Chapter 13: Father of Record

The paramedics reached the ballroom in four minutes.

Camille went out through the double doors on a gurney, gripping the rail and screaming.

Sixty guests stood up to watch her go.

Nobody was looking at the stage anymore.

Dexter ran after the gurney and left Jasper standing alone beside the cake.

Lorna crossed the floor in her heels, picked the boy up and carried him out without a word to me.

Margo took my sleeve.

"Mercy General is my hospital. I can get you in the family room."

"I'm not family."

"Tonight you're the husband on the paperwork."

She was right, and I hated it.

We drove behind the ambulance.

The baby was born at eleven that night, seven weeks early, a girl.

She weighed four pounds and two ounces.

They took her straight to the NICU without letting Camille hold her.

I stood at the glass for one minute and looked at a child who had my last name and none of my blood.

I did not feel the thing I had expected to feel.

Her fists were the size of walnuts, and she was not to blame for one second of this.

Margo stood beside me and said nothing.

At midnight a nurse came down the corridor with a clipboard.

"Mr. Rutledge? I need the father's name for the birth certificate worksheet."

Behind her walked a man in a gray suit with a leather folder.

I had seen him once, at the head of Lorna's table, pouring her tea.

"I'm the Dunning family's attorney," he said. "Mr. Rutledge, as the husband you simply sign here. The law does the rest."

He held out a pen.

"No."

The nurse looked from him to me.

"I want a paternity test on that baby first," I said. "Tonight, with a swab, and a copy sent to my own lawyer."

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