My Son's Father Is the Wrong Brother novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Offer

In his lakeside house Rosemary offers a marriage and a second child to save Milo, and Timothy sets the first condition: she tells Calvin tonight.

My sister took Milo for the night without asking why.

She only looked at my face and said, "Go."

Timothy's house stood on the lakeshore behind a stone wall, all glass and pale wood.

He opened the door himself, in shirtsleeves, with the lake black behind him.

"You came."

"You said alone."

"I did."

The living room held one couch, one lamp, and no photographs.

He poured himself a scotch and put the bottle back without offering me any.

"I'm not drinking," I said. "I'm driving."

"I wasn't going to offer. You've had a long day."

I stayed standing. So did he.

"I want my son," he said. "I want my name on his birth certificate and my hand in every decision about his treatment. That is not negotiable."

"I'm not asking you to negotiate."

"Then what are you asking?"

I had practiced it in the car, all the way down the shore road.

It sounded worse out loud.

"The doctor said a full sibling is the safe donor," I said. "Same mother, same father."

He didn't move.

"So I'm asking you to marry me."

The ice in his glass shifted.

"We'd have another child," I said. "That child could save Milo. When Milo is well, we divorce. Quietly, and we split everything about him down the middle. No love, no promises. I'll sign whatever you put in front of me."

He set the glass down very carefully.

"You've thought about this."

"Since yesterday afternoon."

"You're engaged to my brother."

"I know."

"And you want me to put a baby into a marriage that comes with an end date."

"I want my son to live."

"So do I." His voice dropped. "That's not what I asked."

He crossed the room and stopped an arm's length from me.

From there I could see the pulse in his throat, and the old scar on his hand, and a muscle working in his jaw.

"A baby is not a transplant," he said. "A baby is a person. If I do this, that child is wanted for its own sake, by both of us, and never raised as a spare part. Say that."

"Of course it's wanted."

"Say it."

"That child is wanted for its own sake," I said, "and Milo will love him or her more than anyone."

He nodded once.

"I'll marry you."

My knees almost went. I locked them.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I'm not finished." He held up one finger. "Condition one. You tell Calvin tonight. Not tomorrow, not after you've worked out how. Tonight, to his face."

"Timothy."

"He's my brother. I won't be the secret he finds out about."

I'd thought about that.

"I'll tell him."

"Good." A second finger. "Condition two. We do this properly. A real marriage on paper, a real house, one bed on the days the doctor says matter. I won't have my son living in two addresses."

"One bed," I said.

"On the days that matter."

I couldn't tell if the heat in my face was embarrassment or something else. I kept my eyes on his collar.

He was looking at my mouth.

I felt it on my skin before I looked up.

Neither of us said so.

He stepped back first.

"I'll have my lawyer write terms," he said. "You'll read them before you sign."

"I will."

"Then go home, Rosemary."

It was the first time he had said my name without the stranger in it.

I drove home with the lake running beside me and both hands tight on the wheel.

The street was dark when I pulled up.

A car I knew sat at the curb with its engine off.

Calvin was on my front steps, holding a bag of oranges, the kind Milo liked.

He stood when he saw my headlights.

"I came by the hospital and you weren't there," he said. "Your sister told me you'd left Milo with her."

He didn't smile.

"Where were you tonight, Rose?"

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