An Act of Persuasion(89)

Obviously Anna’s mother—and possibly her father, too—wanted to keep her and thought they could handle raising her. So why lie about who they were?

Mark considered how different Anna’s life might have been had she been adopted by a stable couple who wanted her. Then he considered how different things might be for Ben if that were the case. They might already be married, her abandonment issues nonexistent. Then again, if her life had been altered so radically, maybe she wouldn’t have been the person Ben wanted in his life.

It was crazy to think about it.

“I have to say we don’t check ID. It’s not really needed. After all, we have their insurance cards as ID.”

Interesting. “So if someone was admitted without insurance, you wouldn’t have any way of validating whatever information they gave for the certificate.”

Marge seemed to bristle at that. “Well, I can’t say we did, but we should have. If anything, we would require more information from the admitting patient since without insurance we would have to determine alternative methods of payment. Unless it was an emergency—a life-or-death delivery. In those cases the paperwork doesn’t get completed until the dust settles.”

Mark was grateful to know that if there had been a life-or-death issue, the mother, and more importantly child, would be attended to before the paperwork.

“You know what is odd about this...” She took out a pair of bifocals she kept in the front pocket of her button-down shirt and perched them on the edge of her nose.

“What?”

“These names. They ring a bell. It’s funny, too, because the questions you’re asking...I feel like I’ve been down this road before.”

Mark silently groaned. Of course she had. Ben had, no doubt, followed the same path and had gotten here first. Typical.

But why hadn’t he told Anna what he’d learned?

As far as Mark could see the path was pretty clear. Anna’s parents hadn’t had insurance. If they’d had legitimate cards, then those names would have been used. All Mark had to do was find the admittance of a non-insured pregnant woman on the particular day and year of Anna’s birth. How many could there be?

“Can I ask how recently this was?”

“Recently? No, this didn’t happen recently. I would have recalled immediately. Trust me when I tell you we don’t get investigators down here every day asking about falsified birth certificates. No, this would have been maybe...a few years ago. But I want to say the circumstances were the same. He was an investigator of sorts and was trying to find some girl’s parents.”

Mark nodded. Of course he was. He was Ben.





CHAPTER NINETEEN



“RIGHT THERE. OH, YEAH. A little harder. No, no, too hard. Oh, yes. Oh, that’s good.”

Ben closed his eyes and tried not to listen to the torture that was the sounds Anna made as he rubbed her back. After her thirty-fourth week of pregnancy they had officially crossed the sex-is-no-longer-fun threshold. Her breasts were too tight and achy, her feet were too swollen and he hadn’t been able to find a right angle to make her come during intercourse.

He had resorted to using his fingers or his mouth to pleasure her. And while he enjoyed it, he’d learned it didn’t give her as intense an orgasm as when he was fully inside of her.

Eventually even those tactics had stopped working and he knew she’d been trying to enjoy the sex for his sake.

The motivation was sweet in a way. But a part of him wondered why she simply hadn’t told him to stop. Anna wasn’t demure about stating her demands. Hell, in the beginning of their relationship she’d been very clear about saying no to sex until she was ready. So to merely lay back and let him have his way, even though she wasn’t getting as much from the experience as he was, really bothered him. She might have continued the ruse, but he’d put an end to it and announced that they were done until after the baby was born.

This was just one of a host of things he didn’t understand about her lately. For the life of him he couldn’t get her to agree to let him move in with her permanently. He’d managed to sneak in much of his closet, his bathroom stuff, his favorite pillow and several of his books that he’d mingled with hers.

He wondered if she was waiting until they had reached this point where sex could no longer be the glue that held them together. Maybe she thought without the sex he’d grow bored and wouldn’t be as interested in staying over every night. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. In the past two weeks since they had called a halt to their sexual activity, Ben was entirely content to lie down with her at night and rub her back or her shoulders. Anything to bring her a little comfort in a body that was no longer comfortable.