Shock slowly altered her face. “I...don’t know.”
“You might have only knocked him out, you know.”
“I hoped, but I hit him hard. There was a lot of blood.” She closed her eyes. “I’ve been so afraid ever since then that I’d be arrested and convicted and he’d get Jacob.”
Unable to sit still any longer, Seth shoved his chair back. “I swear that won’t happen.” His commitment to the letter of the law had just been supplanted by something more important.
“How can you promise that?”
“Unless he has time-and date-stamped footage showing you entering the house, how can he prove you were there? That you hit this Brad McCormick over the head? There could have been burglars in the house. He could have been in his boss’s bedroom because he was in league with them, only there was a falling out.” Seth stalked toward the patio door.
She protested, “But my fingerprints would be on the lamp!”
He swung around. “Sure they were. You shared that bedroom for two years. The surprise would be if your prints weren’t on the thing.”
“The housekeeper...”
“Dusting doesn’t remove fingerprints.”
Robin’s headshake looked dazed. “If I hadn’t already known I was pregnant, I would have gone to the police. I hope you believe that.”
He went to her and crouched beside her. “You have to know I do,” he said roughly.
Her eyes shimmered. “There’s something else you need to know.” She became fascinated with the the tabletop.
Seth stood, looking down at her. In this light, he could see the auburn roots of her hair better. It made her look vulnerable, as if she’d quit protecting herself from him.
“Will you sit down?” she asked timidly.
Was she afraid of his reaction? Hating to think that, he confined himself to a nod. He walked to the doorway first to reassure himself that Jacob was okay. The boy seemed engrossed by the Disney movie.
Then he forced himself to sit across the table from Robin again. Her face was as colorless as he’d ever seen it. Against that backdrop, her eyes were dark and bruised.
“I’ve mentioned my sister.”
He braced himself.
* * *
“A FEW YEARS AGO, Allie—short for Allison—was diagnosed with a kidney disease called glomerulonephritis. Doctors don’t know what caused it. A lot of the common triggers don’t apply to her. It turned out she had only one kidney.” Keeping her gaze deliberately unfocused so she didn’t have to see Seth’s reaction, Robin kept to a near-monotone. “She had to move home. At first she kept working, but she couldn’t when she started dialysis. I was still married when her doctor started talking about a transplant. I got tested and was a match.”
Of course, Seth had seen her torso and knew she had no scar from surgery.
“When Richard found out I’d been tested, he flipped out. His wife wasn’t giving away a body part. He seemed repulsed by the idea that I’d be left with a scar.” She took a deep breath. “I had already made up my mind to leave him, and Allie wasn’t desperate.”
“But by the time you were free, you knew you were pregnant.”
“Yes.” When the pregnancy test came up positive, she felt so conflicted that it was like the shocking aftermath of a car accident. She had to be sure she could love this baby, Richard’s child. Feeling in her heart that she could came as a huge relief. Guilt was in the mix, because Allie was counting on her, ebullient with hope, and now Robin wouldn’t be accepted as a kidney donor for nearly a year.
She went on, “Her kidney has continued to fail. They’ve searched for another donor, but have not found anyone.” She made herself meet Seth’s eyes. “I could have done it, but I was afraid to go back to Seattle. Afraid Richard would find out. My mother wouldn’t be able to stand up to him to keep Jacob safe.” She made herself look at him, see a hard gaze out of eyes gone a turbulent blue. Focusing on her hands, she finished in a voice barely above a whisper. “I’m the only person who can save her, and I won’t. Allie must hate me. It’s...one reason I don’t call home more often.”