Page 90 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

“You don’t think it’s justified,” I snapped.

“Would I be justified in not forgiving you for thinking I’d murder you? You both thought that.”

Victoria shook her head in shame. “I’m sorry—”

“Right. And I forgave you even though it tore me in two to think my best friend and the woman I loved thought I’d take money to kill you.”

It wasn’t the same, I tried to tell myself, although I was failing at seeing the difference. Even so, I said, “It's not that simple. Samantha lied to us. She kept my son from me and she betrayed our trust."

“I wonder why? Do you know? Is she a callous bitch and you were wrong to be her friend?”

“Alex.” Victoria put her hand on his. “Let’s not do this—”

“Do you know that Gwen Layton kept a diary?” Alex ignored his wife.

I remembered Carl mentioning it to Samantha the night I learned I was Pax’s father.

“Carl had it. I had a chance to look at it before it went into evidence.”

I shifted, not sure I wanted to know what it said.

“You went through her diary?” Victoria asked, horrified.

“I did.” Alex didn’t seem sorry about it. I suppose in his job, he had to weed through people’s privacy. “Gwen spends a lot of time worrying about Samantha in it. She was convinced that Samantha’s secrecy around seeing a man was that he was married.”

I cleared my throat. “What’s this have to do with anything?”

“Gwen outlines the call she received after Samantha moved to Seattle. Samantha told her she was pregnant. Gwen told her to come home. But Samantha told her she couldn’t.” Alex’s eyes bore into mine, and I wondered why he was pushing this moment when there was much to celebrate.

“Why couldn’t she? Her job?” Victoria asked.

Inwardly, I winced even though I wasn’t sure what Gwen had written. I knew the truth was that I was why Samantha didn’t come home.

“No. It took a visit to Seattle before Gwen learned the truth.”

I held my breath.

Alex let out a humorless laugh. “Gwen wanted to meet with you, Henry, did you know that? She wanted you to ferret out who in Samantha’s internship had gotten her pregnant and make him do the right thing.”

“She should have.” What would I have done if she had?

“Really? According to Gwen’s notes, the baby’s father made her go away. Told her they couldn’t ever see each other again.”

It took a moment, but then Victoria’s head swiveled to me. “Dad. You did that?”

I hated how this was making me sound. I handed the baby back to her. “Why don’t you two enjoy this moment?”

“Why would you do that?” Victoria pressed me.

I shrugged. How could I respond?

“I bet I know.”

“You’ve done enough, Alex.” I was ready to go back to resenting him.

“You didn’t want Victoria to know you were sleeping with her friend. Your dad was still alive, and you probably thought he’d disown you.”

I stared at Alex, his words cutting through me like a razor blade.

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