Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [45]
“I met Jake through his brother Robert who was six years older than Jake. Robert Madaris and I served in Nam together and became good friends. Unfortunately, Robert never made it back home.”
“How awful.”
“Yes, it was for the Madaris family. They’re good people. Well, good night, Braxter.”
“Good night, sir.”
After the senator left, Braxter checked his watch. It was almost time for Celeste to be closing her shop. She’d told him this was her busiest time of the year, the first weeks of June. During this time most people began making summer travel plans.
He smiled, remembering how they had begun seeing each other. It was right after he had repaired her car that day in the parking lot. That had been almost two weeks ago, and they had dated steadily since then. She was witty and fun to be around. He thoroughly enjoyed her company.
Braxter pushed his papers aside. He stood and began putting on his jacket. He was looking forward to seeing Celeste again.
Chapter 10
“If there’s some doubt in your mind about giving up your child for adoption, Miss Drayton, then why are you doing so without first exploring other options?”
Although Syneda tried remaining emotionally detached, she couldn’t stop her heart from going out to the young woman sitting across the desk from her. She didn’t fit the image of a wealthy and spoiled woman who had gotten herself in trouble and had run home to Daddy for help.
Syneda was assaulted with a terrible sense of wariness. Her earlier thoughts when she’d first met with John Drayton appeared to have been correct. Cassie Drayton, the only child of the wealthy New York clothing magnate, was giving up her child not because she wanted to but because she felt she was being forced to.
Glossy blond hair fell like a shimmering curtain over both sides of the young woman’s face as she began sobbing into an embroidered handkerchief. “I have no other choice and neither does Larry.”
“Larry?”
“Yes. Larry Morgan, my baby’s father.”
“Have you spoken to Mr. Morgan about any of this?”
“No. It’s best I don’t. He wants to marry me but that’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because I love him too much,” she replied brokenly. “And my love may end up destroying him.”
Syneda raised her brows in surprise. She had assumed the relationship between Cassie Drayton and the father of her child had not been a long-standing one, but one where sex and not love had been a factor. Evidently she’d been mistaken.
Syneda rose and rounded her desk. She laid her hand on Cassie Drayton’s shoulder. “You’re not a child, Miss Drayton. You’re a twenty-year-old woman who has the right to make her own decisions. If you really don’t want to give up your child for—”
“You don’t understand, and why should you care, Ms. Walters? My father is obviously paying you a big fat retainer to quickly find a solution to my problem, especially since I refused to have an abortion. Your job is to place my baby with a couple who love each other and who’d love my child. But what really hurts is knowing that couple could just as well be me and Larry. We love each other deeply, and no one would love our baby more than the two of us.”
The crack in Syneda’s heart widened another degree. The young woman was totally distraught, and Syneda was at a loss as to what to do. She wanted to help without stepping beyond the boundaries of her role as an attorney. But right now Cassie Drayton didn’t need an attorney, she needed someone she could talk to, and most important, someone who would listen.
“Cassie, I owe the couple who may be adopting your child complete peace of mind that one day you won’t show up demanding the child back. I’m presently working on a case such as that, and all it’s done is cause pain for both sides. So, if you’re having doubts about going through with this, I suggest we discuss them now. You mentioned you and the baby’s father love each other, yet you said marriage is out of the question. Could you please explain why you feel that way?”
“Why should it matter to you?” the young woman asked,