. “Maybe I deserved for you to keep me out of your life, but when Ethan was born, you know you should have informed me. If you’d told me you were expecting a baby, I would’ve come back here.”
“Oh, please, Jared! Don’t stretch credulity to that point! You know you wouldn’t have. You would have run all the more, if I’d called you and said you were about to become a father. Or you would’ve asked if I was sure it was your child.”
“That’s not true,” he said in a voice that was low and vehement. “I damn well would’ve come back.”
“You’ll never, ever convince me of that. It’s a moot point now,” she said, glaring at him and he noticed she was breathing as rapidly as he was.
“Even so, I can’t believe that in all these years you haven’t told me. I can’t understand why my own parents didn’t tell me, but they moved from here two years later.”
“I didn’t see your parents. I didn’t come home to live for a year and a half. People here met Mike at the reception, so they accepted the story that he was the father. Your parents moved shortly after I returned.”
“I still say you should have told me. You know you should have. When you moved back here, you could have faced dealing with letting me know. We’d put enough time between us—”
“Enough time between us that I no longer hurt from what you did?” she flung the words at him as he clamped his jaw closed while he clenched his fists.
“Even so—”
“All right,” she said, her voice suddenly sounding restrained. “When Ethan was one, I should’ve informed you. But I always thought I would when he got a little older, or if you came home and we crossed paths. Or if you tried to contact me, which of course, you didn’t until you wanted something I have. Whenever a year rolled by, I put off telling you again.” His anger was mirrored in the depths of her eyes. “What was I to do? Pick up the phone and call the man who walked out on me and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we had a baby’? You left without a word—that means you wanted to sever all ties with me. Why on earth would I call you?” she cried. “Can’t you get it?”
“I deserved to know, Megan, simply because I’m his father,” Jared said. “I guess you don’t know a parent’s rights, but I do have rights. Where was Ethan born?”
“In Chicago, where we had gone to college. It’s a large city and far from here.”
Jared’s pain over the past intensified. “You were alone in Chicago? Did you have any friends?”
“I’m sure you care!” she exclaimed bitterly. “Jared, this is all past.”
“I want to know what happened. Answer my damn questions.”
“If you must know, my aunt came to stay with me the last two weeks. My dad never came. After Ethan was six months old, he told me to come back home.”
“Well, I got some damned revenge there. Ethan looks like me. What a blow that must have been.”
“It was to all of us. I prayed he wouldn’t look like you—and that you’d never know,” she said, the coldness and anger clear in her voice.
“Damn it, Megan!”
“Damn it is right! I prayed my baby wouldn’t resemble you in any way and that you’d never know as long as you lived. How can you act like you care now?”
“It’s a shock to discover I have a child. I have questions. And frankly, Megan, I want to know my son.”
She looked as if he’d hit her. And then he could see her pull herself together in that manner she had. She stood taller, a coolness coming to her features.
“Was it difficult for you when you came back home? With one look at Ethan, I’d think anyone would’ve known who his father was.”
“How much gossip there was, I don’t know,” she admitted. “In the course of months,
