I’ll ever be,” Megan acknowledged.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Abby declared.
R.J. pushed open the doors before Abby had a chance to do so. But instead of the forward thrust of raised mikes, invasive cameras and intrusive reporters, they found themselves staring at the backs of heads. To a person, the reporters and camera crews were focusing their attention on something off to the side of the clinic’s rear entrance.
Abby glanced at her brother, who seemed as much in the dark as any of them. “What the—?”
She edged forward. Had someone decided to stage a publicity stunt and dramatically go into labor on the clinic’s back steps instead of coming inside? Maitland Maternity, established by her parents so that no woman would be forced to have her child without medical help, had somehow turned into the darling of the rich and famous as well as that of the emotionally and financially needy. And among those celebrities were some who had what Abby could only term as a bizarre sense of humor.
Because it wasn’t in her nature to hang back where either her family or her professional life was concerned, Abby didn’t wait for her brother to take charge. Instead, she pushed her way farther through the tight throng, determined to find out what had so firmly captured the media’s attention.
The next moment, Abby knew. And it was all she could do to keep her mouth from dropping open.
There was a baby on the back steps. A baby, covered with a blanket and lying in a wicker basket. Looking closer, she saw that there was actually a piece of paper pinned to the blanket.
Abby looked around, half expecting someone to come forward and announce that this was all a stunt of some sort. Or a thoughtless prank. It had to be one or the other. This was where women came to have their babies, not leave them.
From where she stood, Megan was unable to see for herself what all the commotion was about. “Abby, what’s going on?”
“It’s a baby.” Abby tossed the words over her shoulder to her mother.
It was as if the sound of her voice were the flag coming down at the starting gate at the Indianapolis 500. The single sentence unleashed a deafening roar as all the reporters hurled their questions toward her at once.
Abby recognized Chelsea Markum, the fast-rising reporter of Tattle Today TV, a new explore-all news program. The woman was obviously determined to reach the top of her profession and stay there. That meant being first whenever humanly possible.
Pushing her microphone into her cameraman’s hand, she elbowed another reporter out of the way and reached for the baby. Slipping her hands within the basket, she triumphantly picked the baby up.
The mewling sound the infant made was all but swallowed up by the noise surrounding them. But Abby could hear it. It shot straight through to her heart and galvanized her. Her eyes narrowed as she pushed her way closer.
“And there’s a note,” Chelsea declared to the crowd, ripping it from the blanket.
“What’s it say?” someone behind her demanded.
Excitedly, Chelsea read, “‘Dear Megan Maitland. This baby is a Maitland. Please take care of him until I can again.’”
Armed with anger and indignation, Abby physically pushed a cameraman aside to reach the innocent infant, who had been turned into a sideshow attraction.
Without a single word, she took the baby from the reporter and turned away.
Like a hailstorm, questions continued to fly at her from all sides—fast, furious and callous. Abby gave no indication that she heard any of them. All she wanted to do was reach the back doors and walk through them.
Suddenly, R.J. was on one side of her and Ellie on the other, buffering her from the crowd and allowing her to retreat with the baby in her arms. Abby’s stony expression dissolved and she smiled her relief. She saw R.J. hang back a second to pick up the basket. He looked decidedly paler to her than he had when they had walked outside.
He saw it, too, she thought. The ghostly whisper of a scandal had finally found its way to the Maitland door.
Armed with her reclaimed microphone, Chelsea shoved it into R.J.’s face. “Is the baby yours?” she demanded.
Abby bit back the urge to tell the woman what she could do with her question and where she could next put her microphone.
“Whose is it?” The question echoed over and over again from all sides. “Which one of the Maitlands is the father?”
A tall, redheaded man with a trace of mustard on his shirt front pushed a mike at Megan. “C’mon, Mrs. Maitland, we’ve all got a living to make. Which of your sons is responsible for this baby?”
Megan Maitland lifted her chin regally and faced the crowd that had been, only minutes earlier, awaiting her arrival with polite smiles and banal good wishes.
“None of them, to the best of my knowledge.”
Queen Victoria couldn’t have defended the realm better, Abby thought, making eye contact with her mother. But she knew the answer wouldn’t satisfy anyone.
“…Who are you covering for?”
“…Hey, give us a break. We’re not all well-off like you.”
“…You might as well come clean now. It’ll all come out eventually.”
Megan looked sharply in the direction the last question had come from, but she focused on no one, talking to the crowd in general.
“The truth usually does, if we’re lucky,” she agreed. “This press conference is at an end.”
Turning on her heel, Megan waved Abby and Ellie in before her, then followed, leaving R.J. to cover the retreat.
He did, then ushered the women into his office quickly. Caught off guard, his secretary looked startled as they entered. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at Abby before turning toward R.J.
“Don’t let anyone in, Dana,” he ordered. Dana began to open her mouth. “And I mean anyone.” With that, he closed the door to his inner office. Only then did he turn to the others. Avoiding the infant, he looked directly at his mother. “Is this someone’s idea of a joke?”
There was sweat on his brow, Abby realized. Her glance went from the baby to R.J. But the baby was hardly more than an infant, perhaps a month or so old, and no outstanding feature seemed to link them.
Nothing but the slight nervousness her brother was attempting to hide.
Abby dismissed the thought, annoyed with herself that she’d allowed the media circus outside to get to her and dignify the unthinkable with even a silent question. The baby couldn’t be his. He would have admitted it long before now, if it were. R.J. was far too upstanding to shirk his responsibilities. That was one of the reasons he was so perfect to head up the clinic.
But he was human, for all that, a small voice whispered in her head, and humans had weaknesses.
There had to be another explanation. Besides, he wasn’t the only brother she had, she reminded herself.
