Read Online Found: One Secret Baby by Nancy Holland - Free Book Online Page A

mother’s death.”
    At least Lillian had the good grace to look uncomfortable. She picked up the martini glass and twisted it in her hand without taking a drink, then set it down again.
    “What do I have to do to get my grandson?”
    Morgan sighed. “The first step is a DNA test to prove Charlie was his father.”
    “Do you mean that foreign woman Charlie lived with was sleeping with other men?”
    “Of course not. But the court isn’t going to take your word for it that you’re the child’s next-of-kin. They’ll want proof.”
    “Then what?”
    Morgan launched into the details of the procedures that he’d studied online before he left California.
    “It seems like a great deal of trouble to get my grandson back. After all, he’s my own flesh and blood,” she protested when he was finished.
    “The courts will want what’s best for the child.”
    Lillian gestured broadly to the subtle opulence around them. “I can buy him anything he wants, send him to exclusive schools. How could that not be what’s best for him?”
    Morgan acted as if it was a rhetorical question and took another sip of his drink.
    “You’re sure my grandson is okay?” Lillian frowned. “Mentally, I mean?”
    “Yes. He seems bright and healthy.”
    “He wasn’t damaged by how that woman lived? Homeless shelters.” She shuddered.
    “Shelters for battered women,” he corrected.
    “Whatever.” She thought for a minute. “Do you think the court will let me change his name once I have custody? Josef Mendelev sounds so … so foreign.”
    “What would you change it to?”
    “I was thinking Charleston Danby would be appropriate.”
    “You want to name him after Charlie?” Morgan carefully set his glass down to hide the tremor of anger in his hands.
    She sat straighter. “Charleston is an old family name. My grandfather was a Charleston.”
    “Lillian, the boy is almost a year and a half old. Maybe you could change his last name, but he knows his name is Joey. If you don’t like Josef, you could change it to Joseph.”
    Since she pronounced the two names the same way, she gave him a puzzled look in reply.
    “Or,” he said as casually as he could, “you could leave him with the only mother he remembers. You could visit him every few months, maybe have him come here to visit you during the summer when he’s older.”
    “But she tried to keep my grandson a secret from me. Why would I allow a woman like that to raise him?”
    “Because she loves him, and he loves her.”
    “He’ll love me, too, once he knows I’m his grandmother. I don’t understand why you’d suggest giving away Charlie’s child.”
    “If you let Ms. Walker have custody, you’re likely to get visitation rights. But if you take her to court and she convinces the judge that you’re too, um, senior to chase after an active toddler, you might end up with nothing.”
    She sniffed. “I can hire people to chase after him. That’s how I raised you and Charlie.”
    Which was the whole point, but this wasn’t the time for hard truths. “I’m not sure that’s what a judge will want to hear.”
    Harkins, the butler, appeared to announce, in the fake English accent that always grated on Morgan’s nerves, that dinner was ready.
    “Felicity Mason called this morning and wanted to join us for dinner,” Lillian announced as Morgan helped her into her chair at one end of the table that could have seated twelve. “I told her I wanted you to myself this evening.”
    He gave a low sigh. He wouldn’t have minded the distraction of his friend’s wry wit.
    “I didn’t know she was back from France.”
    He took his usual seat to Lillian’s right.
    “She came back yesterday. Her mother is delighted to have her home again.”
    The thoughtful expression on Lillian’s face as she took a sip of the soup the maid set in front of her should have been a warning.
    “What if you were the one who sued for the custody of Charlie’s son?” she asked.
    “Me? Why would