An Act of Persuasion(44)

CHAPTER TEN



MARK LOOKED AT the birth certificate and frowned. So far nothing. He’d done only the most preliminary checking on the names. He’d run down all the obvious leads he was sure Anna had already tried. He always felt when you were after information a checklist approach was very helpful. Sometimes the process of taking something off the list as not viable was almost as important as finding information that was.

Typically, when you could cancel out all the obvious options, what you were left with was the answer. Only he was nowhere close to that with Anna’s parents.

What had that felt like? he wondered. The moment when she realized that not only had her parents abandoned her, but they had gone one step beyond that and had given her no road map back to them.

At least Sophie knew who her parents were. It probably hadn’t occurred to his daughter that she should be grateful she knew her mother loved her and didn’t want to leave her. Even though her father had had nothing to do with her other than cards and gifts for the past almost fourteen years, she was way better off than Anna had ever been.

Maybe he could get Anna to talk to her. Explain that Mark wasn’t the lowest form of humanity known to man.

She doesn’t want to have anything to do with you.

How could that possibly be? She didn’t even know him enough to not like him. At least he deserved a chance, didn’t he?

Mark groaned in the empty office, putting his face in his hands and wondering where the hell it all went wrong. A soft cough had him looking up.

Leave it to Ben to find him at his worst.

“Can I come in?”

He was standing politely just outside Mark’s office door. Mark imagined he looked clueless, because it was exactly how he felt. It wasn’t a sensation he was necessarily familiar with.

“Sure.”

Ben walked in and took a seat. “I’m here to take Anna to her doctor’s appointment.”

“She’s not back from her errands yet.”

“So I see.”

Right. The man was, like, Sherlock Holmes observant. He would have deduced that Anna wasn’t here based on her vacant desk. Mark felt foolish stating the obvious, but he hadn’t wanted to take the chance of Ben possibly questioning him about what was the source of the no doubt nearly anguished expression on his face.

He knew what he looked like because he actually felt anguish. His daughter didn’t want to know him.

“What do you have her doing these days? Still just keeping her to the computer work, I hope.”

Right. Anna. That’s all Ben would ever want to talk about with him.

“Not quite, I’ve got this unsolved serial killer case. Seems the guy only goes after pregnant woman. I make Anna wear one of those Baby-in-Here T-shirts—you know, the ones with the arrow down her belly—and I send her about the city hoping to lure the murderer out of hiding.”

Ben didn’t as much as blink. “I’m sure there are others who find you entertaining, Sharpe.”

“But you’re not one of them. I know. She’s dropping off some packages for me.” Gifts he’d picked out for Sophie in advance of their meeting. Like any good strategist, as soon as he’d learned of his daughter’s feelings for him, he’d set upon a course to win her over.

He planned to start with pink Uggs. If need be, he’d end with a car she wasn’t old enough to drive yet. A desperate man had to take desperate measures.

“Thank you.” Ben eyed the certificate in Mark’s hand. No doubt trying to read it. His eyes narrowed as he obviously made out her name. “Is that Anna’s birth certificate?”

Mark opened the drawer of his desk and put the paper inside.

“It’s Anna’s business. That’s all you need to know.”

“She told me she made the decision to find her birth parents.” Ben frowned. “I didn’t realize you were involved.”

“It’s what I do.”

“It’s what I do. You can stop the investigation. I’ll take it from here.”

Mark laughed. At least this was a distraction. “You have got to be the most arrogant SOB on the planet. Your days of giving me orders are over, Tyler. Anna asked me to do this for her, and I’m doing it. Frankly, you stepping in here and trying to play the part of her hero is a little...dramatic for you.”

“I’m not trying to be anything. I’m going to marry her—she’s going to be my wife. If anyone should be involved in finding out about her past, it should be me.”