Another Woman's Son (Harlequin Romance) by Anna Adams Page A

he wasn’t going to play polo or learn to jump, had tried to put in a pool for her. They must have planned to share Isabel’s house. She resisted a sharp surge of pain. “You’re still my lawyer, too?”
    “Do you want someone else to represent you?” Ray looked unhappy, which Isabel took as a good sign from a successful attorney.
    “Not at all. I plan to cling to all the friends I can salvage.”
    “I am your friend, Isabel. Maybe that’s why Will didn’t tell me. I was never likely to side with him.”
    She frowned and tried to talk over a catch in her heartbeat. “Never? Are you saying he had other women before—this one?” He didn’t know yet that Will had loved her sister.
    Ray shoved the salad farther onto the black marble table and stood. “I can’t believe Will had an affair.”
    “I’m more surprised he didn’t tell you. I’ve been expecting divorce papers in the mail.”
    “I’m not a divorce attorney, Isabel. And Ben had the good sense not to mention marriage or divorce.” He looked disgusted. “Don’t tell me the woman’s name. I’ve had enough of human nature, and I don’t want to be disappointed in anyone else I’ve cared for. Let’s get back to the estate.”
    “Are you sure you can be fair now that you know the truth? I don’t want anything of Will’s, just what belongs to me.”
    “You’re his prime beneficiary, and you’re in charge of his estate, Isabel. Everything he owned comes to you.”
    “No.” She rubbed her chin against one shoulder. “Will was never that careless, and I’m not comfortable, considering we’d separated when he—at the time of the accident.” But this was an opportune moment to bring up Tony. “I have to tell you something I don’t want you to pass on to anyone else. Including Pam.”
    “She’s not a paralegal.”
    “I have to tell you about the other woman.”
    “Are you sure?” He resettled his glasses, steeling himself for the worst. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. What are you going to tell me that I haven’t seen in my career?”
    “It was my sister, Faith.”
    “My God.”
    Because none of her emotions were working as they should, she smiled, stunned to be the calm one.“I can’t thank you enough for being on my side, but brace yourself for more.”
    “More? What else could they do?”
    Ben wouldn’t want her draping his dirty laundry all over Ray’s thriving office. It brought her no pleasure, either.
    “Faith’s son, Tony, is actually Will’s natural son.”
    “Will’s natural…” Ray linked his fingers as if he were praying. “That boy’s got to be a year and a half old.”
    Meaning they’d been seeing each other for-damn-ever. “Exactly. I’d like you to separate everything as if we had divorced.”
    “Because you want to give it to your husband’s illegitimate child? I can’t.” He spun away from her and ended up at his desk. He picked up a crystal globe on a plinth and then replaced it. Likewise, an ornate marble-colored pen and pencil set on his desk. “I won’t give your future away.”
    “Tony is Will’s child, Ray. None of this is his fault, and I love him, too. He’s my nephew. I can’t cheat him out of his inheritance.”
    “How do you know all this? When did Will tell you?”
    “Three months ago. That’s why I left. And then Faith left Ben a note.”
    “A note?” He scoffed with a lawyer’s disdain. “I’ll need DNA results before I consider doing what you’re suggesting.”
    “No test.” She had to follow Ben’s wishes. No trace of the truth for anyone to find. “I believe what Will told me. And Faith wouldn’t have lied to Ben when she was leaving him.”
    “She might have, to keep him from sharing custody of her child. I know you loved her, but you never saw—the two of you had different kinds of hearts. Yours is soft. Hers was selfish.”
    “Not completely. She loved her son. She apparently loved my husband, too. Who knows what made her the kind of woman she