Directing Disaster

But Ben knew the child was indeed not Eric Harold’s but not because of an affair.  Because of an accident Eric Harold had as a teenager, he was sterile.  But Eric and Amelia Harold wanted kids and had gone to a fertility clinic not just out of state, but out of the country; and after several tries and several thousand dollars of Eric’s father’s money, they had finally conceived.  Eric was thrilled at the thought of being a father.  They’d carefully chosen a sperm donor whose physical characteristics were much like Eric’s own.  If Amelia hadn’t been killed, no one would have ever suspected the child wasn’t Eric’s.  They’d gone to all of this trouble because of Eric Harold’s political career.  Ta

The prosecution rested at eleven o’clock; and rather than have the defense start and then break for lunch, the judge called for a recess until one o’clock.  Ben called Jess.

“Hey, Ben.  I just picked Joey up at Johnson County Executive.  Can we meet you for lunch?”

“Sure, meet me at Papa’s.  It’s the one place the reporters can’t get to me and I know I can get in and out.  Papa will be overjoyed to see Joey.  Once we tell him it’s Joey anyway.  Mama’s about the only one who can tell them apart.”

Jess shook her head and looked at Joey.  How on earth could anyone not tell them apart?

Joey parked and Jess started to get out of the Escalade. “Toots, sit, I’ll get the door,” Joey said as he opened his door.  As he opened her door, he said, “A lady should never open her own door, Toots.  It’s a rule.”

Fine, it was a rule.  She’d try to remember.  “Joey, where’d you get the scrubs?”

He put his hand in the small of her back.  “It doesn’t matter.  It’s something Pauli and I used to do when we were kids.  We’d change clothes and see how many people we could fool.  Mama was never fooled, and usually Ben caught on, but to the rest of the world, we are interchangeable.  If I’m going to be Pauli, I need to look the part.”

Joey opened the carved wooden door, and they walked into the family restaurant.  Enzo, the bartender, waved to them.  Calling him Pauli as they walked toward the Board Room, the private dining room where the Bellini family and their guests dined.  Joey waved back to Enzo and leaned down to whisper to Jess, “See? I’m Pauli.”

Ben was already at a table in the corner when they walked in.  Jess looked at Joey.  “Can I have a couple of minutes alone with Ben?”

“Sure, Toots.  I’ll go back to the kitchen and say hello to Papa and Tony.”

Ben stood as Jess came to the table.  He held a chair for her as she sat.

She’d spent half the night trying to decide what to do.  “Look, Ben, I might have been wrong.  I can see being apart isn’t good for either you or mom.”

“Is she all right?”

“She misses you, I think.  But yes, she’s fine.”

He looked at her.  There was something she wasn’t saying.  “Jess, what is it I can see there’s something else.”

She shook her head.  He was in trial mode and with her stalker, she wasn’t playing her “A” game.  Mom had said not to tell the boys, she hadn’t said a word about not telling Ben.

“Okay, here’s the thing, she’s fine, she’s not sick.  She’s tired.”  She looked at her watch.  “I think she’s at the doctor right now.”

“At the doctor?  What for?  You said she’s not sick.”

Jess took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “She’s not sick.  She’s pregnant.”

He looked at her.  He shook his head.  “She’s pregnant?  How long has she known this?  And why am I hearing it from you?”

“She went to lunch with Mick McGuire yesterday and fainted.  He had an ambulance take her to Shawnee Mission.  That’s how she found out.  She’s going to tell you.  She told me last night, break or no break you have a right to know.”

He threw his napkin on the table. “What doctor?  Where is she?”

“Ben, I don’t know.”

He glared at her.

She shook her head and held up her hands. “Really, I don’t know.”

He pulled out his phone and she reached toward his hand.  “If you call her now, she’ll know I told you.  She really wants to do it herself. Can you just wait until tonight? I know she’ll call you tonight.  She wants to tell Jake and Jamie tonight.”

“You want me to wait while Mickey McGuire tries to hustle in on my fiancée?  My pregnant fiancée.  I won’t tell her I know.”

Jess shook her head.  “Are you kidding?  She’s going to hear it in your voice if you call her now.  Maybe you should send her a text.”

She was directing him again, but it didn’t make her wrong.  It was just that Bellini men didn’t take direction well.  Except for Pauli. He was jumping through hoops for Jess.

He quickly tapped out a text message. “Missing you call you tonite?”

God, he was going to be a father.  What if Lane was angry with him?  What if she responded that he didn’t need to call?  Oh Hell.  What had he done?

Ben went back to court, praying that his phone would buzz with a text from Lane.

He called his first witness, a doctor from the fertility clinic in Canada.  They presented the evidence of the dates that Amelia Harold had gone to the clinic.  They had chosen that clinic because Amelia had family in the area, and from the outside her trips appeared to be made to visit an elderly grandparent.

The prosecution cross examined.  Ben’s jury consultant kept a close eye on the jury.  By the body language, the consultant was sure that at least two of the female jurors had sympathy for Eric even before the prosecution had rested.

Ben called his second witness.  His phone was in his brief case.  After the prosecution had completed cross examination of the second witness, the judge had recessed until tomorrow morning. Thank God.

He packed his briefcase and pulled out his phone. Lane had texted back. “Me too.  Di

It was four o’clock and he told Sal he had to leave.  How many roses meant I love you and I’m glad we’re having a baby?  He used his phone to go to the website.  Fifteen meant I’m really sorry, well that was a start.  Forgetting all about the news crews, he called her office as he walked out of the courtroom.  Meg picked up.

“Is she in a meeting?”

“No, she just stepped out for a minute.”  Code for she’d gone to the bathroom.

“Will you tell her I called?  Tell her I love her and ask her to call me.  Court’s in recess for the day.  I’m on my cell.”  He walked out of the courthouse ignoring the reporters who were calling his name.

He had just gotten to his car when his phone rang.  He knew by the ring tone it was Lane.  He pushed the button to talk. “Red.  I love you.”

She smiled.  He’d done it again.  His text had come while she was at the obstetrician thinking about him and about the life she had growing inside her.  Over the last three years, he frequently called her at the exact moment she was thinking about him.  He’d told her he had ESP where she was concerned.  She ran her finger over the necklace she wore.

“I never doubted it for a minute.”  She closed the door to her office to keep prying ears out.  “Ben, where are you?”  She couldn’t wait to tell him the news but she wanted to see his face when she told him.

“I just left the courthouse.  I’m about to get into my Navigator.  Do you need me?”

“Yes,” she said quietly.  “How soon can you be home?”

“I can be home in 30 minutes.  Your house or mine?”

That was a good question.  Their houses were only a few blocks apart. Jess was probably at her house, but Jess had said Ben’s brother Joey was flying in and Joey might be at Ben’s.

“My house.  I’ll meet you at my house in 30 minutes.”  She started packing up her laptop and opened her office door.  She was amazed that Meg didn’t fall through.