The Surrogate Wife novel · Chapter 3 of 16

Chapter 3: The Knock

Lillian meets her old friend Isaac to plan, comes home to Kendra in her bed, and a deputy arrives with an order saying she shook her baby.

I crossed the room.

"Give him to me."

Kendra pulled Noah back against her chest.

"We're taking a picture."

"He's screaming. Give him to me."

The photographer lowered his camera.

Two hundred people had gone quiet again.

Elaine didn't move.

"Lillian, you're making a scene."

"You made the scene. I'm ending it."

I lifted Noah out of Kendra's arms.

She let go only because everyone was watching.

Noah buried his face in my neck and hiccuped.

I walked out with him.

Nobody stopped me.

On Monday morning I called Isaac Morrell.

We'd sat next to each other through three years of law school.

He hadn't come to mine.

He'd sent a card that said only, Call me if you ever need me.

I needed him.

"Lil." He said my name like he'd been holding it. "Tell me where to be."

He met me at his office in New London at eight that night.

The building was empty.

He'd rolled his sleeves to the elbow and was hunting for his reading glasses.

They were on top of his head.

I pointed.

He laughed and put them on.

"You look tired," he said.

"I have three kids."

"You look like you haven't sat down in six years."

I told him all of it.

The drawer. The toast. The coatroom. The trust.

He didn't take notes.

He just watched my face.

"So they married you for a baby factory and a voting block," he said.

"That's the short version."

"And Harriet called you back?"

"I called her. I start in three weeks."

He leaned back in his chair.

"You know what happens the day the Lindells find out who you are."

"They panic."

"They go for your throat before you're sworn in."

"Let them."

He came around the desk and sat on the edge of it, close to me.

I could smell cedar and coffee on him.

"I kept waiting for you to call," he said quietly. "Every year. I told myself you were happy."

"I told myself that too."

He reached out and tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear.

His fingers stayed there one second too long.

Then they slid down along my jaw and stopped under my chin.

His thumb rested at the corner of my mouth.

He looked at it.

He didn't pretend he wasn't looking.

My breath went shallow before I could tell it not to.

"Isaac."

"I know," he said. "You're married."

"I'm leaving."

"That's not the same thing yet."

His knee was against mine.

I could feel the warmth of it through my skirt.

Twelve years, and my body still remembered the library at two in the morning, his sleeve brushing my wrist over a casebook.

I leaned in.

One inch.

He didn't.

He held perfectly still and let me decide, and that was worse.

Then my phone lit up with Ethan's school.

I pulled back.

Isaac let his hand fall.

His shoulders dropped.

"Saved by the PTA," he said.

"Go home," he said. "Don't sign anything. Don't leave that house. It's yours as much as his."

I drove home at ten.

Every light was on.

There was a white suitcase at the bottom of the stairs.

Pink luggage tag.

I went up.

The door of our bedroom was open.

Kendra was sitting in my bed in Peter's shirt, painting her toenails.

My pillows were on the floor.

"Oh," she said. "Elaine said you'd be in the guest room."

"Get out of my bed."

"It's Peter's bed. He said so."

Peter came out of the bathroom brushing his teeth.

He looked at me.

He looked at her.

He spat in the sink.

"Don't start, Lil. It's late."

"You moved your girlfriend in with our children down the hall."

"She's the nanny. The nanny lives in."

"In your bed?"

He shrugged.

I went to the guest room and locked the door.

I didn't sleep.

At seven I was in the kitchen making pancakes.

Kendra came down at nine and poured herself my coffee.

Noah was in his high chair, and his nose was running.

She didn't wipe it.

Ethan watched her with his fork in the air.

"Kendra says you're just the lady who had us," he said.

I set the spatula down.

"I'm your mom, baby. I'll always be your mom."

Kendra snorted into her mug.

At eleven the doorbell rang.

Elaine got to the door first.

She had been waiting for it.

A county deputy stood on the porch in a brown jacket.

He was holding a folded document.

"Lillian Lindell?"

"That's me."

"Ma'am, I'm serving you with an emergency order. You're to vacate the residence today. Contact with the minor children is supervised only, pending a hearing."

Behind me, Ethan put his arms around my leg.

"On what grounds?" I asked.

The deputy looked uncomfortable.

He opened the paper to the second page.

There was a sworn statement.

Kendra Voight's name was typed at the bottom.

I read the line he was pointing at.

On Saturday night I observed Mrs. Lindell grab the infant from my arms and shake him until he screamed.

Elaine stood on the stairs with her teacup.

"I'm so sorry it came to this," she said to the deputy.

Ethan's arms tightened around my leg.

"Mommy, where are you going?"

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend