Page 93 of Serenity Harbor

“The phone call was about Gabi, wasn’t it? Who was it?”

She took a moment to answer as she stepped away and pulled a corner of her sleeve up to wipe away the crooked trail of tears on her cheeks.

“A representative from the ICBF. In English, that’s the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, which is the authority that handles all international adoptions in Colombia under the Hague Adoption Convention.”

After the heartfelt sobs of the last few moments, he found the completely toneless words disconcerting.

“When I couldn’t reach Angel Herrera, the attorney from the adoption agency I was using, I finally called ICBF to find out the status of my petition. That was a representative calling back to tell me that because I’ve missed the last three deadlines for filing information, my petition is being denied.”

He frowned. She was hyperorganized when it came to paperwork. If he needed evidence, he only had to remember the detailed notebook she had left for Debra Peters about Milo. “That doesn’t make any sense. You wouldn’t have let those deadlines pass by on purpose. Did you explain that?”

“I tried. It doesn’t matter. It’s too late,” she said, her voice lifeless.

“What happened?”

The raw devastation in her eyes, so at odds with her colorless tone, broke his heart all over again.

“Angel Herrera never filed the necessary forms. None of them. Something felt off there, from the very beginning. I should have trusted my instincts and gone elsewhere, but he was recommended by someone in the Barranquilla office of the ICBF and I didn’t know where else to go.”

He had done enough business around the world to know corruption could be rife in some places, especially in bureaucratic offices. Bribes and payoffs could be a way of life. Perhaps the original contact had been a cousin or an uncle of this Angel Herrera. They had seen a chance to rip off a gullible and rather desperate foreigner—a single woman—and they had taken it.

“I should have listened to my own gut, but...but I didn’t. And now I’m going to lose her. I won’t be able to bring her here and she won’t be able to get the medical care she needs and she’ll die.”

“So we find a more reputable agency and reapply.”

“How? It’s all gone. All the money I spent, all the time and energy invested. Everything you’ve given me for helping you with Milo. I sent it all to Angel.”

Fortunately, money wasn’t a problem for him. He had never been more grateful for his success at Caine Tech. “We’ll find a reputable agency and start over. It might take longer, but we’ll figure it out.”

She stared at him for a long moment while the rain pounded on the roof of his porch, and he saw a little glimmer of hope flash in her eyes, there and then gone in an instant. “There is no ‘we,’ Bowie. I can’t drag you into this.”

“I’m in it, like it or not. You helped me with Milo. Now it’s my turn to help you with Gabriela.”

“You already helped me. You paid me an outrageous amount and I basically threw it down the toilet. I trusted the wrong man—which, by the way, should be the title of my autobiography.”

“You made a mistake.”

“And an innocent child will pay for it!”

“Then let me help you fix it.”

“You can’t. She’s my child. It’s my mess, and I have to figure out how to clean it up.”

“It doesn’t have to be. We can fix it together. That’s what I do, Kat. I find problems and I fix them.”

“You have your own problems. This isn’t one of them.”

She was shutting him out, and he didn’t know what to do about it. She had been doing the same since they met—drawing closer, then pulling away. He didn’t know what to do, how to make her see what was in his heart.

He had to tell her.

Bowie gazed out at the whitecaps on the lake and the Redemption Mountains, solid and strong despite the rain. He had never felt so exposed, like a boat out on that water right now, being thrown in all directions by the storm with no protection.

Finally, he grabbed her hands. “It concerns you. That makes it mine. Would it make any difference in your willingness to accept my help if I tell you I’m in love with you?”

She stared at him, her eyes huge. He wished like hell he could tell what she was thinking. For a moment there, he thought he saw joy flash in those eyes. Now they just looked haunted, like the rest of her features.

“Don’t say that,” she finally whispered. “Please don’t say that.”

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