Marion Lennox - Their Baby Bargain

‘I might have.’ Still the hard suspicion. ‘What of it? I can change my mind any time I want.’

‘But seeing you’ve left your child in care for the requisite few months before adoption can be finalised, and you’ve done this a number of times now, I wondered,’ Luke said smoothly, ‘whether there may be some way we could make your final decision easier.’

‘Such as…’

‘Such as cash, for instance?’

‘We’re not in the market of selling children,’ Tom said quickly, and Luke gave him a brief nod.

‘I understand that.’ He motioned to the men behind him-three of the solidest looking men you were ever likely to meet. ‘These men are all qualified lawyers. Nick here is Bay Beach’s local magistrate, Charles is my personal lawyer and David is specialised in family law matters. They’ve explained to me that no pre-adoption payment is acceptable. But Gabbie has been placed under foster care pre-adoptively on a number of occasions. If Mrs Rolands relinquishes her now, an offer making things easier for her in the future could be considered reasonable. It would be a personal matter between the two parties, with no bearing on the adoption.’

‘An offer? How much?’ He’d caught her now. The woman was staring at Luke as if he was holding the Holy Grail. Money…

‘Say…two-hundred-thousand dollars?’ Without further hesitation he lifted a cheque from his breast pocket and laid it on the table. The piece of paper fluttered toward her, and her eyes turned to it, riveted.

‘You’ve got to be kidding. Two hundred grand…’

‘I’m not kidding, Mrs Rolands,’ Luke said gently. ‘My half-sister needs a companion and I want her to have Gabbie.’

‘You’re crazy.’

‘Maybe. But it’s a once only offer. If you take Gabbie away now, my sister may become attached to another child and I’ll make that offer to someone else. I have the lawyers here for the necessary paperwork. Once you sign custody over to W…to Miss Maher.’

But it was a slip. The start of Wendy’s name… It made Sonia lift her eyes from the cheque and she stared from Luke to Wendy, and then they stayed on Wendy.

And it was impossible for Wendy to take the hope from her face fast enough. Oh, God…

And Sonia knew.

‘You’re doing it for her,’ the woman spat. ‘You’re doing it so she gets the kid. She wants her.’ Her vindictiveness was dreadful to see. What had happened in the past to cause this hate? Who knew, but it was there and it was real. ‘No! Two hundred thousand? I’d spend it and then what? I’d have no comeback on the kid at all. She’d be on Easy Street.’

She whirled and stared out the window. ‘And look at that?’ She gestured to Nick’s car, gleaming immaculately out in the driveway, and her vitriol was increasing by the minute. ‘We’re worlds apart and I wanted that so much! My husband promised me we’d be rich, but he couldn’t make it in a pink fit. Two hundred grand-and I’d guess it wouldn’t even buy that. You must be loaded. It wouldn’t make any difference to you at all, and the kid…’

‘You can have the car, too-if you like.’

The sudden silence was deathly. You could have heard a pin drop. The entire room held its breath.

‘You’re…you’re joking.’ Unlike the cheque, the car was a real and tangible thing, gorgeous in its enticement, and Sonia’s incredulous face told the room she knew its worth.

‘I’m not joking.’ Luke shrugged as if he was losing interest. ‘The cheque and the car can both be yours. Now. The registration forms are in the glove compartment. I’m sure with these lawyers present I can sign it over on the spot. That’s my last offer, though. Take it or leave it.’

The woman whirled to face him. Then she stared down at her daughter, and the indecision was written clearly on her face.

This wasn’t tearing affection, though. It was still a desire to hurt.

But…the expensive car. And a cheque like this…

‘If I sign…?’

‘You need to be very clear,’ Tom interrupted from behind her, and his voice was tainted with weariness-long-standing disillusionment with human nature. ‘The money and the car have nothing to do with the adoption. Because the pre-adoptive time is up, if you sign now then your daughter is legally relinquished. You can arrange supervised access, but you’ll have no further control.’

‘But…I can sign now. I can drive the car away.’

‘Yes. But you’ll drive away alone.’

The woman closed her eyes for a long moment, and there was a trace of triumph in the flush on her hard cheeks. Then she put a hand behind Gabbie’s back and shoved her forward, back to Wendy. Decision made.

‘You take her,’ she said harshly. ‘I never wanted her. I hated her father and I hate her. Just show me where to sign and I never want to see her again.’

Wendy left the men to it.

While Sonia signed form after form of relinquishment, and Luke signed over his precious car, she gathered Gabbie in her arms. She took her outside and cradled her as if she’d never let her go.

