stop hara.s.sing us. She was exactly the same, screaming one minute,

pleading the next. She said Emma was in the bedroom, but she wasn't

there. She was hiding." He pressed the heels of his hands against his

eyes. "Jesus, Bev, I found the kid hiding under the sink like a

frightened animal."

"Oh G.o.d." Bev dropped her head on her knees.

"Jane was going to beat her-she was going to beat that tiny little girl

because she was frightened. When I saw her ... Bev, look at me.

Please. When I saw her, I saw myself Can you understand?"

"I want to." She shook her head, still fighting tears. "No, I don't. I

want things to be the way they were when you left this morning."

"Do you think I should have walked out on her?"

"No. Yes." She pressed her fisted hands on each side of her head. "I

don't know. We should have talked. We could have arranged some sort of

settlement."

He knelt beside her to take her hands. "I was going to leave, drive

around a little and think before I came home to talk to you. Jane said

she'd kill herself"

"Oh, Bri."

"I might have handled that. I think I was furious enough to egg her on.

But then, she said she'd kill Emma, too."

Bev pressed a hand against her stomach, over the child that was growing

inside her, a child that was already beautifully real to her. "No. Oh

no, she couldn't have meant it."

"She did." He tightened his grip on her hands. "Whether she would have

followed through, I don't know. But at that moment, she meant it. I

couldn't leave Emma there, Bev. I couldn't have left a stranger's child

there."

"No." She took her hands from his to lift them to his face. Her Brian,

she thought. Her sweet, caring Brian. "You couldn't have. How did you

get her away from Jane?"

"She agreed," Brian said shortly. "Pete's having doc.u.ments drawn up so

it will all be legal."

"Bri." Her hands firmed on his cheeks. She was in love, but she wasn't

blind. "How?"

"I wrote her a check for a hundred thousand pounds. In the agreement

she'll get twenty-five thousand a year every year until Emma reaches

twenty-one."

Bev let her hands drop away. "Christ, Brian. You bought that baby?"

"You can't buy what's already yours." He bit off the words because it

made him feel dirty. "I gave Jane enough to be sure she would stay away

from Emma, from us." He laid a hand on her stomach. "From ours. Listen

to me. There's going to be press, some of it will be ugly. I'm asking

you to stick with me, ride it out. And to give Emma a chance."

"Where would I go?"

"Bev-"

She shook her head. She would stick with him, but she needed a little

time yet. "I've been reading a lot of books lately. I'm pretty sure

you shouldn't leave a toddler alone for this long."

"Right. I'll go take a look."