Three Lovers on the Grift - 14

"I have an appointment to see Mr Leigh," Page said softly when the man's receptionist finally took notice of her. The receptionist asked her name, checked the book, and then buzzed Mr Leigh to let him know his next visitor had arrived.

When Page entered the office the man looked up, took note of her condition and immediately stood, suggesting that she might be more comfortable on the sofa than at one of the visitor's chairs in front of the desk. Once she was seated he pulled up a chair and sat down opposite her, asking, "Just how can I help you?"

Page's face was woebegone as she said, "You don't remember me, do you, Jonathan?"

"Well, no. Should I?"

"I was hoping—" She opened her purse, taking out an envelope which she handed to him.

He frowned, turning it over in his hands for a moment before lifting the flap and taking out a series of photographs. "What the hell!" He looked at her, and then back at them, as if to make certain she was the woman in the pictures. "What's the meaning of this?"

Rubbing her belly, Page told him, "I'm pregnant, and the baby is yours. Or at least I'm ninety-nine percent certain it is. The timing is right, I'm afraid." Looking directly at him, a tear running down her cheek, she said, "I thought I could do this on my own but—" She lowered her gaze.

"Why should I believe that the kid is mine?" He sounded angry, but his hands were gripped together so tightly his knuckles were white and his face showed a trace of fear.

"Because I say it is, and I should know. We met at—" she named the convention that she knew he'd attended. "You seemed like a nice man and I was lonely so when you asked, I agreed to go back to your room with you." She sighed softly, wiping away another tear. "My husband and I were in the process of getting a divorce although I never told you that. I just needed—needed to know a man could find me attractive." She smiled then. "You did. And before you ask, you were the only man I slept with while I was separated from my husband."

"You just said you were divorcing him," Mr Leigh said, thinking he'd found a lie in her story that could save him from what he thought was coming.

"I was, but when I returned home from the conference we decided to take another stab at making things work."

"Then this baby could be his."

Page shook her head sadly. "I wish the baby was my husband's, but, well, I was honest with him about what had happened, especially since you didn't use protection, which was stupid on both our parts but in the fever of the moment... Anyway, he said we would have to wait until I was tested, you know, and so we did and—" She rattled that out as if afraid if she didn't she'd never get it said.