The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) by Mackenzie Morgan

‘involvement’ would be limited to two visits a year and access to school and medical records. I hardly call that involved in his life.”
    “Well, I would expect to have input on important decisions concerning his future, such as schools.”
    Mr. O’Reilly sat quietly for a moment, and then nodded his head exactly once. “I guess that can be arranged, provided you’re willing to pick up the tab if you want to send him someplace more expensive than the school we’re considering.”
    “Fair enough,” Pallor agreed. “Now, Mrs. O’Reilly, I have a couple of questions for you. You said that you’re going to pretend that the child is yours. I understand that you don’t work outside the home. Does that mean that you’ll be the principal caregiver?”
    “Good heavens, no!” Mrs. O’Reilly said vehemently. “I may not get paid, but the socializing I do is an important part of my husband’s success. I’ll have dinners to plan, parties to attend, teas to pour … I really don’t have the time to see to a child. No, we’ll hire a nurse or a nanny.”
    Pallor hesitated and then decided to take a chance. “From what I can see, you’re both perfectly happy with your lives the way they are. Why bother with a child?” He looked at Mrs. O’Reilly. “As you’ve just stated, you don’t have the time to raise a child, and neither do you,” he said, cutting his eyes over to Mr. O’Reilly. “I understand that you put in approximately eighty hours a week at work. That doesn’t leave much time for playing baseball with a kid.”
    For a few minutes, no one said anything. Pallor could see the struggle Mr. O’Reilly was having keeping his temper in check. Mrs. O’Reilly just looked frightened. What was going on here?
    Finally Mrs. O’Reilly said, “I think we’d better level with him, Matthew.” Then she turned to Pallor and said, “We wouldn’t have this problem up north, or at least I don’t think we would, but down here, children are considered a stabilizing factor in a marriage. No one in Matthew’s firm has ever become a partner who didn’t have at least one child. Men without families aren’t considered suitable. The partners think they’re more likely to pack up, leave the firm, and take their clients with them.” She reached out and tentatively placed her hand over her husband’s. “Mathew’ll only be considered for partner one time, and if he’s turned down, that’s the end of it, and the end of our lives here. Everything has gone so well up until now. He deserves to become partner. He’s pulled in more clients and billed more hours than any of the other associates who came in with him. We’ve tried and tried to get pregnant, but it just hasn’t happened. We can’t allow a little thing like a child to stand in our way!”
    “So why not adopt openly? Surely the partners would consider that an act of charity.”
    Mrs. O’Reilly shook her head fiercely. “Donate money to an orphanage? Absolutely. Take an orphan into one’s home? Never.” Mrs. O’Reilly sighed and folded her hands on the table in front of her. “Taking a child from unknown parentage into one’s home is risky at best, and could open the family to horrible scandals if the child turns out to be a bad seed, and any scandal that affects any of the partners would bleed over onto the firm. The other partners would never be willing to take that chance.”
    Pallor frowned, but before he could say anything, Mr. O’Reilly snapped out, “You don’t have to understand. That’s just the way it is.” Then he turned and glared at his wife. “Nora, you really shouldn’t have said anything. Now he’s in the perfect position to blackmail us.”
    Pallor’s frown deepened. “Blackmail? What are you talking about?”
    “Whether we take the child you’re representing or not, we’re going to have to find a child to adopt. And when we do, you’ll know it’s not ours,” Mr. O’Reilly hissed. “And you know that adopting a