Page 15 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

"You're welcome."

She turned to leave my office. I wished she had that excited energy she showed moments ago. She had been absolutely radiant in that moment, and I wanted her to feel like that all the time. It wasn't lost on me that thoughts like this were what had gotten me in trouble five years ago.

I had to try harder to fight against this need and urge to immerse myself in her. An unsettled feeling grew in my gut that I was going to fail her again. If I couldn’t control myself, I would likely hurt her, and I would rather die than shatter her life again.

5

Samantha

Ileft Henry's office feeling like I'd just agreed to step into the frying pan.

My biggest concern was my son and what Henry might do if he learned that he was Pax’s father.

Henry was extremely powerful and influential. It wouldn't surprise me if he had the president of the United States on speed dial. A man like that could take my son from me.

But there was also the risk of falling for Henry's charms again. I would have thought it impossible, considering the pain he'd caused me five years ago.

But today, as I sat across from his desk, he was sweet and charming and owning up to the selfish moves he'd made to force me out five years ago. I saw glimpses of the man I had fallen for during my internship.

I would have to make sure that I remembered how cruel he could be, especially since nothing had changed. I was still Victoria’s friend, and now I'd be his employee. All the reasons we couldn't be together still existed, so I'd be a fool to allow my heart to soften toward him again.

Despite my reservations, I was strangely excited. Henry was giving me a job doing exactly what I had been hoping to do.

Granted, I wanted to do it as the owner of my own business, but he was giving me a start. With his recommendation behind me, I couldn't imagine that my business would fail. He was giving me a whole lot more than he needed to pay whatever penance he felt he owed me.

I didn’t want his restitution or pity. I wasn't lying to him when I said I would have refused his generous offers if it weren't for Pax.

My own feelings took a backseat to what was most important for my son, which right now was to find him a place to live and get a job so I could support him. So I agreed to walk into that frying pan and had to hope that I wouldn’t get burned.

My next stop was to go to Mr. Thompson's office. I knew the will had only just been read yesterday, but how long could it possibly take for him to figure out how my mother ended up signing over everything to my father?

Just like I had at Henry's, I showed up without an appointment, fully expecting to be seen. Unlike Henry, Mr. Thompson forced me to wait. Since I still had a couple of hours before I needed to get Pax from preschool, I settled in.

Forty-five minutes later, Mr. Thompson greeted me and escorted me to his office. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long, but I was with clients. I'm sorry I won't be able to give you much time, either. I can't afford to give up too many billable hours."

"I just need to know what you found out about my father. And how long will it be before I can file something to contest the will?"

He motioned me to sit in a chair as he rounded his desk and sat behind it. "Of course, you can always file any sort of paperwork with the court, but for the judge to really consider it, we need to have strong indications that there is something wrong with your mom's will, and so far, I have not been able to find that. Everything is legal."

"It's not legal if my mother was coerced or deceived."

Mr. Thompson nodded. "That's absolutely true, but as of yet, we have no evidence of that."

"Everyone I have talked to about this has said that there's no way my mother would've given anything, much less everything, to my father. In fact, I remember your saying something similar yesterday. Surely, that points to something not on the up."

His expression was apologetic. "I agree, but that's not proof. It could support the evidence if we found it, but in and of itself, people who don't think your mother would give everything to your father doesn't mean anything. In fact, I would venture to guess most of these people don't like your father, which would give them a reason to support you instead of your father."

I took offense at his words. "These people aren't liars."

Mr. Thompson waved his hand. "Of course not. That's not what I meant. I'm just saying that in a court of law, people's opinions don't hold weight against facts. We need hard proof."

Frustration grew, but I reminded myself that Mr. Thompson was just doing his job. "What did you find out about who went to the house and saw my mother? How did this all happen, because by my reasoning, if my mother was changing her will and told you or whoever that, they would have had to leave her to draw up the paperwork and then come back another time. There hasn't been very often in the last six months that I haven't been in the house and know who was visiting, and I don’t recall one lawyer visiting, much less two, just before she died."

Mr. Thompson's brows narrowed, and he nodded as if he were intently considering what I was saying. "I haven't been able to track down all of that yet. We only just found this out yesterday and—"

"How hard can it be to track down your paralegal?"

He let out a sigh and sat back. "Harder than you might think. She left earlier this week on a several month missionary trip to South America."

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