“I’m glad.” Rush sensed an edge in Sonya’s reply. “I know you had no choice except to take her.”
“I was happy to take her,” Rush said. “In fact, I’m counting on keeping her through Christmas. I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon.”
“Neither did I.” Her humorless chuckle sounded forced.
“Actually, it’s fine if you keep her through Christmas and maybe longer. I’d rather not have her here until I’ve hired a new nanny.” Her tongue made a clicking sound. “It was so thoughtless of Annie and Cecil, leaving like they did. At least they could have given notice.”
Rush could have pointed out that Annie and Cecil had a family emergency. But that would have been a waste of words.
“I’ll keep her for as long as you’ll let me,” he said. “But meanwhile, what do I tell Clara? When will you and Andre be taking her home?”
There was silence on the phone.
“Sonya?” Maybe they’d lost the connection.
At last she sighed and spoke. “All right. It’s like this. Andre isn’t in the picture anymore. The bastard’s been cheating all along. I finally caught him when we were on the ship—with a woman in a third-class cabin, mind you. I’m seeing my lawyer tomorrow to file for divorce.”
Rush’s first thought was that now Clara could take her kitten home. But there were more serious complications. What would this mean for Clara? Would Andre demand joint custody? And where, Rush wondered, would he stand with Clara when the dust settled?
“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it. “I know we had our problems, but I wouldn’t have wished this for you.”
“You were always a decent guy, Rush,” she said. “I was a fool to end our marriage the way I did. That’s why I’m calling now. I’ve thought about this long and hard, and I want to give our marriage another chance.”
“What?” Rush almost dropped the phone.
“Hear me out,” she said. “Andre doesn’t want Clara. In exchange for my waiving child support, he’s willing to give up his parental rights. You could come back, Rush. You could have it all—me, the house, the clinic you left, and Clara. You could adopt her. She’d be your legal daughter.”
Rush switched on the bedside lamp, the sudden light a blinding flash. He could feel a headache coming on. This had to be some kind of crazy dream. Any minute now, he would wake up, sweating with relief.
“Think about Clara,” Sonya said. “Think how happy she’d be to have her real family together again.”
“We need to talk about this in the cold light of day,” Rush said.
“Why? I know you loved me once. Is there a problem?”
“If that’s what you want to call it. But now I’m in love with someone else. She’s a wonderful woman. When the time’s right, I plan to propose to her. But I very much want to be in Clara’s life. If we could agree to some kind of split custody—”
“No!” Sonya’s voice had taken on the tone of a demanding child. “I won’t share my daughter, especially not with another woman. This is an all-or-nothing offer, Rush. Either you come back home to your family, where you belong, or you won’t see Clara again until she’s grown.”
He had to be dreaming. Real life couldn’t be this crazy.
“Sonya, there has to be some way we can work—”
“No. You’ve heard my offer. I’ll give you until the day after Christmas to think it over. Then you can let me know whether you want to have Clara or that woman you’re so keen on. You know my number.”
The phone went silent as she ended the call.
Rush fell back onto the bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling. He wouldn’t tell Clara about this, of course. Not until a final decision had been made.
But what was there to decide? In the beginning, he’d been dazzled by Sonya’s beauty and sophistication. But she’d turned out to be a cheating, self-centered manipulator. And people didn’t change. All he felt for her now was an odd sort of pity. She was a spoiled child who could never decide what she wanted.
That aside, he loved Tracy to the depths of his soul—her warmth, her tenderness, her honesty . . . He could no longer imagine his life without her.
But what about Clara?
How could he tell his precious little girl that he was giving her up forever to be with Tracy? The hurt of rejection could scar her young life.
And what about Tracy? He’d be seeing her in the morning. There was no way he could keep this from her.