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The next morning Phil kissed my cheek as tenderly as ever, as if the night before had never happened.
He smiled and blew on my breakfast to cool it, talking about the formal merger of the Gilbert and Floyd Groups.
As if last night had only been a small interruption, and because he loved me and respected my decision, that interruption would never come up again.
I had no interest in fighting him over a child anymore either.
I had plenty of things to do. I had to win back my Gilbert clients, find Phil's weak spot, and drive him out of Gilbert Group.
Watching me run myself ragged day after day, Phil held me close, aching with concern.
"Sweetheart, your husband's got all of it handled. Just focus on getting your health back. Don't work yourself so hard."
I only smiled coldly and saved the video stills Detective Lambert had sent into a cloud file.
What a pair of star-crossed lovers. Sneaking off out of town to meet, sneaking a rendezvous once every two weeks.
Phil even had to rack his brain for excuses not to come home.
The two of them clung together like they couldn't bear to part, Rose practically melting into him in the footage.
To think I'd once drowned in Phil's sweet talk, convinced he was the best husband a woman could have.
In the blink of an eye it was our tenth wedding anniversary. That day, half the wealthy families in New York gathered at Summit Ridge Estate.
Glasses clinking, silk and perfume everywhere.
In a custom gown, my arm through Phil's, I moved through the crowd, listening to their congratulations.
"Ms. Gilbert, Mr. Floyd, what a perfect match. Made for each other."
"Exactly. With Gilbert and Floyd joined, no one in New York can touch you now. Ms. Gilbert, you'll have to leave the rest of us a little something."
I smiled graciously, and I watched Phil hold his own smile in place while his eyes kept drifting to the entrance.
One second, two, three.
The instant his phone chimed, the doors burst open. A thin figure rushed into the hall clutching a baby, and Rose dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud.
"Christina, I really have nowhere left to turn."
"The baby's father abandoned me. I'm just a poor student with no one to lean on. I can't keep this little life alive."
She stroked the baby in her arms, her eyes rimmed red as she looked up at me, pleading.
"Christina, all these years you and Phil kept me in school. You're the greatest benefactors I have, and I can never repay you. If the two of you would be willing to adopt this child, I'd be grateful for the rest of my life."
And with that, still holding the baby, she actually started kowtowing to me, forehead thudding against the floor.
In my past life, seeing her so pitiful, and with Phil pressing me, I'd adopted the child on the spot.
Every eye in the room turned to me, and the whispering started, all of it the same. I'd gone childless for years. This baby suited me nicely.
I stumbled back at once, feigning shock and fury, glaring at her, then swung my hand and slapped her hard across the face.
"Rose Fox, what did you just say? You had a baby back in your junior year?"
"I raised you like a little sister. I wanted you to make something of yourself. How did you end up with some bastard child? You've disappointed me beyond words."
Then I let my eyes redden with grief and lifted a hand to point at her.
"Rose Fox, you swore up and down you'd study hard, that you'd repay me. Is this the kind of hard work you were doing in bed?"
Rose went white and froze where she knelt.
Five years I'd sponsored her, and out of respect for a young girl's face and pride I'd never once spoken a harsh word. I'd comforted her, encouraged her, coddled her. I never imagined my soft heart had been raising a viper.
And since she was a viper, of course I'd pin her by the throat and strike.
I turned to Phil then, hurt and furious.
"Phil, we poured everything into putting her through school, and instead of bettering herself she goes and produces an illegitimate child. Tell me, are these the kind of genes we should be adopting?"
The clients and friends around us looked at Rose with open contempt.
"Shameless, truly. Barely old enough to feed herself and she's already off having a love affair, and a baby out of it. Ms. Gilbert supported her, and now she wants Ms. Gilbert to raise her child too? The gall of her."
"Right, and picking Ms. Gilbert's wedding anniversary, a day of celebration, to pull this in front of all these people. Is that gratitude, or is she just here to sour the occasion?"
"Ms. Gilbert supports her and it's still not enough. Now she wants her to raise the kid. She's clearly decided Ms. Gilbert's an easy mark."
Rose flushed crimson, tears brimming as she looked to Phil.
Phil's face shifted through a tangle of expressions. The hand he'd started to reach out drew back, and he strained to smooth it over.
"Christina, the child is innocent. Things have already come to this. Rose is young, she doesn't know any better."
He nudged me toward the baby, his voice rising with feeling. "Just look at him first. See how clever he is, his little eyes darting all around."
"We've been childless all these years, and the moment we talked about adopting, Rose happens to have this baby. That's fate. Take him in. Think of it as a good deed."
