Page 9 of The Secret

“Apparently it happened last Memorial Day when we were up at the house.” Rafe passed the letter over to Wolfie to read, her hand flying to her mouth, her bright green eyes widening with shock as she moved through the words.

“You need a paternity test.” She passed the letter to Freddie’s outstretched hand.

“Laurie just left. We’ll get the results back in the morning, but if she wakes up you’ll see how similar she is to you and mum, and granny.”

Freddie gave a loud sniff and her chest heaved as tears starting pouring down her face. “I’m sorry, these are pregnancy hormones, but she must have been so scared if she didn’t want to tell her family. I can’t even imagine what she must have been going through to see this as a solution, to leave you with a baby.”

“You mean to clear up her mess,” I replied bitterly.

Wolfie stayed silent, eyeing me.

“What?”

Her lips rolled, she had something she wanted to say but didn’t want to say it. “Nothing.”

“Wolf, spit it out!”

She took a deep breath. “When you have a baby, hormones are all over the place. Mine are still pretty strong from when Macauley was born, and that was three months ago. She can’t have been thinking clearly.”

The snort I let out dripped in cynicism. “No, I think she knew exactly what she was doing. She’s left everything.”

“What d’you mean?”

“All the paperwork, her name, everything.”

Freddie’s face filled with a combination of shock, horror, and disbelief, her lip quivering. “She doesn’t have a name?”

I shook my head slowly. “Nope. I need to name her.”

That set Wolfie off, her eyes watering until they spilled over and she wiped the tears away with her fingers. “Oh, Murray.”

“Yeah.” Because I knew what she was saying, and there weren’t any words in existence which allowed me to adequately articulate how I was feeling.

“Can I hold her?”

She stood up, moving over to Penn who gently handed her over; trying hard to make sure she didn’t wake. Of the three of us, he seemed to be the one she liked the most so far; at least he was the one who could get her to stop crying. Or the two of us, because Rafe had been too busy working to make sense of the shitstorm I’d found myself in to hold her yet.

She looked down, her tears making an appearance again. “She’s so beautiful. You’re right, she does look like mum. She looks like Florence, too.”

“Did Laurie check her?”

I nodded. “Yes. She said she seems healthy, but a bit underweight.”

Freddie got up and stood next to Wolf, looking down at the baby. “Have you fed her?”

I nodded again.

“When did you last feed her?”

“Um, about two hours ago, just before I called you.”

She walked over toward the counter and the piles of baby stuff. “And where did all this come from?”

“I got it.” Penn’s voice held more than a little pride at his achievement.

She looked over at him in surprise. “Impressive. Did you buy the whole store?”

“Pretty much.”

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