Fortune's Secret Child. Shawna Delacorte

maturity and confidence.

      There was also her son and the unanswered questions about the little boy’s father. And there was that empty feeling inside him that had never gone away.

      He dressed quickly for work, then hurried downstairs. He paused at the bottom of the staircase and glanced at Cynthia in the den. His heartbeat picked up again. Everything meshed together in one baffling tableau of what had been, what was now and what could be. It left him utterly bewildered.

      He turned away. There was no need to have any further conversation with Cynthia before he left for work. He went through the kitchen and into the garage, then tried to collect his thoughts as he drove to the hospital. He needed to talk to Kate. He could not imagine why she’d offered the use of his house to Cynthia.

      He had even gone so far as to compound a tenuous situation by insisting that she stay until she could get her business matters settled. He wasn’t sure what had prompted him to do that, and it had probably been a really bad idea. But was it one he would live to regret?

      Three

      “What’s the matter, Mommy?” Bobby asked worriedly as he placed his fire truck on the patio table in front of her.

      Cynthia opened her eyes. “It’s nothing, honey.” Bad enough that her decision to keep Bobby’s identity from Shane had already laid a heavy dose of guilt on her. Now she’d compounded that guilt by allowing her son to see her weakness and despair. “Mommy just has a bit of a headache, that’s all.”

      “Why does your head ache? Did you hurt it?”

      She couldn’t resist grinning as she wrapped her arms around her son and gave him a loving squeeze. No matter how bleak things seemed or how distraught she felt, all she had to do was hug Bobby and the world suddenly became a brighter place. “I guess I did. I hurt it by thinking too much about your grandpa’s belongings. Taking care of his things is going to take more time than I thought.”

      She had spent the day working on her father’s estate. She had gathered his papers and business effects from his apartment, along with items of sentimental value. There was nothing else there that warranted the effort or expense of putting it into storage. She made arrangements to have the apartment cleaned out and the remaining items disposed of.

      That left only the task of sorting out the tangled mess of her father’s estate. She had been shocked by the poverty-stricken appearance of his living conditions, yet the paperwork told a different story. What she’d thought would be a straightforward situation had turned into a time-consuming nightmare.