Overkill(67)

He exhaled a soft gust of air through his lips. His gaze came back to hers. “Then they told me. They estimated that she was seven or eight weeks along.”

“Did the Pratts know?”

“No. I was her agent, so I was the one told. I doubt Rebecca even knew.”

Kate was quick to grasp how the pregnancy would have compounded his dilemma. “On top of everything else, you got snarled in the legality.”

“You know about that?” he said.

“There have been well-documented challenges to state laws on the matter. In numerous states, including Georgia, law stipulates that life-sustaining procedures cannot be withdrawn from a pregnant woman unless—”

“Unless the fetus is too damaged to develop, and a live birth is unlikely. That’s how they spelled it out to me. Or if the woman has expressly stated in a directive that she wishes not to be kept alive under such circumstances.”

“Which Rebecca hadn’t done.”

“Correct,” he said. “The judgment call from the medical team was that the embryo had suffered the same lack of oxygen as Rebecca. They gave it very low odds of surviving. If by a miracle it did, the child wouldn’t have been…”

With a sympathetic nod, Kate indicated that she understood.

“I was encouraged to take into consideration the quality of life that such a child would have,” he said. “I was told that neither Rebecca nor the child would have a viable life. I asked for a couple of days to think about it.”

He sighed. “There was a lot to think about. There was a father somewhere, but I had no idea who. Chances are excellent that he didn’t know he was a father. But I thought that maybe some man, hearing about what had happened to Rebecca, would come forward. No one did.

“A day went by. Two. The picketers outside the hospital grew more aggressive. The media were like hyenas. There were desperate transplant patients waiting for her organs. Doug was scorning me to anyone who would listen. Mary was begging me with tears rolling down her face not to end her daughter’s life.”

He dug into his eye sockets with his thumb and finger. After a time, he lowered his hand and looked at her. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it, Kate. Ending not just one life, but two? I couldn’t do it.”

She reached across the table and took his hand in hers but didn’t say anything. Anything she said would sound paltry.

“I went to the Pratts and told them that I was resigning as Rebecca’s agent, that I would leave her fate with them. I knew how they would feel about the child.”

“They would want it.”

“I’m ninety-nine percent certain. Either way, the decision belonged to them. I left. I locked myself in a hotel room and emptied the mini bar. I got very drunk and passed out.

“The following day, I woke up to my phone ringing. I figured it was Bing. I’d ignored all his calls the night before. I answered. It was one of the doctors. He said I could eliminate the pregnancy as a factor in my decision. Rebecca had miscarried during the night. It looked like a heavy period, but the embryo had been passed.

“I looked on it as a blessing. I asked if her parents had been told. They hadn’t because I was still the agent of record. The transference of guardianship hadn’t been made official yet. I asked that they not be told. I saw no need for them ever to know. It would only have caused them more heartbreak.”

“Doug might feel differently toward you if he knew about that kindness.”

“I doubt it,” he said wryly. “I should have insisted that he get the legal work done to make him Rebecca’s guardian, but I had abdicated, and I didn’t want to go back into the fray.

“Already, it had been broadcast that I was not going to take Rebecca off life support. I didn’t want to rescind that decision and start the whole goddamn circus over again, with everyone asking for details and demanding an explanation for the reversal. I couldn’t explain it without disclosing the pregnancy, and that would have ignited another wildfire.”

He dropped his head forward for a moment. When he looked up, he said, “You’ve asked why I didn’t insist on resigning. That’s why.”

She squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.

Just then her phone jingled. She looked at the readout. “My assistant. Probably calling to see what’s keeping me.” She put the phone to her ear. “Hello, Ava. I know I said ten, but I got unavoidably held up.”

“I’m sorry to rush you, Kate, but this won’t keep.” Always steady under even the most hectic circumstances, her assistant now sounded breathless. “Did you know Upton Franklin?”

“Sid Clarke’s attorney? Did I know him?”

“His body was discovered this morning by the man who services his lawn. He died by his own hand.”

Zach had obviously been able to hear through her phone’s speaker and shared her shocked reaction.

“That’s awful,” she said. “Are they sure it was a suicide?”

“According to the coroner and the detectives at the scene, every indication is that it was. Besides, he left a note.”

Eyes locked with Zach’s, Kate asked, “What does it say?”

“You can read it for yourself. It’s addressed to you.”





Chapter 29