As she wouldn’t.

‘You’re to forget your mum told us any of the horrid things that were said in there,’ she said fiercely, hugging her so tight she thought she’d squash her. ‘Your mummy and your daddy fought, and she’s taking that anger out on you. But she’s done the best thing she can possibly do for you. The loveliest thing for a mummy to do when she can’t take care of you herself. She’s given you to me. Did you hear what she said in there? She’s given you up for adoption, Gabbie, and now you can be my little girl for ever. For ever and for ever and for ever.

‘I can stay with you and Grace and Bruce?’

‘You can stay with me and Grace and Bruce.’

‘And…’ Gabbie pushed herself back and gazed at Wendy with eyes that were big and bright with wonder ‘…Luke gave his beautiful car to Mummy so she’d give me to you.’

She’d understood that much. Wendy smiled at her with eyes that were glistening with tears.

‘Yes, he did.’

‘Do you think…?’ Gabbie said seriously ‘…do you think Luke loves us?’

‘I think he must,’ Wendy said tremulously. ‘I think he must a lot and a lot and a lot.’

HE’D left.

Wendy had heard the cars departing. First the Aston Martin, gunned down the road by an inexpert hand. She’d hoped Sonia had organised insurance-and then had been tempted enough to hope that maybe she hadn’t. Then there had been the sound of two other cars. That would take care of Nick and the city lawyers, she’d thought. But when she’d taken Gabbie back inside she’d found Nick and Tom waiting for her.

No Luke.

‘Congratulations, young lady,’ Tom told Gabbie gravely, and the flushed look on his face told Wendy he couldn’t have been more pleased at this ending. ‘We’ve just organised you a new mother. Nick has the legal forms here, and if you’d like to sign them, Wendy, we can get things underway.’ He grinned. ‘You realise, you’ll have to submit to social security checks as an adoptive mother.’ And then he chuckled. ‘If I have to forge them myself they’ll be fantastic. Well done.’

‘Where’s Luke?’ Wendy asked.

‘He’s driven Sonia’s car into the second-hand car dealer in Bay Beach,’ Nick told her, his eyes resting on her face. ‘The agreement is that we’ll send the proceeds on to her straight away.’

‘And…and then?’

‘I guess he’s going back to Sydney.’

Without seeing her? Wendy’s heart sank to her boots.

‘I need to see him,’ she said desperately. ‘Nick, I need to catch him.’

He smiled. ‘Now, how did I know you’d say that? As it happens, I’m available to take this little lady out to the farm.’ He stooped to Gabbie’s height. ‘Gabbie, you know that Shanni and Harry are at the farm looking after Grace and Bruce while Wendy’s here with you. Wendy needs to see Luke-to say thank you for what he did for you both today. Do you agree with that?’

Gabbie considered. Things were going very right for once in her small world, and her smile said she could afford to be generous. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Then, if Wendy goes to look for Luke, will you come back to the farm with me?’

‘And you’ll come back, as well?’ she asked Wendy, and Wendy nodded.

‘As soon as I’ve found Luke.’

‘Tell him we love him, too,’ Gabbie said, and, amazingly, she tucked her hand into Nick’s and she smiled and smiled. ‘Okay. Let’s go home. I need to tell Bruce that I can stay with him for ever.’

He was still there.

Bay Beach Motors was right on the esplanade. Wendy pulled up and Sonia’s car was parked on the tarmac and Luke was waiting patiently while a sales rep crawled all over it.

‘Eight hundred dollars,’ the man was saying as Wendy approached. ‘It’s a wreck. That’s the best I can do.’

‘Fine.’ Luke looked drawn and haggard. The flights and the stress were starting to get to him. He put his hand in his pocket, withdrew his wallet and handed over a roll of bank notes. ‘Here’s another five hundred. Make a cheque out for one thousand three hundred dollars to Mrs Sonia Rolands and we’ll say that’s what you paid us. That way she can’t have any comeback on us. We’ve been more than generous.’

‘You have been at that.’ The salesman stared. ‘She’ll never expect this much.’

‘Well, maybe it’s her lucky day.’ And then he turned as he heard Wendy approach behind him, and his face stilled at the sight of her.

‘Hi,’ she said.

He didn’t smile. He just stood-waiting.

And so did the salesman. There must have been something about the tension between them-the vibes emanating from each-that made him stop and stare.

Maybe a more sensitive sort of guy might have melted into the background, but this salesman was going nowhere. He stared from Wendy to Luke and back again, and there was nothing for Wendy to do but what she’d intended to do all along-in broad daylight with whoever watching that wanted to.