and no doubt loved him as she loved Joseph.
“A photo will do for now,” Kelly added. “If you agree to the test, well, maybe then…”
He hitched a shoulder toward the doorway where she’d first spotted him. “Follow me.”
She did, after Kelly got past the initial shock and after she got her legs to cooperate. Nick Lattimer had already given her a huge concession just by agreeing to think about doing the DNA test. She certainly hadn’t really expected him to allow her to see William.
The adjoining room was just as lavishly decorated as the fake nursery. A sitting room of sorts. With another fireplace, a pair of oversize cushiony chairs, and a great view of the formal gardens. It’d be an ideal place to spend some quiet time with a child.
All along, since the moment she’d known she would be coming to the ranch, Kelly had tried not to think of how her biological son was being raised. Literally, in the lap of luxury. There was no way she could compete with this.
Yet, even that certainty wasn’t enough to stop her from getting the truth. Or from getting custody. Because she could give William something that Nick Lattimer couldn’t. She could give him safety, away from Nick’s brother.
He pressed something on the underside of the mantel, and the serene pastoral painting above it disappeared. It’d been a hologram on a thin screen. A very convincing one. Another room appeared.
A nursery.
A real one.
Without saying a word, he pressed more buttons beneath that mantel so that a camera zoomed in on the crib. No blue-satin-trimmed blanket this time. The child was covered with a very homey-looking quilt. A mobile of colorful butterflies dangled overhead.
Kelly had tried to prepare herself in case this moment ever came, but there was nothing that could have prepared her for this. William lay there, sleeping. And thanks to the high quality of the surveillance camera, she could see him clearly.
She pressed her fingertips to her mouth to muffle the sound that was trying to make its way past her throat. He was, well, precious for lack of a better word. A round angelic face. Golden-blond hair that tended to curl. His lips were pursed slightly. He seemed healthy. And perfectly content.
That didn’t do a thing to lessen the guilt that was starting to roar through her.
The guilt went up a significant notch when she caught sight of Nick Lattimer’s expression. Definitely not the face of a heartless, callous businessman.
It was the expression of a loving father.
And it cut her to the bone.
Because she could factor in many elements. The fact that Joseph’s birth mother was dead. The fact that his biological father likely wouldn’t challenge her for custody. But Kelly couldn’t discount that Nick Lattimer loved this child as his own.
A child that was almost certainly hers.
That love for William was the ultimate obstacle that wouldn’t be easy to overcome. But she would.
Somehow.
Kelly was resolute about that. But that didn’t mean she was immune to that loving, fatherly look in Nick Lattimer’s eyes.
“I should go,” Kelly managed to say. Mercy. Now, she was really feeling guilty. “I need to get home to Joseph.” She didn’t wait for Lattimer’s response. She headed out the way they’d come in.
He followed her. Of course. And he caught her arm just before she made it to the door. “I don’t want you to say anything about this to anyone,” he insisted. “Understand?”
“Of course.” Probably because he didn’t want Joseph’s biological father or anyone else to get word of it before they could figure out what to do. And then there was the issue of Eric. She definitely didn’t want his creepy brother thinking there was a competing heir.
She stood there a moment. Their gazes connected. Those gunmetal eyes no longer seemed as lethal as they had minutes earlier. Even though she figured it was temporary. Lattimer hadn’t gotten his steely reputation by accident.
“Thank you,” she told him. “I think.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. Just slightly. And for only a split second. It wasn’t an expression of amusement but more of irony.
Since the moment quickly became awkward, she fluttered her hand toward the door. “I’ll just go.”
And she did. She hurried out of there before he could stop her. Kelly raced down the back staircase and grabbed her purse and keys from the kitchen. Thankfully, everyone was busy with the preparation for serving dessert, so no one said anything to her as she walked out.
The late-autumn rain pelted her as she hurried out of the house and to her car. She made it all the way off the ranch before the tears came. With them came the doubts and the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. With all his money and contacts, would Nick Lattimer fight her for custody even if she proved that William was her son?
Those questions repeated in her head, and Kelly began to think of all the things Lattimer could do to prevent her from assuming custody. However, even with the tears, the violent storm and the painful question, she didn’t miss the other car.
The black SUV appeared less than a minute after she drove through the massive wrought-iron gates that fronted Lattimer’s property. The vehicle stayed steady behind her on the country road. A safe distance away so that most people might not have noticed.
She noticed.
And it sent a deathly chill over her.
God, what had she done?
Chapter Four
Nick took the turn on Old Cypress Road, noted the parked dark-green car with the heavily tinted windows and let the bit of information he’d just learned sink in. Well, as much as information like that could sink in. Now the question was—was it relevant to Kelly Manning’s visit to the ranch?
“She was under psychiatric care at St. Mary’s Hospital a little over a year and a half ago,” Cooper added, his voice clear on the tiny speaker of Nick’s cell phone. “For severe depression. She was treated and released after just two days, but she still sees a therapist a couple of times a month.”
Nick moved those details around in his head, fitting them to the other facts he already had in place. “A year and a half ago. That was about the same time her husband was killed.”
“Yes. About a week after.”
“So, it’s reasonable that she might need professional care to get through something that traumatic. Especially since she was only a few weeks pregnant.”
“I suppose. But there’s the fact that it took me too many layers to find anything about this particular hospital stay. Someone buried her file, sir. Trust me, that’s not easy to do these days.”
Nick had no doubts about that. Especially since he had the resources to dig through layer after layer of anything that a person might want to hide. However, a brief stay in the mental ward of a hospital didn’t make Kelly Manning insane.
Nor did it exonerate her of anything.
She could still be a liar. An opportunist. Or a half dozen other unsavory things, including but not limited to Eric’s employee.
On the other hand, if she truly was an innocent party in all of this, then God help her. She’d just wandered into a viper’s nest.
And he was one of the very vipers that could end up getting her killed.
“Sir, I’m asking you to rethink this visit,” Nick heard Cooper say. “You shouldn’t go to see this woman alone.”
But that was the only way this visit would happen. It was too dangerous otherwise.
“I’ll be fine, Cooper. Besides,