Baby Of Fortune. Shirley Rogers
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long have you been seeing Dailey?” It came out sounding like a blunt demand.
“We’re just friends. I haven’t been seeing him.”
Justin stared at her, his expression disbelieving. “Then that was the first time he’s come on to you?”
Heather blushed furiously.
“I didn’t think so.”
“All right, I’ll admit that it wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean anything!” She put her hands on her hips to stop them from shaking. He had the power to annoy her without even trying. Apparently he hadn’t changed. Justin always had to be in control. It was one of the things she’d first admired about him. He’d been a no-nonsense, hard-driven, dependable person in her life when she’d needed someone to care for her. After years of struggling with feelings of abandonment by her father, it had been easy for her to let him take charge.
But she was no longer the love-starved young girl he’d married. She no longer needed someone to lean on, someone to protect her and take care of her.
“I see.”
“Apparently you don’t,” Heather retorted, taking in his skeptical expression. “Maybe Paul’s asked me out a few times, but I’ve always refused.” Heather had her hands full working full-time as a teacher and being a mother.
Okay, so maybe she got lonely once in a while, but she wasn’t ready to date again. She didn’t have time for a relationship, nor did she want one. She knew too well how easy it was to get hurt.
Justin’s jaw tightened a fraction. “He didn’t look as if he was going to take no for an answer just now,” he remarked.
“You didn’t give me a chance to make it clear to him that I wasn’t interested.”
“If he’s come on to you before and you’ve discouraged him, apparently he isn’t getting the message,” he reasoned, and a muscle worked in his jaw.
Heather gave a frustrated sigh. “I really don’t see that this is any of your business. You’ve been out of my life a long time, Justin, and I don’t owe you any explanations.”
He favored her with a curious look, lifting his brow in question. “We’re still married.”
She bristled, annoyed by the intimate reminder she saw in his eyes. “We haven’t lived together in a year,” she stated, resolving to end the conversation.
“That’s why I came to see you.”
Heather paled and her breath caught. She felt as if she’d been punched in the chest.
He’s come to ask you for a divorce!
She trembled before she brought herself under control. Though totally unprepared for this, she could handle it. She could, dammit! Shaking her head, she realized she should have expected that he’d find someone new.
“You want a divorce,” she stated flatly, denying him the chance to tell her he was in love with someone else.
A small smile gradually spread on Justin’s lips, just enough to expose a trace of the dimple in his right cheek. Heather’s heart hammered. His smile was what had first attracted her to him. His smile and that damn attractive dimple.
“What?” Confusion etched her brow. Feeling lightheaded, she touched the back of the sofa for support. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“No.”
She glanced at his hand, and for the first time realized he still wore his diamond-and-gold wedding band. “Why are you here, then?”
Justin regarded her silently, then seemed to choose his words very carefully. “Actually, I want us to give our marriage another try, Heather.”
“What?” Heather couldn’t have heard him right. Surely, her mind was playing tricks on her.
“You heard me correctly,” he assured her, apparently reading the bewilderment on her face. “I want us to give our marriage another chance.” He stepped closer to her, and she immediately took two steps away from him.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered softly. This didn’t sound at all like the Justin who had turned his back on her and walked out on their life together after her miscarriage. “I mean, why?” She wondered again if he knew about Timmy. But from the way the conversation was going, that was doubtful.
Justin reached toward her and touched his fingers to her cheek. She moved her head a fraction, out of his reach, and he let his hand fall. “A lot has happened in the year we’ve been apart.”
“Such as?” she prompted. What could possibly have happened that would have a bearing on their marriage? she wondered suspiciously.
He’d never been one to open up, and she’d always thought they would have had a chance if he’d told her what he was thinking, what he was going through.
“I met my birth mother.”
She blinked with surprise. “You have? Really?”
Heather was stunned that he was talking about his past. She always believed the reason that Justin was so reserved and reluctant to share his feelings was the way he was raised. As a baby, he’d been left on the doorstep of a sheriff’s office in Nevada. Because he was unable to be put up for adoption, he’d been placed with a foster family, had been given their last name. He’d grown up in the foster-care system, had been shuffled around all his life. He was never allowed to put down roots, never given the opportunity to become part of a family.
When they’d first married, she’d thought that they would put down their own roots. Naively, she had believed they’d be together forever. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
Justin gave her a slight nod. He hesitated a moment, then continued, “Her name is Miranda Fortune and she lives in Texas.”
Heather wasn’t sure what to say. Justin seemed…somehow pleased by this new development in his life. “Oh, Justin.” She sighed, and her heart swelled with caring. Despite the heartache he’d caused her, she was happy for him.
Justin had been searching for something all his life, something to fulfill him. He seemed to have found it. The realization that it wasn’t her, that she hadn’t been enough to make him happy, stung, even as her compassion for him flourished.
“How did you find her?”
“I didn’t.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Her ex-husband, Lloyd, sent a private detective to look for me. The P.I.—Flynn Sinclair—eventually contacted me and asked me to go to Texas to see her.”
“And you did?”
He nodded. “At first I refused. Then I learned that I have a twin, a sister.” Justin could understand Heather’s surprise at his news. He’d felt the same overwhelming disbelief when the detective had shown up at his office to tell him of his heritage. His first reaction had been indifference. His mother hadn’t cared enough to keep him—why should he give her the satisfaction of knowing him now?
But learning he had a twin had convinced him to change his mind. There was another part of him somewhere in the world, someone with some of the same personality traits, the same looks, the same feelings of abandonment and emptiness. Based on that, he’d agreed to a meeting.
“A twin sister?”
The thought of his sister brought a smile to Justin’s lips. He touched the dimple on his cheek and remembered his surprise when he’d first seen that she, too, shared the identical physical trait. “Her name is Emma,” he said to his wife. “She’s just had a baby, and she ended up marrying Flynn Sinclair.” Seeing the confusion on her face, he added, “It’s a long story.”
“My goodness.” She sounded as if she couldn’t believe it. “A lot has been happening. I’m very pleased for you,” she said. “What is your mother like?”
“She